About a quarter of the British working age population (ages 16-64) does not have a job. There are many reasons for this, but the right-wing view on this is that “benefits are too generous.” I think we can put bed with this chart from the University of Bath (2019):

Chart showing UK in last place in terms of generosity around unemployment insurance amongst OECD countries

Reducing benefits that are already some of the lowest in the developed world isn’t likely to get people working again, it just causes misery and has knock-on effects such as an increase in the amount of shoplifting for food and other essential items.

Not only are British unemployment benefits low, but they’re also split in a way which is massively skewed towards housing benefit, as even commentators in the right-wing Sunday Times have to admit:

Chart comparing different countries' percentage 'replacement rate' of unemployment benefits compared to previous salary

Unsurprisingly, state-level economics is fiendishly difficult and nothing at all like running household finances. Here’s a very simple system diagram from an article in the journal Social Policy & Administration from earlier this year which discusses 24 European countries and macroeconomic variables:

Simple system diagram linking economic and employment policies to job insecurity and job quality.

There are two things that it seems the British political class don’t want to talk about. The first is Brexit, an act of almost unimaginable economic harm that has meant 15% lower trade with the EU, and cost the economy over £140 billion so far. The second is the long-term health impact of the pandemic, with the related effects on the number of people working.

All in all, we need a grown-up conversation about this, based on data. But with Reform UK waiting in the wings, potentially financed by the world’s richest person, the chances are we’ll continue with knee-jerk reactions and shallow thinking for the foreseeable future.