Former chancellor Hunt calls for action on UK’s ‘mushrooming’ benefits costs

Benefits claims should no longer be able to be made over the phone as part of efforts in tackling the “mushrooming” number of recipients post pandemic, former chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt has said.

Sir Jeremy, who also served as health secretary when the Conservatives were in power, also said those with “moderate” anxiety and depression should be given treatment, rather than being “parked” on benefits.

He spoke out on the issue when he appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival – revealing to the audience there that he had sent a copy of his book Can We Be Rich Again? to Prime Minister Andy Burnham after messaging him during the Makerfield by-election campaign.

With the book focused on how to improve the UK’s economy, Sir Jeremy stressed the need to reduce the country’s benefits bill.

Sir Jeremy Hunt served as both chancellor and health secretary in Tory governments, and was also culture secretary and foreign secretary. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

He told the audience: “If we got the welfare bill down to 2019 levels it would save more than £50 billion a year, that’s a lot of money.”

Increasing welfare spending is a “problem that really started in the pandemic”, the Tory added, saying benefits spending had been reducing prior to 2019.

“We’ve had this mushrooming since the pandemic,” the former chancellor added.

Asked what should be done, Sir Jeremy said: “I think you should say for moderate anxiety and depression we’re not going to park you on benefits, we’re going to give you treatment, which would be a fraction of the cost.”

He also said that “we should stop people applying by telephone” for benefits.

His comments came as he argued welfare reform is key in improving the country’s economy, saying: “It cannot be right that in the UK we are signing off 1,000 people every single day and saying, ‘not only do you not have to work, but you don’t even have to look for work’.

“That is a crying waste of talent.

“The majority are now off for anxiety and depression, and we should be saying to people with anxiety and depression not ‘we’re going to put you on benefits’, but ‘we’re going to treat you’.

“Because when I was health secretary every doctor I spoke to said people with anxiety and depression need social contact, but if you put them on benefits you are excluding them from the world and probably making their condition worse.”

The former health secretary, who is still a Conservative MP, insisted: “It is not very compassionate to park someone with mental illness on benefits so they don’t work for the rest of their lives, it is the worst possible thing you could do for their mental health and their future.”

However, he stressed he was “very proud” of the UK’s welfare “safety net”, as he said: “I am not arguing for one moment that we shouldn’t be helping people who need it.”

Sir Jeremy also argued that the Tories should have done more for “cheap energy” rather than just “clean energy” when they were in power.

He said: “I’m really proud of the fact that we have decarbonised our economy more than any other major economy, we don’t use coal to generate any of our electricity, that is a positive.

“But if my government, or the administrations I was in, made a mistake it was that we shouldn’t just have thought about clean energy, we should have thought about cheap energy as well.

“And we now have the highest energy prices in the developed world.”

The former chancellor went on to argue that drilling for oil and gas should be allowed in the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in Scottish waters.

Consultations on both developments have closed, with the UK Government considering if consent should be granted.

Sir Jeremy said that “of course” the projects should be given the go-ahead, saying: “When you have got this instability in the Middle East we should be tapping into our own energy as much as we can, and that’s even before you talk about all the jobs in the oil industry in Aberdeen.”