REFNATION
WelfareNationalClosed · Final

Is it time to suspend all benefits and have all claimants reevaluated?

Yes 45%No 55%113 votes cast

UK welfare spending exceeds £300 billion annually with rising claims for personal independence payments and universal credit amid post-pandemic health issues and economic pressures. Reform proposals from opposition figures call for face-to-face assessments, fraud crackdowns, work requirements for the able-bodied, and ending payments to non-citizens to reduce the bill and target genuine need. The government continues reassessments but faces criticism over administrative delays, errors, and hardship caused to disabled and low-income households.

Jump to opinions· 7

A blunt proposal to switch off the entire benefits system and reassess every claimant fell by ten points, but the age data scrambled the usual script: it was the 35-44s, not the young or the old, who backed suspension most emphatically, while every other cohort pulled the other way.

That inversion is the real story. Voters in their late thirties and early forties — often squeezed by tax, housing and childcare costs while feeling distant from needing state support themselves — swung hard for a reset, whereas the youngest voters and the 45-54s, likelier to feel the sharp end of PIP delays or caring duties, resisted it most. Men tilted narrowly toward suspension and women away from it,

“I think we stop all benefits, sick to death of people demanding handouts. A completely even playing field is the only way to make society fair. Apart from the most extreme cases of disability, benefits are just encouraging a society of dependant losers.”

YES case · lewism · 3 respects · read the thread ↓

“Its time to pay people real wages not punish people for being poor Majority of benefits are means tested already Half of the welfare bill is still state pensions and pensioner benefits which is not means tested not including this your looking more towards £150 billion a year not the £300 billion.”

NO case · r08yn · 2 respects · read the thread ↓

LeftCentreRight
45%
Yes · 51 votes
55%
No · 62 votes
Yes No
By gender
Male
50/50
Female
50/50
By age
16–24
25/75
25–34
33/67
35–44
75/25
45–54
33/67
55–64
50/50
65+
41/59
By political leaning
H. Left
0/100
Left
0/100
C. Left
14/86
Centre
60/40
C. Right
56/44
Right
84/16
H. Right
100/0
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Debate

7 Opinions

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Glasses· 429
The Public-Order Traditionalist
Voted yesRight

Standardised benefits, ie you get one benefit either unemployed, sick,or education. Not 2 or 3 different payments

JustFactsNotBeliefs· 434
The Peacemaker
Voted noLeft

I don't think the solution is to just stop all benefits. I do think there's an argument to be had regarding the way being on benefits is measured. Maybe it's time to start trying to help people on benefits to find something they can do. More of a we'll help you by topping up your earnings, you have to help by trying to find something that maybe you can do (even if it's with support) my guess is many people on benefits would rather do what they can rather than doing nothing

AnnandDavidRossSmith· 18
The Rights-First Egalitarian
Voted noCentre Left

To suspend all benefits would be a cruel act, benefits and welfare should be part of an indepth overview to ascertain those who are definitely in need and those who are playing the system.

lewism· 727★
The Supreme Leader
Voted yesRight

I think we stop all benefits, sick to death of people demanding handouts. A completely even playing field is the only way to make society fair. Apart from the most extreme cases of disability, benefits are just encouraging a society of dependant losers.

r08yn· 187
The Diplomat
Voted noLeft

Its time to pay people real wages not punish people for being poor Majority of benefits are means tested already Half of the welfare bill is still state pensions and pensioner benefits which is not means tested not including this your looking more towards £150 billion a year not the £300 billion.

LexHelie· 130
The Hard-Border Environmentalist
Voted noCentre Right

Suspending all benefits until a new system and all fraud cases are resolved would be a disaster leaving vulnerable people without income, unable to pay rent, afford food, afford to attend Doctor's and hospital appointments. This could last for years, by which time you've probably killed off everyone who's on benefits because they can't work. It would be stupid to suspend the entire system and not have a known end date of that suspension.

Rabbit· 245
The Rights-First Housing Dissenter
Voted noLeft

No - The world is not replete with people fulfilling your bizarre conspiratorial fantasy of co-ordinated fraud, Have you tried, even for an afternoon,to be someone you're not and accomplish anything in the world thst impacts its institutional levers? Try joining a library to get my point. Your world view is imaginary.