Both Tory candidates to be Prime Minister have threatened a crackdown on benefit claimants - with Rishi Sunak warning he will be “much tougher”.
Multi-millionaire Mr Sunak said he will tear up rules that put Universal Credit claimants on a ‘light touch’ work search if they work more than nine hours a week.
“If there are hours to do, if there’s a job going, people should have to take the job, as opposed to just being able to stay on benefits”, he claimed.
And Ms Truss responded to calls to “fix the benefits system” by saying she would “change the incentives” under the benefit to push more people into work.
Their comments - at a Tory leadership hustings in Belfast - appear to be taking the Tories’ existing crackdown on social security and pushing it further.
Ministers have already announced changes to make Universal Credit tougher and sanction more people in the wake of Covid, when claims soared.
That is despite campaigners raising fears about the changes, saying the sanctions system is “over-zealous” and people who fall through the cracks will be punished.
Firstly, people must now take jobs outside their expertise just four weeks after they claim, instead of three months. This launched in February and nearly 110,000 people are now being sanctioned per month.
Secondly, on September 26 the “light-touch” regime Mr Sunak was referring to will be narrowed. Light-touch checks will only apply to people working more than 12 hours a week on minimum wage, rather than nine hours.
Mr Sunak has said he wants to go much further and double this threshold, to around £700 a month or 18 hours a week on minimum wage.
Despite 41% of Universal Credit claimants already having a job, he told the hustings in Belfast: “Ultimately, it's your taxes and someone who's working very hard’s taxes that are paying for that.”
He added: “I strongly believe that part of the answer to this problem is being much tougher on our welfare system to get people off benefits and into work.
“Right now, there are more people claiming unemployment benefit than there are job vacancies in the economy.
“Just think about that for a second. And that’s happening under a Conservative government. That’s clearly not right - something’s gone wrong.”
Liz Truss ’s language was much more subtle but she also hinted at a further tightening of the rules today.
The favourite for next Prime Minister said: “There's a large number of people now across the United Kingdom who are economically inactive.
“And what we need to do is encourage those into work.
“And we're also facing businesses that have a skill shortage at the same time. It is about changing the incentives in the benefit system.
“And that is what I would seek to do over time to get more people into work.
“But also creating the jobs and the opportunities that people can work in."
She added she would be “making the incentives in the benefit system much clearer”.
Tory candidates have been accused of targeting people on benefits during the leadership contest, when they are talking to the Tory membership.
At a previous hustings, Rishi Sunak said he “completely agreed” with an audience member who said benefits are “getting into the wrong hands for lazy people who just want to sit on their backside all day”.
Marc Francis of welfare advice charity the Z2K Trust told the Mirror: “Over the past decade, DWP has become notorious for denying hundreds of thousands of disabled and seriously unwell people the benefits they are entitled to.
“Last year alone, DWP lost or conceded more than 80 per cent of the appeals to the independent Tribunal by people it denied Personal Independence Payment.
“We hope that whoever becomes Prime Minister will scrap these discredited and demeaning assessments and ensure disable people get the benefits they need and deserve.”
Liz Truss today said she “will not accept anything” that compromises on her demands over the Brexit deadlock in Northern Ireland.
She said UK courts must be “the ultimate arbiter" of a deal, east-west trade must be "free flowing" and people in Northern Ireland "can benefit from the tax benefits delivered by the UK Government" before she will sign off a new arrangement.
Stormont is in paralysis due to a breakdown of relations over the Northern Ireland protocol - a key part of Boris Johnson ’s Brexit deal.
Britain is moving to override the Protocol and bin checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland - infuriating the EU.
Ms Truss said: "It might take time to get this Bill through the House of Lords, but the sooner we start, the sooner we will finish, and I am determined to get it done as quickly as possible.”
