The Treasury minister responsible for welfare changes wrote a paper saying universal credit claimants should be forced to “work for the dole” on tasks such as cleaning up graffiti or face losing all of their support. Chris Philp, who as chief secretary to the Treasury is in charge of public spending, made the comments in a 2013 paper for the TaxPayers’ Alliance. This week Philp refused to say whether benefits would increase in line with inflation as previously promised, although some cabinet ministers are known to be nervous about the idea of a further squeeze on the poorest.
In his paper, Philp suggested those claiming universal credit should, after a certain time, have to work for their benefits if they were employed for less than 30 hours a week. He suggested those claiming benefits for a disability should be given work that they were physically able to do. Philp said they could be asked to complete community work such as cleaning graffiti or clearing parks, charity work, supervised job searching or recognised training to top up their hours to 30 a week. He said a referral to the “work for the dole” scheme would be triggered between three months and two years after first claiming depending on previous national insurance contributions. “If anyone is not compliant with work for the dole activity requirements, they should automatically have all their universal credit payments suspended as long as the person is not working for the dole,” he wrote at the time. “Although the complete suspension of universal credit benefit payments may seem an extreme sanction, the evidence from the US suggests that this is required to make the scheme fully effective.” Work for the dole schemes have been tried in places such as Australia and the US but are politically controversial. The paper was funded by a charity founded by the Vote Leave chief executive, Matthew Elliott. The Liberal Democrats said the idea from Philp was the “usual demonising nonsense from a Conservative minister who has no clue what life is like for millions of people struggling in this country”. Wendy Chamberlain, the party’s work and pensions spokesperson, said: “It is clear that the fantasy for many in this government is to slash pensions and benefits to the bone. The Conservative message, of cuts to support for those in need, is totally out of step with the priorities of the British public. It is no wonder that they are haemorrhaging support: their callous and chaotic approach to government is repellent to voters across the country.” Government sources said the Liz Truss administration was not looking at workfare as a policy. However, when the growth plan was published, ministers introduced a new policy that more people claiming benefits would have to spend 35 hours searching for a job each week or face losing some of their benefits. Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, raised the administrative earnings threshold from nine to 15 hours a week, meaning that anyone working fewer than those hours would have to undertake intensive work search activity or face some sanctions. On Monday, parliament’s work and pensions committee wrote to the government pressing for it to honour the commitment made by the former chancellor Rishi Sunak to increase benefits in April next year in line with the September 2022 CPI rate of inflation. Philp has been one of the government’s arch defenders of the abolition of the 45p tax rate in recent days, and a senior Tory source said he was one of the architects of the policy. On Monday, he said: “I would not describe it as my idea, no.” Philp also told Times Radio he had to be recused from “taking decisions” on policies relating to housing and planning because he still held substantial stakes in property partnerships. However, it is unclear whether he is still involved in discussions on these issues, given his Treasury portfolio covers planning and property policy. It comes after the Guardian reported that he was facing questions over potential conflicts in relation to his business interests.