this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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In his first major interview since becoming prime minister, Andy Burnham admitted to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the nation’s welfare bill has to be reduced.

And he made it clear that going forward certain benefits, including mental health support, will become “conditional” on people taking work and not staying at home.

Terrible. Seems like I will still be able to call Labour under Burnham "Forced Labour".

Anyone worth their salt will tell you that we need to make it easier to get benefits. Hell, the recent Timms Review found that disability benefits were degrading and dehumanizing to apply for. Making care conditional on work is insane, and Burnham needs to realize this was one of Starmer's biggest failures.

Stop trying to take money away from disabled people. Why don't you try taking money away from people that don't need it. The rich. The fact Labour leadership is not doing this shows they are either corrupt or cowards.

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[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

Why is it that no matter who gets in the building they go straight for the kid in the wheelchair?

[–] tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 4 points 19 hours ago

The devil is in the hand of the officious DWP worker who presses a button to stop genuinely ill people from receiving welfare support on the basis of "You look ok to me!" Welfare support in the UK is already among the lowest in the Western World in a country that keeps telling itself it's the 6th richest.

[–] Buckshot@programming.dev 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Watch the actual interview. It's about 2 minutes on benefits starting at 2:30 https://youtu.be/rEiJPHHg4dA

Supporting people into a better position rather than just giving them money forever is a good thing. As always the devil's in the details but I'm willing to hold judgement on this one.

This entire article is rage bait.

[–] Cherry@piefed.social 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I have to agree, entrenched benefits do people more harm than good long term. A health heart and mind can benefit from purpose and goals. Its hard to break out of of mental health issues, but you do have to climb out. Labour have been good traditionally at keeping people down and dependent.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Take money from rich people, you dumb fucks. They've got more of it.

"Labour", my fucking beard.

[–] SacralPlexus@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

This is the answer. Tax wealth, not work.

[–] pottery@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Our attention's (largely) on the wrong thing. We need to acknowledge the mental health crisis and start acting on it right now. We're currently arguing over whether to buy plasters while continuing to stab ourselves. No of course we shouldn't be paying all this money to manage poor mental health, because people shouldn't be this sick in the first place.

I give it to Burnham that he's focusing on communities. I think that will improve mental health, though there is much more work to do.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago

Twat. Starmer 2.0.

Journalists should start calling them out whenever they use the term welfare because that's not what we have. We have workfare which is a very different concept.

[–] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Labour is going to get a lot of disabled people killed it seems, it has chosen them as the scape goat and is blaming them for the nations finances. Its disgraceful open bigotry.

[–] Fluke@feddit.uk 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Because if you boil it down to the bare basics, those the country is in hock to; those that run the investment funds that own the country's debt, as well as most of it's essential services (power, water/sanitation, transport, etc.) have the entire country held hostage.

They simply threaten to melt the country down if the status quo isn't protected.

Every single person's pension/savings/entire life's worth is dependant on these people not fucking everyone over. The actual country's debt is in the same hands.

Shy of complete a meltdown and reset they have complete control over how the country is run, which is why things are the way the are.