Labour has blasted the Tories as “too divided and too incompetent” to get Britain working, as new analysis reveals the Tory failure to tackle health-related worklessness in Dagenham and Rainham.
Analysis by the House of Commons library for Labour shows that there has been a rise of 792 people in Dagenham and Rainham claiming Universal Credit for health reasons over the last year. Between December 2022 and December 2023, all 632 parliamentary constituencies in Britain saw an increase, with new figures showing that mental ill health is a key driver behind the rise.
A united, mission focused Government is needed to get Britain working. Labour’s plan to help tackle one of the key drivers of worklessness before it takes hold, includes:
Bringing down waiting times for mental health treatment by recruiting 8,500 staff
Access to specialist mental health support in every school
Mental health hubs for children and young people in every community
Labour has also pledged to:
Introduce changes to incapacity benefits to encourage disabled people and people with ill health to try work without fear of losing their income or having to be reassessed if the job doesn’t work out.
Overhaul access to work, so that people know what equipment, adaptations or personal support they’ll get before they start work – giving them the confidence to take the plunge.
Reform job centres and devolve employment support so help is tailored to individual and local need.
In Dagenham and Rainham, 3,365 people now claim Universal Credit health benefits, with the national number up by 400,000 in a year – and Government statistics show that over two thirds of all claims involve mental health problems.
Margaret Mullane pointed out that 2.7 million people are now out of work due to long term sickness and that economic inactivity is no longer declining from the post-pandemic high and has instead rebounded to a total of 9.3 million people—the highest in over a decade.
Margaret Mullane, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Dagenham and Rainham said:
“A healthy nation is critical to a healthy economy but the Tories have failed on both – and it’s places like Dagenham and Rainham paying the price.
I know from speaking to residents who are stuck on NHS waiting lists or locked out of work due to long term sickness – at terrible cost to them and to businesses in our community.
She added: "Labour’s plan will tackle the root causes of worklessness by driving down NHS waiting lists, making work pay, and supporting people into good jobs across every part of the country, including right here.”
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