Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to press ahead with savage welfare cuts, describing the current system as “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair”.

The deliberate destruction of manufacturing in this country must have contributed to so many young people not being in employment or training.

Deliberate destruction?

No politician would "deliberately destroy manufacturing" - they wouldn't be so daft, ILove Cheese They might concentrate resources on some other sector that they thought (rightly or wrongly) was going to bring in more to the economy, but they wouldn't look at manufaturing and say to themselves "We must actively destroy this!!!".

Our manufacturing industries weren’t deliberately run down. I fear what was deliberate, or more likely neglected, was setting up proper youth training schemes for eg building trades

Well, a long slow deterioration as goods became more cheap from abroad, and British from outsourcing work to cheap l
Labour countries. You are right Iam that industries like construction that we have could be fostered better: long term the government is due to produce its major strategy in June, but there is a lot of pressure to act on some areas sooner than that and probably strategies on Life Sciences (where we are strong in research but could be stronger) will come sooner.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/12/labour-postpones-long-awaited-industrial-strategy

I sent the morning with a friend who isnt generally political but due to her job in touch with families where youngsters are failing to get work and asked her" what does she think would help".
She said community schemes for unemployed where there is a mixture of "Carrot and stick" - ie support, but benefits at risk if well people dont turn up.

There is little work available in some areas, and few workers available locally to fill posts in ( for example) agriculture. Not everyone can uproot to go where the work is.
Other jobs need people with experience, who are not fragile physically or mentally.

A distant relative has long term mental health problems, but she is highly intelligent, and thanks to her CPN has eventually made huge progress. She is the sort of person who needs specialist support to find suitable employment, with appropriate modifications to ease her in, after many years on benefits. She has qualifications but very little experience and has not been in work for over 15 years now. She does not need some tick box exercise by a poorly trained DWP worker with no understanding of her health condition who abandons her or, worse, sanctions her when it all goes pear-shaped in an unsuitable job.
There are no easy answers.

I’m in what was a cotton mill, engineering, manufacturing town. No mills and no large scale manufacturing or engineering sadly. Demands change, our mills were kept going by the Pakistani people invited to work in them when my parents generation thought better of it
We import from China because folk want cheap fashion
We’ve failed to train our young folks in building trades etc

Those who can work, should work. It's not about targeting those with significant disabilities, it's about targeting those who make excuses not to do any work or who find it more beneficial to live on benefits rather than work for their money. The increasing numbers of people claiming stress or depression as a reason to stay at home is insupportable. Yes, these are real ailments, but those at work with stress and depression cannot be expected to effectively pay for the upkeep of those who remain at home with 'stress and depression'. It's too easy to do that.

As a country we are still bringing in overseas workers to fill jobs in our NHS and Care Homes. We even bring in workers from overseas to do agricultural work. Why? Because we have people refusing to do those crop picking jobs because it's easier to claim benefits.

We bring in workers from overseas because they are willing to work for low wages, this keeps wages low and not at a level where people can pay their rent or buy a house and have a family. It’s not fair to demonise people born here who have no skills and no bargaining power.

The system may be bad, but it's businesses that employ people not the Government and I don't think most businesses want the the Disabled.

Sorry to say this but you are wrong, Thatcher did destroy it, she wanted to change the way the working classes voted, she bulldozed the East End as well for the same reason. She wanted everyone voting Tory.

nightowl

We bring in workers from overseas because they are willing to work for low wages, this keeps wages low and not at a level where people can pay their rent or buy a house and have a family. It’s not fair to demonise people born here who have no skills and no bargaining power.

I'm a bit baffled here. If people genuinely have no skills, how can they do the jobs we need foreign workers to do? I don't want to pay for (either directly or indirectly through taxation) an unskilled person to do a skilled job - especially if it involves providing some service to me personally.

Unskilled people are hardly being demonised.

StoneofDestiny

As a country we are still bringing in overseas workers to fill jobs in our NHS and Care Homes. We even bring in workers from overseas to do agricultural work. Why? Because we have people refusing to do those crop picking jobs because it's easier to claim benefits.

When I've needed the NHS (and if I ever need care) I would far rather have somebody from overseas with the necessary skills and motivation than somebody from the UK who has been bullied into doing the job because his/her benefits have been stopped. I'm not persuaded that their motivation would be very high.

I've always felt that Keir Starmer would follow this route. I do not consider this a 'proper' Labour government. They are penalising the poor, the farmers and now those unfit for work yet the rich, as usual, go unscathed. I live in terror of benefits to my autistic son being cut. He is autistic, but physically fit and his unfitness for work may not be obvious, immediately. I foresee him having a cut in what he receives and then being sent from job to job, which he will lose, hate everything, become increasingly disturbed, and start the process again. He's 27 and I'm 74. It's one of the reasons I still work full time. The number of people who will be made anxious (and who may, conveniently, take advantage of assisted suicide, dare I say, because of this) is, in my view, considerable. The number of people who actually receive benefits when they should not is probably fairly small. People will be hounded, frightened and penalised for being ill. The amount of money saved will be negligible, in terms of what goes on, for instance, foreign aid, where the money is often siphoned off by unscrupulous governments for their own needs. Hands off the disabled, I say. It is 'British' to be generous, and to care for the weak. Find funds elsewhere.

The amount of fraud in PIP has been assessed as nil.

We don’t yet know what is going to be put in place or how cuts are going to fall, so it is premature to judge. We can only speculate.

Who is to say that those genuinely unfit for work will be penalised undines? Hopefully those who are capable of work will be weeded out,

The National Autistic Society has campaigned for bespoke employment opportunities to be created for people with autism, many of whom would want to work if their specific requirements were catered to. The same is true for people who have a range of other disabilities. The system does need to fundamentally change if work placements and permanent placements are to be offered, but surely, if people want to work, there is a way?

I would far rather have somebody from overseas with the necessary skills and motivation than somebody from the UK who has been bullied into doing the job because his/her benefits have been stopped. I'm not persuaded that their motivation would be very high

I totally agree with you. I'm pointing out there are jobs that people in the UK could and should fill. I also think work in the care sector needs much greater training and monitoring to ensure the right people are in place. However there are many vacancies in hospitality, cleaning and agriculture that need filling, many that require few skills or qualifications.
It is however vital that proper assessments of capability to work
are done - as we know that no all disabilities are obvious. It's not about hounding the genuinely disabled, it's about ensuring ONLY the genuinely disabled are claiming.

There appears to be little or no reassurance to those who are severely disabled and can't work, who are worrying themselves sick. The whole message seems to reinforce the strivers vs scroungers mentality and I really thought we'd got beyond that. I agree with those who say the message promotes the idea that someone is only of value if they can work and I predict more disability hate crime because of this. I find it rather sinister that this is happening at the same time as the assisted dying bill is being rushed through.

They are penalising ....... the farmers.
That is simply not true.
The wealthy landowners should have no more right to pass on their belongings to their offspring without their offspring paying inheritance tax than the rest of us do.

It's pretty galling to see, as I often do while visiting family, signs up about farmers being penalised by 'family tax'. They are millionaires and not just on paper! Millionaire lifestyles being flaunted around in front of the rest of us.

There appears to be little or no reassurance to those who are severely disabled and can't work, who are worrying themselves sick. The whole message seems to reinforce the strivers vs scroungers mentality

The detail is not there yet - but the benefits system needs looking at as it is being exploited - I say that as someone who has significantly disabled people in the extended family. They wont be forced to work - because they can't! (Too physically disabled to leave the care facility). As for one with a significant mental disability - if they can find them the right employer to work for, there will be nobody more delighted than them.

I hope the Labour Government also looks at Royal Finances and the reason why their Wills are sealed while nobody else can do this. There is money being hidden there while taxpayers continue to fund them. Let's look at all 'unearned' benefits. Ridiculous we are funding independently wealthy multimillionaires.

You don’t appear to know much about the family farms which will have to be sold to pay IHT SoD. The value of their land, buildings, machinery and stock may take them over the threshold whilst they live off an overdraft. They are by no means wealthy. The same applies to owners of other small businesses.