Labour should resist right-wing 'scrounger' rhetoric and use upcoming welfare reviews to build a more compassionate, effective benefits system
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/frances-ryan. "The right’s scrounger rhetoric dominates the benefits debate. Labour must fight back – and win | Frances Ryan | The Guardian." October 16, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author says right-wing voices are painting benefit claimants as scroungers and pushing Labour towards cuts as big welfare reviews land. She argues Labour has a rare chance to ignore that pressure and build a fairer, more humane and more accurate system, by fixing assessments and tackling why people need support in the first place.
Conclusion
Labour, under Andy Burnham, should resist the right's anti-benefit narrative and use the upcoming Timms and Milburn reviews to make the benefits system more compassionate and accurate rather than more punitive.
Premises
- The right, through its dominance of the media ecosystem and new channels such as Reform TV, is shaping the welfare debate with 'scrounger' rhetoric, vague insinuations and divisive comparisons (workers v claimants, old v young, migrant v citizen), even though it is not in government.
- Reports such as the CSJ's State of Dependency frame benefit claimants as a worklessness crisis, which fuels pressure for punitive reform, especially as living standards fall and resentment toward claimants becomes easier to stoke.
- The upcoming Timms and Milburn reviews give Labour a rare chance to overhaul welfare, and the current system does need reform because disabled people face bureaucratic barriers and young people have been abandoned.
- For decades the right has set the limits of the safety net, producing subsistence-level benefits, an increasingly cruel testing culture and a sicker population, and the conventional wisdom holds that change can only be more punitive.
- Labour has concrete, available levers to improve the system: more evidence-based assessments, fewer wrongful decisions and appeals, an end to private-company profiteering and unnecessary reassessments, and investment in mental health, NHS services, Access to Work and employer attitudes to address the root causes of need.
- Labour is in government and a Labour prime minister has a rare opportunity to break this orthodoxy, and leaks suggest ministers may instead bow to political pressure by cutting support for under-25s.
Assumptions
- Media narratives and think-tank reports significantly influence government policy and public opinion on welfare.
- The right's framing of benefit dependency is exaggerated, misleading or bigoted rather than a legitimate account of real problems.
- A more compassionate system is achievable and politically viable for Labour without losing public support.
- Improving assessments and investing in health and employment support would reduce both hardship and the need for disability benefits.
- Burnham is receptive to challenging orthodoxy and is not already committed to punitive reform.
- Rising benefit spending and Neet numbers reflect system failures and unmet need rather than widespread unwillingness to work.