Record number of Britons relying on out of work welfare

0:02Hi, I'm Charlie Duffield and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. if you're new here hit follow and give us a rating for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk coming up later in the show love her or hate her megan duchess of sussex returns to netflix with the second series of her aspirational lifestyle tv show i'm so glad you came to show me how to do this is this working today's about getting out of your comfort zone i have no idea where to start. Everybody should have one of those at home. You think so?

0:42But first, the number of Britons on jobless benefits has hit a record 6.5 million after jumping by 500 ,000 under Labour. It comes despite Sir Keir Starmer's election campaign promise to get Britain working and achieve the highest employment rate in the G7. In some parts of the UK, like Blackpool, Liverpool and Glasgow, more than a quarter of working age adults are now on out-of-work benefits. Joblessness benefits are made up of incapacity benefits, unemployment support and universal credit payments. The number of working age adults receiving some form of these payments has surged 79 % since early 2018.

1:26More than 15 % of the working age population were on out-of-work benefits as of February 2025, according to the latest Department for Work and Pensions figures. This is up 9 % in a decade. Hiring has slowed and many businesses blame Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to increase employer national insurance contributions alongside raising minimum wage. It comes as the Resolution Foundation think tank predicted that Britain's unemployment rate is on track to hit 5 % in the three months to August. It said that unemployment in the UK was likely to soon hit the highest level since 2021, according to the Financial Times.

2:05Joining us now is The Standards business editor, Jonathan Prynne. Jonathan, what do you make of these figures? I mean, they are alarming figures. They show that for the first time, more than 6.5 million people in the UK are claiming out-of-work benefits. It's the highest on record. The number keeps on rising. It's a very worrying drag on the UK economy. The numbers have been going up since the pandemic and are still rising. The latest figures, which actually were released a few weeks ago, they're quite hard to wade through. And it's only now that people are beginning to sort of add them up and work out just how high the number is.

2:43These 6.5 million people are people of working age, adults, who could work, but they're not work, they're signed off to use the vernacular and claiming benefits, in most cases because of a range of sicknesses that they've got, disabilities and so on, which they have to get signed off by the government, by the DWP. But once they have, then they're entitled to claim these benefits for a long time without working. And obviously, it's proven a huge, very difficult drain on the taxpayer at the moment. And what do we actually mean when we say out-of-work benefits? So that encompasses people who, as I say, say that they're unable to work.

3:27Crucially, it's not people who are looking for work. That's what we call unemployment. That's the people who are without jobs but are actively looking for work but can't find them at that particular moment. That's the unemployment total. This is an entirely different group of people and a much, much bigger group. Unemployment is 1.6, 1.7 million. This group is three times as big, 6.5 million. And they're people who say for a variety of reasons, but as I say, normally to do with disability or sickness, that they are not fit to work. They cannot work. Obviously, they need to live on something. So they claim these benefits, sickness benefits.

4:05And there was some on a benefit that's now being phased out called incapacity benefit. Some are simply on universal credit, out of work version of universal credit. And none of these are huge amounts of money by any means, but we do live in a world in which a lot of people are on very low pay as well. So there is an argument that it's not worth some of these people even taking up jobs because they'll be better off on the benefits than they would be in work. What's the situation like in London compared to the rest of the UK? That's a really good question. There's a very, very stark regional variation.

4:41what these figures show is that the numbers are by far the highest in the old industrial areas of the north and the west, particularly Manchester, Glasgow, places like that. But also the old declining coastal towns, Blackpool is absolutely one of the worst black spots in the country. Hastings is bad, Yarmouth is bad, places like that. But the big industrial cities are probably the worst overall. Birmingham's another huge numbers of people around a quarter of the population, of the working population, are claiming out-of-work benefits. Interestingly, London is much, much lower, 10 to 12 % mark.

5:24But again, with variations within London, the poor areas with higher levels than the rich areas. The lowest level in the country is the city of London, perhaps not surprisingly. It's a tiny population anyway, and most people there are very affluent. So yeah, there are these absolutely stark variations in the level of claims around the country. It's not surprising that people who live in the poorest areas are most likely to be off sick. In London, there's a younger population, so fewer people have got those sort of disabilities associated with older age. People tend to come to London to work, don't they?

5:58Finally, looking ahead to the Chancellor's budget in the autumn, what are the wider ramifications of this news? I think they're very worried and the ramifications are very severe. The country is struggling to afford them. The Chancellor is already struggling to answer books. Economists suggest that she may be 20, 30, 40 billion pounds short when it comes to the public finances this year. If she's going to meet her fiscal rules, borrowing is very, very high. The last thing she wants is this sort of drag of spending. We're essentially paying people to stay at home, and that's not good for them. It's not good for the economy.

6:36It's not good for the taxpayer. So she will want to find a way to try and reduce these numbers. But it's very hard. As we saw earlier in the year, any attempt by the government to try and reduce the welfare bill meets instant opposition from its own backbenchers. benches. The welfare bill earlier in the year was more directed at another type of welfare benefit, but the principle is the same, that the backbenchers will say, you're targeting the most vulnerable and poorest people in society with your public spending cuts, and that never plays well with Labour backbenchers. So it is going to be very hard, but I suspect they will have to address this issue sooner or later.

7:16It just is an unsustainable bill, and it is only going in one direction. and ultimately Britain can't afford it. It's an absolutely vast figure. The welfare bill as a whole is well over£300 billion and rising rapidly. It's forecast to approach£400 billion by the end of this parliament in 29, 2030. The out-of-work benefits bill is a particularly fast-rising element of the overall welfare bill. The welfare bill as a whole is about 10%, more than 10 % of the entire GDP. it's just a huge dead weight on British economic performance so they will want to try and get that down it's but it's very very hard let's go to a break coming up in part two Megan Duchess of Sussex shares cooking gardening and hosting tips with friends and famous guests in with love Megan we'll see you back here in just a moment welcome back

8:29I love the idea of spending time together and finding new ways to show people you care. Look at that. Oh my gosh, I could do this every day. Let's get creative and learn something new. Nicely done. The second series of the Netflix program With Love, Megan has launched and is once again filmed in a house close to the Duchess of Sussex's home in Montecito, California. Megan is seen flower arranging, candle making and working a pottery wheel. It offers a glimpse into what family life is like for the Sussexes, although the Duke of Sussex and their children Archie and Lilibet do not feature. Instead, there's a whole roster of celebrity friends that appear across the episodes.

9:17A Netflix spokesperson said, Megan returns with a fun and heartwarming new season, welcoming celebrity chefs, talented artists and beloved friends for hands-on adventures filled with laughter and discovery. From playful cooking challenges to DIY projects, Megan and her guests explore bold flavours, experiment with new techniques and discover simple ways to add beauty to everyday life. It's all about embracing playfulness over perfection and finding joy in creating together. Despite it being the 10th most watched Netflix program globally in its first week, audiences gave the first series of the show a rating of just 32 % on the film and television review website Rotten Tomatoes.

10:01So how will this second series be received? Joining us now is freelance entertainment editor Lisa McLaughlin. So Lisa, what can viewers expect from this second series of With Love, Megan? More of the same? It's more or less the same as what we got in season one. We get more celeb guests in the form of Tan France and Chrissy Teigen. We're also getting a craft barn. So we're seeing a lot more florals, a lot more flower sprinkles, and equally some types of tie-dying of silk scarves. And which celebrities feature? Yeah, so we've got Chrissy Teigen, who actually was on Deal or No Deal with Megan back in the day.

10:40They reflect on that time during that episode. There's equally Tan France, who we know from Queer Eye, and also Jay Shetty, a podcaster and a kind of wellness guru, and his wife, Radhi Devaluca as well. Do we gain any new insights into the Sussexes? There's several tidbits that we get. You know, we got insight into like unseen photographs or wedding bits in relation to the chef who curated their wedding meal for them. Claire Smith, who we know from CORE at the Michelin Stard restaurant in London. We equally find out more things about their relationship that they said they knew they loved each other when they went on their third date to Botswana, no less.

11:20We find out more things about Archie in a little bit in the form of they love passion food. and apparently Megan was made to eat dates while she was pregnant by an Ayurvedic doctor. So, you know, all the important stuff is what we're really getting. Now, the last series received plenty of criticism. What do you think the purpose of the show is and who does it actually appeal to? That's a really great question, ultimately, because it's not inspirational viewing and it's not so much aspirational viewing. Instead, I feel it's more for just people who want to maybe take a time out from the state that the world is at the moment.

11:58I feel like there's a lot of pressure put on this show to be something that it isn't or the expectation that it should be something that it isn't. And you kind of just got to take it for face value. You've got to take it for the silliness and the quaintness of just cooking and, you know, learning about these crafts or floral arrangements, which you're probably never going to do yourself. So just take it for what it is. Finally, are the royals mentioned at all? It's more of a tenuous link, I think, that people are catching up on. Meghan at one point reflects on motherhood with Tan France and says she missed being away from her kids for three weeks.

12:35And during that time, the Queen had fallen ill. That's kind of as far as an extent to the royal family that we're getting. But she does mention things that she misses about the UK and notably Magic FM. Do you know what? There's also some mentions about what Meghan got Harry for his 40th birthday, which included a baseball cap that had PH40 embossed along it. So in reference to his Prince Harry title, which is quite cute, Meghan will be dropping a new line of products as part of her As Ever line. What exactly? We don't know. I'm assuming it will be more honey, some more flower sprinkles, spreads and potentially another crepe mix.

13:18And that's The Standard. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. If you'd like to get in touch, please do drop us a line at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here tomorrow at 5pm. We'll see you then.