Despite the opposition of a huge swathe of Labour MPs, the government’s Welfare Bill managed to scrape over the line to the next parliamentary stage. But that was only after a humiliating U-turn that ditched almost all of the Bill’s original measures, at least in regard to existing claimants of disability benefits. What was originally pitched as the ‘biggest shake-up to the welfare system in a generation’, with the aim of getting millions of people into work (and saving £5 billion in the process) is no more.

Far from being the bold reset the country was promised, the Bill simply preserves a broken eligibility system that the government itself has acknowledged is not fit for purpose. Welfare spending is estimated to reach £380 billion by the end of the decade, with incapacity and disability benefits alone approaching £100 billion. This is more than the country currently spends on defence or education. Such a level of spending cannot continue without consequences.

The government should use the ministerial review, led by Sir Stephen Timms MP, to undertake the fundamental review they promised in the first place. That must start with two things.

First, it must reduce the £100 billion disability benefits bill. Second, it must........

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