𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

There is a fundamental unfairness at the heart of our welfare system. Foreign nationals who have never paid a penny into it and have no real stake in this country are claiming government handouts, while hardworking British families are forced to tighten their belts to fund the ever-growing bill.

That bill is completely out of control. Last year 6.9 million people claimed disability benefits – 2.5 million more than 20 years ago.

By 2031 it will hit £110 billion a year, costing every family £3,600. Britain is being bled dry. Business as usual is unsustainable.

A large share of this money is going to foreign nationals. Under the Conservatives the numbers spiralled from 900,000 non-British citizens on Universal Credit in 2022, rising to 1.3 million today.

To make matters worse, 12% of net social housing lets in 2024/25 went to foreign nationals instead of our own homeless and veterans.

There are already far too many people in this country swinging the lead. We should not be piling more pressure on working people by rewarding those who have never contributed and do not even hold British citizenship.

While that continues, we struggle to protect our own who are genuinely in need. These are the very people the welfare state was meant to help.

It is a national duty to get this spending under control. Not only is the economy buckling, we have created a culture of welfare over work that is damaging the country.

I know what poverty feels like. As a single parent for 17 years with two boys I struggled to pay the gas and sold my car to make ends meet. But I was able to keep working and dig myself out through work, not welfare.

We will always protect the most vulnerable and their entitlements will not be touched. Pensioners remain fully covered by our commitment to the triple lock. Today’s measures apply only to working-age claimants and migrants.

Reform UK stands for alarm-clock Britain. We will stop working people seeing more of their wages taken to subsidise those who simply can’t be bothered.

Lee Anderson is Reform UK’s chairman and welfare spokesman