Britain’s chancellor was right on one count: the government IT systems that control welfare payments are a constraint. But he was wrong on another: it is not an excuse for inaction
On May 13th Rishi Sunak, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, gave an interview to Bloomberg TV. He was asked whether the government would raise benefits to help recipients cope with skyrocketing inflation. Typically benefits change once a year, in April, based on an inflation forecast made the previous September. Unexpectedly high inflation means that last month’s 3.1% rise in benefits already equates to a cut of 4% in real terms.
Not every system is a problem. Payments to the largest block of working-age benefits claimants in Britain, the roughly 5.7m people on the government’s newish Universal Credit welfare payment, can be tweaked at will . But the government is still running schemes that affect a couple of million claimants—Employment Support for the injured or disabled, and Jobseekers’ Allowance for people hunting for work—on older computer systems.
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