Asda chair Lord Rose has warned that Britain’s “worklessness crisis” will take decades to address.
Lord Rose, former chair of M&S and Ocado and a Conservative peer, told The Telegraph that the government should reform the benefits system to encourage more people into work.
“We can’t just become a state now where people just live on handouts,” he said.
“‘Oh, I’m not feeling very well. Oh, I’ve got a headache. Oh, it’s a bit cold this morning. Oh, I’m feeling a bit tired. Oh, I’m a bit stressed out.’
“I’m not being rude. And people will say I’m some toff who’s got a silver spoon in his mouth. Well, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. I was born and lived in a caravan. I’m 75 years old and I’m still working.”
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people who are of working age who are unable to work because of long-term sickness has reached 2.8 million, an increase of more than 400,000 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lord Rose said the issue was “very complicated” and would take “a decade or two” to address.
“We must increase productivity. We must tackle these 2.8 million people who are economically inactive,” he said.
”We must make sure that we’ve got the benefit system in balance. Sure, we’ve got to help those who are the needy ones. But, equally, we have to make sure that those who are more able to contribute than they are doing at the moment are encouraged to do so.”
“We’ve got to start from the beginning, educating our people in the right skills that they need for the future.”
The increase in the number of people out of work for long-term illnesses has risen alongside the youth unemployment rate, which reached its highest level this year since the coronavirus lockdown.
Lord Rose’s comments come in the same week that business secretary Jonathan Reynolds addressed the trend.
Reynolds said: “I am really concerned by the state of the labour market, by the rise of people not working after the pandemic.”
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