View this email in your browser ([link removed])
Welfare woes
I don’t think I’d be exaggerating by describing this last week as an unmitigated disaster for the government. Hot off the heels of last week’s climbdown on welfare reforms, the prime minister was forced into a further series of humiliating concessions to appease hardline Labour backbenchers.

As the nation watched Starmer’s authority (and any potential savings from his welfare changes) evaporate in real time, the TPA team were busy lifting the lid on the UK’s benefits system, and exposing the scandalous costs taxpayers are on the hook for.
The benefits dashboard
Launching the first in a series of dashboards that use official data to illustrate the effectiveness and costs of public services, our team crunched the numbers and revealed just how dysfunctional our benefits system has become.
As well as showing how much cash is going towards welfare payments and how high it’s due to get (£100 billion on sickness and disability benefits by the end of the parliament), the dashboard breaks down the data for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Enhanced Mobility PIP by council area and constituency.

The scale of dependency is truly shocking with almost one in ten Brits in England & Wales now claiming PIP. Blaenau Gwent in Wales had the highest proportion of residents receiving PIP of local authority areas with 211 per 1,000. The constituency with the highest number of PIP claimants per 1,000 people was Liverpool Walton, with 226 per 1,000! See how your area ranks here! ([link removed])
We also explored what people are claiming for. The dashboard includes a full breakdown of the different conditions which people have used to claim the mobility component of enhanced PIP, which can be used for the motability scheme, a scheme where a new car is leased in exchange for the higher rate of PIP. The condition with the largest absolute increase in the number of people claiming enhanced PIP between January 2019 and March 2025 was for autism which increased from 26,256 to 114,211.

In contrast to the chaos in parliament, researcher Callum McGoldrick brought us his cool-headed analysis in this video. ([link removed]) Meanwhile, data analyst Simon Cook, the man behind the magic, sagely observed ([link removed]) : “In short, the numbers say we have a problem. The political class says we’ll deal with it… later. The PIP system now supports almost four million people. The cost is expected to reach £35 billion by the end of the decade, up from £16 billion in 2019-20. Meanwhile, total welfare spending could hit £324 billion by 2030. This isn’t sustainable. But even modest attempts to slow the growth, not even cut spending, just slow the rate of increase have been met with fierce opposition.”

Simon’s spot on. The best time for dealing with this problem was yesterday. The second best time is now!

Help the TPA hold politicians’ feet to the fire on this extraordinary problem by clicking here to donate ([link removed])
Setting the agenda
To say our dashboard caused quite a stir would be an understatement. Our team were inundated with journalists and tv producers all looking to get the lowdown and have our spokesmen on their shows.
With write ups in the Daily Mail ([link removed]) , Sun ([link removed]) , Daily Telegraph ([link removed]) , Times ([link removed]) , an op-ed for the Spectator ([link removed]) , alongside dozens of local reports, it was wall to wall coverage. Hitting the airwaves, Darwin Friend joined Mike Graham on Talk, explaining to listeners ([link removed]) : “We’ve launched an interactive welfare dashboard… Taxpayers cannot afford this continually spiralling bill to pay for PIP and other benefits as well. What we
need to see is all political parties across the spectrum actually putting the country’s finances first over party interest.”

In the GB News studio, William Yarwood hammered the message home ([link removed]) : “There’s been a way in which people have been able to get into the welfare state like they’ve never been able to before. In person assessments have completely declined so it’s no wonder people are being able to game the system.”

In the aftermath of Starmer’s capitulation, Elliot Keck left BBC Radio Wales listeners in no doubt ([link removed]) of what this means for taxpayers: “I don’t think Labour MPs are willing to vote for any cuts in welfare payments or any serious reforms, certainly not the significant changes this country needs to avoid disability payments hitting £100 billion!”
[link removed]
TPA in parliament
As angry as the capitulation in parliament made us, it was good to see someone was paying attention. Leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, cited TPA findings in her speech in the commons. Have a watch of the key moment below. ([link removed])
[link removed]
Clearly a fan of our work, Kemi once again drew on our research ([link removed]) for an op-ed in the Telegraph, writing: “And new findings by the TaxPayers’ Alliance highlight the enormous sums of money spent on the motability scheme, including for conditions such as acne and food intolerances… Starmer’s humiliating concessions to bring his rebellious party back in line haven’t only removed any savings – in fact they might end up actually costing us.”

To any other politicians or their staffers reading this, if you want to really get to the heart of what’s going wrong in the UK, get in touch. We’re only too happy to fill you in.
One year of Labour
While this week was meant to be a celebration for the government, marking one year since they took office, I’m not sure the champagne corks will have been flying in Number 10. Particularly when they read our assessment of Keir’s first year.
This might surprise some of you to learn but, Starmer’s first 12 months in office aren’t actually the worst for any prime minister this century but… they are the second worst. A new briefing note from the TPA egg heads ([link removed]) reveals that only Rishi Sunak had a worse first year than the current prime minister (before you ask, Liz didn’t make the list having not served for long enough).

We’ve drawn up our rankings by measuring their performance against a series of metrics: economic growth, debt, unemployment, inflation, and business confidence. Many may have suspected but few will have known just how bad Labour’s first year has been but there can be no room for doubt now.
In a ‘damning report ([link removed]) ’, we revealed how Keir Starmer’s first year as prime minister saw the second worst level of business confidence, inflation and unemployment compared to the first years of all other 21st century prime ministers. GDP grew by 1.2 per cent in his first year, ranking him fifth of the seven with only Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson overseeing lower growth in their first year. Meanwhile he has overseen the third largest increase in public sector net debt in percentage terms, rising by 3.74 per cent, behind only David Cameron and Tony Blair.

Whatever spin ministers may try to put on it, Darwin cut straight to the heart of the matter ([link removed]) telling GB News: “The nation is seriously suffering under Starmer's leadership, with all the economic indicators flashing red. He and his Chancellor's decision to hammer businesses and households with a devastating volley of tax rises is undoubtedly one of the root causes of the serious malaise we find ourselves in.”
Starmer's disastrous first year in Downing Street
Given all this, perhaps it’s not a surprise that for this week’s episode of a nation of taxpayers, Elliot and Darwin joined Duncan Barkes to discuss 12 months of Labour in office.
With vox pops from the people of Worthing, an area that switched to Labour at the 2024 general election to see how Sir Keir’s first year has matched up to their expectations. Listen to the latest episode of a nation of taxpayers on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , and YouTube ([link removed]-) .
[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]-
Spot the difference
While this government’s achievements may be few and far between, they have managed to produce a 150 page dossier on the importance and value of the newly-redesigned dot ([link removed]) in gov.uk… And it only set taxpayers back £500,000.

Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager

[link removed]

============================================================
** Twitter ([link removed])
** [link removed] ([link removed])
** YouTube ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2025 The TaxPayers' Alliance, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in to receiving our updates, or we have a legitimate interest to contact you about our work.



TaxPayers' Alliance is a trading name of The TaxPayers' Alliance Limited, a company incorporated in England & Wales under company registration no. 04873888 and whose registered office is at 55 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL.



You can read our privacy notice here: [link removed]
Our mailing address is:
The TaxPayers' Alliance
55 Tufton Street
London, London SW1P 3QL
United Kingdom
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.