and helping children grow up in loving adoptive families where that is a better option.
We will also support those leaving care with housing, education and employment,
In April, we raised the threshold at which individuals begin to lose Child Benefit from £50,000 to £60,000 and halved the rate at which it is withdrawn.
This is the right thing for families and the right thing for the economy.
But it still isn’t fair that single earner households can start losing their Child Benefit when a household with two working parents and a much higher total income can keep it in full.
We will end this unfairness by moving to a household rather than individual basis for Child Benefit.
This will benefit over 700,000 households, each gaining an average of £1,480 a year.
Digital technology is a force for good.
But as technology develops, we need to respond to the concerns many parents have.
Children are spending much more of their time using screens, often unsupervised, with research finding 63% of eight to 11-year-olds are now using social media.
We also know that the number of children suffering from mental illness is rising dramatically
and children spend less time playing, sleeping and socialising.
In the last decade, we have done more to protect children online than any other country.
This includes fining social media companies who shirk their responsibilities to keep children safe.
But we need to do more to protect young people and empower parents to make decisions in the best interests of their children.
We will provide funding for schools to help them ban mobile phones where they need it.
We will urgently consult on introducing further parental controls over access to social media.
We know this is a complex area and we need more effective age verification and parental controls.
That’s why we will consult widely to get this right, including developing the necessary technology, in partnership with other countries who are considering similar measures.
We expect to build on the existing responsibilities set out for social media companies under the Online Safety Act.
We believe in fairness and the value of hard work.
Alongside a tax system that rewards work, we want a welfare system which supports everyone to fulfil their potential and live dignified and independent lives.
There should always be a safety net for those who need it most;
but those who can work to support themselves, should work, and they should be better off for doing so.
Since 2010, we have delivered transformational reforms to put work at the heart of our welfare system.
We have rolled out Universal Credit and cut its taper rate by 10p in the pound to make work pay.
We’ve brought discipline to the system through tougher sanctions and conditionality.
We introduced the household benefit cap and the two-child limit to make the system fairer to the taxpayers who pay for it
and ensure benefits are always a safety net, not a lifestyle choice.
All of this has delivered near record levels of employment and low unemployment, with around four million more people in work since we came to office.
At the same time, we have protected the most vulnerable, safeguarding millions of jobs through the pandemic
and delivering unprecedented support to help households through the energy shock from Putin’s war.
Since the pandemic, new challenges have emerged.
The number of people who are economically inactive due to ill health has risen from 2 million to 2.8 million,
with a significant increase in mental health conditions among younger people.
As a result, the number of working age people claiming benefits is projected to grow at an unsustainable rate, with all the wasted human potential that entails.
We are now spending £69 billion a year on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition, a figure which has risen by two thirds since the pandemic.
By the end of the decade, that spending is projected to increase to £90 billion.
It would be irresponsible not to take bold action to put the welfare system on a sustainable footing.
This next generation of welfare reforms will build a system fit for the post-pandemic world.
They will give everyone who can the best possible chance of returning to work, while providing the right support to those who need it.
With fewer people moving onto welfare and more people in work fulfilling their potential, we will save taxpayers £12 billion a year.
To deliver this, we will take a two-pronged approach.
First, to address the unsustainable rise in benefit claims for people of working age with a disability or health condition, we will:
while delivering a stepchange in mental health provision.
We will improve PIP assessments to provide a more objective consideration of people’s needs and stop the number of claims from rising unsustainably.
While people suffering with mental health conditions face significant challenges, it is not clear that they always face the same additional living costs as people with physical disabilities.
We will look at the best way to provide support, including whether treatment or services could be more appropriate for some people than a monthly cash payment,
while also delivering a dramatic expansion in mental health support.
At the same time, we will make the assessment process simpler and fairer for those with the most severe conditions.