The British Government is introducing sweeping reforms to its welfare system in an attempt to bring its costs under control, in the face of rapidly increasing demands for disability benefits.
The aim of the shake-up is to reduce the number of people who are not working due to sickness or disability, by helping them back into work. Everyone agrees that something needs to be done. Over 4% of the UK’s population are currently economically inactive due to long term sickness, and 12% of young people are not in work, education or training. The welfare bill is set to rise to £70 billion per year by 2030 – that’s about £1000 for every person in the UK.
The Government has set itself a thankless task – it will be criticised whatever it does. Some want stricter action, complaining that it’s currently too easy to ‘live off the state’, resulting in a culture of ‘freeloading’ among some sections of the population. Others fear that the reforms will make it too difficult for those who genuinely aren’t able to work to access the benefits they need.
Let’s take a look at the Bible’s perspective on work and welfare.
Work is a necessary aspect of our existence. God told Adam after his failure in Eden, ‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground’ (Genesis 3:19). But we need to go further back than that. When Adam was first created and put into paradise, he was given work to do: ‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it’ (2:15). This is an important point: we were designed to be active and productive. Inactivity is not good for us.
The Law of Moses, which God gave to the nation of Israel in the Bible’s Old Testament, contained simple principles for the smooth running of society. There was no state welfare system, but there were various mechanisms for looking after the disadvantaged: the poor were not to pay interest on loans (Exodus 22:5), they were to be allowed to help themselves to the fruit of fallow land (23:11), and to the gleanings of the harvest (Leviticus 19:10); and on Jubilee years they would be given back any land they’d had to sell (Leviticus 25). But most significantly, the Law contained direct commands for every individual to look out for the disadvantaged and the disabled in society: ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land’ (Deuteronomy 15:11).
When we come to the New Testament, the situation changes. Whereas the Law of Moses dealt with the running of the Israelite state, the New Testament deals with individual Christians living as ‘strangers and exiles’ (Hebrews 11:13). The emphasis is different, but the principles are the same.
The necessity to work is stressed, for anyone who is able – ‘freeloading’ is not an option for the follower of Christ: ‘If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat’ (2 Thessalonians 3:10); ‘Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need’ (Ephesians 4:28); ‘If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith’ (1 Timothy 5:8).
But what about those who are unable to work? Perhaps due to physical, mental or psychological disability, or due to prospective employers’ prejudicial attitudes to their disability, or due to any other reason? Disabilities take many forms, and are often misunderstood.
Here are just three principles which bear on the follower of Christ. The first is that they should look for help from their fellows: ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2). The second is that, even when people let you down, God does not: ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). The third is that even if you’re unable to do things that society values (such as being economically productive), that doesn’t mean you’re not valued by God – He will accept whatever you’re able to do: ‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ’ (Colossians 3:23-24).
Chris Parkin