Jeremy Hunt says focus on the ‘economically inactive’. I say he is scapegoating the sick

‘If you’re off work to spend more time on the golf course, you could get tax breaks. If you left because you were diagnosed with Parkinson’s, you may get a call from the fraud squad.’ Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

As the government lurches between screw-ups, sleaze and scandals, it is ironic that one of its key policy agendas is based on the premise that the rest of us aren’t working properly. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has highlighted the “economically inactive” as a key issue facing the UK. The number of working-age people either unable or unwilling to take a job has increased by about 630,000 since 2019, according to government estimates, resulting in a staggering 9 million people missing from the job market.

Broadly, Hunt is concerned about two camps: the over-50s who took early retirement during the pandemic, and the increasing number of people who can’t work because of long-term health conditions and disabilities – a state of affairs put down to factors ranging from soaring NHS waiting lists to long Covid.