Jobseeker’s Allowance

Debate between Lord Brabazon of Tara and Lord Freud

Monday 21st July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Brabazon of Tara]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the latest employment data released by the Office for National Statistics; and what implications that has for the number of claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud) (Con)]

My Lords, the employment rate has never been higher and the inactivity rate has never been lower. There are a record 30.6 million people in work and the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance has fallen for 20 consecutive months. It is down by more than 400,000 on the year to 1.04 million.

[Lord Brabazon of Tara (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for that reply. Can he confirm that those excellent figures are spread across the whole country, not just London and the south-east as some might have us believe? Will he also comment on the leader in last Thursday’s Times, which suggested that part of the responsibility for the reduction in unemployment lay with the Government’s welfare changes?

[Lord Freud]

Since 2010, 1.8 million people have got jobs. Nearly 80% of that growth was outside London, with all regions being up in that period. As for the role of benefit reforms in our economic recovery, my view—this is something that statisticians will work on for some time—is that we are beginning to move into some of the structural problems that we have had for many years now, and are moving through the cyclical effects into those structural requirements.