Employment

Lord Haskel Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Haskel]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are taking to tackle under-employment and to help those working part-time who want a full-time job.

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

The Government’s long-term economic plan is working. A record number of people are in work and the proportion of part-time workers wanting full-time work has fallen for the last 11 months. Under universal credit we are, for the first time, creating clear incentives and supporting claimants to progress in work and increase their earnings.

[Lord Haskel (Lab)]

I am not sure where the Minister gets his numbers from but recent figures show that there has been rise in the number of people seeking more hours. Could this be due to the low pay that people who are already in work are getting—that they need to work more hours? This is partly due, I should have thought, to the government policy of subsidising low wages through the welfare system. Instead of incentivising these low wages, would it not be better for the Government to encourage businesses to raise their game, and become more productive and efficient? In this way, people can earn more and employers can get more of a return from people’s work.

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, the simple fact is that the number of people working part-time who want to work full-time has had the largest but one drop over the last 12 months that we have ever seen—down 1.7%. Clearly, one needs an economy recovering. We have had a terrible shock to this economy—it went down 6%. We are now pulling people back and, as the Bank of England Governor said, what will get everyone working to the extent that they want to work will be improving productivity in this economy.