Welfare Cap

Chris Curtis Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Jeevun Sandher (Loughborough) (Lab)]

Every person in this country should be able to live a decent life, but too many of us are unable to earn a decent wage. That is what is pushing up social security spending, leading to the motions that we are debating today. Too many people are forced to claim sickness benefits because the NHS has failed them; there are not enough well-paid jobs; and people do not engage with the social security system that the Conservative party left us, because it demonised and attacked them.

That left us as an incoming Labour Government with a choice between massive implementing cuts to social security this year and technically breaching the welfare cap. I am proud that this Government have chosen to breach that cap rather than drive people into destitution. I am proud that we will get people who want to work into work, and that we will change the system for the future to ensure that people are not left as they have been for the past 14 years. I am proud that this Government will ensure that every person has the support they need when they need it.

Our nation is sick, and things need to change—specifically, three things. First, our NHS needs to shift. After 14 years of mismanagement and the disastrous Lansley reforms, we have almost 3 million people out of work. We were the only G7 nation to see sickness rise during the pandemic and after it as well. Every single one of us sees that degradation and damage when we try to get an appointment with our local GP. That is what we need to fix in the years ahead.

Secondly, we must transform our low-pay, low-training economy, which does not provide enough good jobs or pay enough to live. Thousands of people are unable to turn on the heating because they cannot afford it, and thousands are unable to eat; nurses are forced to go to food banks. Around 70% of children in poverty are in working families, and being cold and hungry makes people sicker. Too many people in this country go straight from school into sickness; the number of young people in this nation who are too sick to be active in the labour market has almost doubled since 2013. Those are the problems that we will be fixing in the years ahead.

The third thing that needs to change, of course, is the punitive social security system that pushed people to the brink. When people could not see their GP, could not earn enough to live a decent life and were too scared to go to the jobcentre, they stopped working altogether. That has led us in this country into a toxic doom loop, with sicker people having less money in their pockets and becoming too sick to work, leading to higher social security payments. The amount we are spending on social security is a sign not of the former Conservative Government’s generosity, but of their failure. That is what we will be addressing in the year ahead.

The amount that we are spending on sickness and disability benefits has risen from £42 billion in 2010 to £65 billion today, and that is in real terms, not nominal terms. That is an increase of around 40% to 50%. That is why we will breach the cap by £8.6 billion this year, rather than impose devastating and swingeing cuts on those who already cannot afford to eat. We on the Labour Benches know that food banks are not an integral part of our welfare system; they are a symbol of failure. These are the things that we must change in the future.

We need changes not simply to policy but in attitudes. For 14 years it was said that every person who was failing to earn enough was somehow a skiver. That was wrong, and it drove those who needed to engage with the social security system not to engage with it at all. I used to work at the Department for Work and Pensions and I can tell the House that people on both sides—those who wanted to work and those who wanted to help people into work—were good people who were let down by a bad system.

[Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North) (Lab)]

Somebody who works in my local jobcentre in Milton Keynes came to visit me last week and told me about his experiences. He currently has to conduct 10-minute appointments, and as a lot of that time is spent on admin, he is not able to give the necessary help and support to people who are desperate to find a job. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is really important that this Government, unlike the previous Government, focus on providing the support necessary to get people into work, rather than setting a narrative about people being workshy and not wanting to work, which is not the truth?

[Dr Sandher]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. Ten minutes is nowhere near enough time for people to get the job support they need. It is not enough for those who are seeking help or for those seeking to give that help, especially as the economy is changing and getting a well-paid job requires more training. The country changed before with the automative revolution, and it is now changing with the artificial intelligence revolution. Those people need support and help in order to get security, but they are not guaranteed it or given it at the moment, and that is the precise intention of the changes we are putting forward. It is not easy to put forward these changes and it will not take a short time, but by starting that work today and by changing the relationship between those who are seeking to give help and those who are receiving that help, we can ensure that those who need help will actually receive it.

This is not just about those on the ground who are doing great work, or indeed about my former brilliant colleagues at the DWP. It is also about how we in this House speak about those who need help, who are in poverty or who receive social security payments. We must understand that every single person in this country wants to work and wants the dignity that comes with it, but they are too often let down because of a lack of well-paid jobs, a lack of support and a lack of dignity afforded to them by a party that sought only to demonise. That is what we seek to change in this House and, indeed, in this country. That is the choice before us, and it is why we are making these decisions: a technical breach of the welfare cap this year and a more accurate welfare cap in the years ahead, so that we can begin to provide the support that people need.