Welfare Reform

Eilidh Whiteford Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Let me remind colleagues of the need for economy if we are to accommodate as many people as possible.

[Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP)]

I applaud the Secretary of State for his announcements today and for his efforts to incentivise work, but I still have an arithmetical problem despite his answers to previous questions. I am struggling to see how 450,000 job vacancies divide into the 5 million people that the reforms aim to help. I am hoping that he can explain.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

This universal credit comes in over a period of four or five years. In the time over which it is implemented, even under the hon. Lady’s most pessimistic forecasts, the British economy will grow and create more jobs. The Office for Budget Responsibility, which is independent, forecasts growth of some 2.5%, which will lead to much higher numbers of private sector jobs. The reality is that we must prepare the ground. The important thing is that people are better off as they go to work and take those jobs. The point of the proposals is to break the cycle of people saying, “It’s not worth me going to work and it is worth me staying on benefits, because work does not pay.” The proposal is about work paying.