Welfare Reform

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Mann

Monday 11th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab)]

The Office for Budget Responsibility has projected a net increase of 700,000 EU migrant workers during this Parliament, and that point was confirmed by Treasury officials to the Treasury Committee. Does the Secretary of State agree—and as the previous Government found to their cost—that an employer is more likely to prefer a new, young EU migrant worker to someone who has been on benefits for 10 years?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point. The only answer I can give is that during the past 10 years we have had between 4 million and 5 million people permanently parked on some form of out-of-work benefit. The reality is that it became easier and cheaper for most employers to employ people who were not on benefits than to go to the pool of people who were on benefits. I hope that our reforms will make work pay for those who are on benefits and thus release that pool of talent, so that demand can be met from here in the UK, and that only those who are really skilled and necessary will have to come from overseas.