Welfare Reform Bill

Jackie Doyle-Price Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)]

I am very proud of the measures before us. The Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that the Government have brought forward to date. It has the opportunity to have a revolutionary impact, not only on the welfare system but on society more generally. It will contribute to building a fairer society—fairer for the millions of taxpayers, many of them on modest incomes, whose taxes are inflated by having to support the current welfare system, and fairer to claimants. It is fair that we target support to those most in need and fair that we give those who are fit and able to work every encouragement to do so.

I shall focus most of my comments on the universal credit and the impact that it will have on incentives to work. There are too many people in our society for whom work does not pay. In those circumstances, who can blame them for choosing not to work? It is a rational economic choice. If they can get as much income from sitting at home as they would from doing a day’s work, where is the incentive?

We must all have seen examples of that in our surgeries—the lone parent who wants to provide for herself and her family, but finds that the cost of child care and the loss of housing benefit make it more costly to go to work than to stay at home; someone who finds a job, then discovers that the rate at which they lose their housing benefit makes work punitive; someone on incapacity benefit trying to work part time around their disability, who finds their benefits withdrawn or clawed back, so that they are better off doing nothing; someone who has had a substantial career, finds they are no longer able to do that and wants to retrain, but who has their benefits withdrawn as they are judged not to be seeking work. All that must stop, and the Work programme will give incentives to those who want to get back into work, and the support and opportunity to do so.

We must repair decades of damage. It is easy for us on the Government Benches to blame the Opposition, but the problem goes back decades. The system has grown incrementally and the damage is there for all to see. In some households, generation after generation have failed to engage in the world of work. This has encouraged ongoing low aspiration and poor lifestyle choices. Some of my hon. Friends gave examples of that. My hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South West (Paul Uppal) described how, when he was at school, there were two distinct camps—those who aspired to better themselves, and those who aspired just to live on benefits. I see the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) in his place. As someone who grew up on a council estate in his constituency, I had that experience too. We need to build aspiration, and we have policies in place to achieve that. The reform to welfare is crucial to getting our society working again. The reforms will set people free from dependency and set them free to take advantage of the opportunities that we will give them.

I want to say something about an end to the complex system of tax credits. I appreciate that the introduction of tax credits was well intentioned as a way of alleviating poverty for people in work, but they have had the opposite effect. That is because the system is retrospective, so people apply for tax credits in good faith, only to be faced with a whopping tax bill the following year because of a slight change in circumstances. That problem will be eradicated by the universal credit because it will be assessed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and for that reason must be welcomed.

I firmly endorse the benefit cap. Far too many of my constituents work hard and pay taxes, only to see their near neighbours enjoy a comfortable lifestyle living on benefits. I also welcome the obligations placed on claimants. As a condition of receiving benefit, people should surely do everything they reasonably can to find work. For many people that will be empowering. For someone who has been in the same job for many years and suddenly finds themselves workless, the loss of confidence can be considerable. The support that they will get from the Work programme to gain new skills will help them and give them the confidence to go back into the world of work. That will be empowering.

That is equally true of incapacity benefit claimants. Because a claimant is no longer able to do the job that they were doing before does not mean that they cannot retrain and do a different job. The support they will get from the Work programme will enable them to do that, and it will be empowering.

The Bill is radical. It is brave, and it is necessary if we are to tackle the endemic culture of benefit dependency that exists in our country. It has become more and more entrenched over the years, at the expense of the workless and the taxpayer. I am pleased to support the Bill.