Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

rose—

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

We are down to our last two Back-Bench contributions, so those watching in their offices who participated in this debate should now come back to the Chamber in anticipation of the wind-ups.

--- Later in debate ---

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

The Chancellor has given a tax break to some of the wealthiest people in society by scrapping the £1.07 million lifetime pensions allowance. We need to retain people in the NHS, but there are other ways of doing that. Let us see what he has done for the rest of society. At the same time, he has frozen personal income tax thresholds until 2028. The OBR has said that as a result wage growth over the next five years will force 3.2 million people into paying tax for the first time and put 2.1 million people into the higher rate tax band. The IFS has said that the freeze would cost most basic rate taxpayers £500 from April and most higher rate payers £1,000.

It is difficult to see how that will not have an impact on child poverty. Alison Garnham, the chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, has pointed out that the Budget contained

“no mention of the UK’s 4 million children in poverty”.

She called on the Government to

“expand free school meals eligibility, remove the two-child limit and benefit cap and increase child benefit. Any less and the effects of poverty will stalk millions of children from cradle to grave.”

While giving tax breaks for the very wealthy, the Chancellor announced that sanctions in the social security system would be

“applied more rigorously to those who fail to meet strict work search requirements or choose not to take up a reasonable job offer.”—[Official Report, 15 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 844.]

So people who struggle to read and write will be punished, because for them a work search is a difficult business. Furthermore, that announcement came just a day after it was reported that the Department for Work and Pensions had been ordered to release sensitive research into whether fining benefit claimants is effective in getting them to take a job or work more hours. There is overwhelming evidence in academic research, through the welfare conditionality project, to show that benefit sanctions are ineffective at getting people who do not have jobs into work and that they are more likely to reduce those affected to poverty, ill health or even survival crime.

Speaking of those who struggle to read and write, once gain the Government have failed to provide the urgent support that is needed to the 7.1 million adults in England who are deemed functionally illiterate and who face immense barriers in life. They make up more than 16% of the adult population, yet it seems that this Government have abandoned them. The Chancellor announced the introduction of returnerships and I will be interested to see the content of those. However, they are specifically vocational and, for many people who are functionally illiterate, the idea of going straight to a vocational course can be daunting; and, of course, illiteracy is not only about barriers to work.

Over 13 years of Conservative Government, we have seen public services cut to the bone, and public sector workers and the public they serve bearing the brunt of that ill-conceived austerity. Headteachers in Wirral whom I met earlier in the year spoke of the acute financial challenges they are facing in terms of paying staff, buying resources and heating their buildings. We also know that, according to the Government, across the country, the risk of collapse in one or more blocks in some schools built between 1945 and 1970 is now very likely. All this reminds me very much of the final years of the Thatcher Government, when public services were left in ruin.

In conclusion, this Budget sidestepped the most pressing issues, including the cost of living crisis that is causing misery to millions; the running down of public services; and the failure to support more than 16% of the adult population by providing them with much-needed support to read and write.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

We come to the wind-ups.