DWP Policies and Low-income Households

Maria Caulfield Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield (Lewes) (Con)]

I thought the title of the motion was supposed to centre on the impact of Government policies on helping low-income households, but all Scottish National party and Labour Members have focused on is benefit provision. Not one of them has mentioned getting people into work and increasing the wages they earn once they are in work. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff North (Craig Williams) said, the “Child poverty transitions” report showed that 74% of workless families that went into work exited poverty. This has to be the focus of the Government’s agenda.

The Government have done more than any other Government in living memory to help low-paid workers, through measures such as those my hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans) mentioned: the national living wage; giving a pay rise to more than 6 million people; and enabling people to keep more of the money they earn by lifting 4 million out of tax altogether. I disagree with the shadow Minister that the jobs created are on short-term contracts; some 70% of all new jobs are full time, so people can earn more and be in work for longer.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that ours is the fastest-growing economy in the G7, which means that businesses up and down the country have been able to give workers a pay rise of 2.6% in the last year. It is this Government who are helping low-paid workers. The way out of poverty is through work, not benefits. As has been mentioned, research shows that if someone is on benefits, their life chances are increasingly suppressed, that they will live 15 years fewer than someone in work and earning a good wage, and that they will have more health problems, as will their children after them.

The route out of poverty is through work. The Government are helping people not only to get into work, but to earn more while they are in work and to keep more of the money they earn by reducing the amount of tax they pay. They are helping people into work by creating full-time jobs and transferring them to universal credit, which has seen an 8% increase in the number of people finding work. The Scotland Act 2016 gave the Scottish Parliament powers to ensure that welfare provision could be tailored to local needs. The SNP should get on and use the powers it has, instead of blaming the UK Government for Scotland’s benefit problems.