Welfare Reform Bill

Priti Patel Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and his entire ministerial team on bringing forward this long overdue legislation, and I pay tribute to him for his passion and conviction in driving forward his policies to get people off dependency and back into work. It is imperative that the welfare and benefits system be reformed and improved, because helping people to get back into work, ending the culture of dependency on the state and restoring the British work ethic is absolutely the right thing to do. It is always easy for Labour Members to criticise from a position of opposition, but they are the ones who spent 13 years failing to get people into work and trapped yet another generation on benefits—and they opened the door to let 2.5 million people from overseas come into Britain and take British jobs.

I make no apologies for viewing the welfare system as a safety net. Welfare should be available to help those who have fallen on hard times and need support in getting through difficulties, illnesses or disabilities. However, this has not always been the case. Many Members who have spoken in the debate recognise that our constituents have gone through many bureaucratic processes, obstacles and hurdles in getting the support to which they are entitled. They face a lot of stress and anxiety in going through appeals processes and tribunals, and many go through terrible trauma, which is why they end up in our surgeries, when we have to intervene. The reforms outlined in the Bill must therefore ensure that such mistakes, bureaucracy, regulation and hurdles are reduced, and, importantly, that we restore confidence in the system to support those who are in need.

There must be three components in any programme of measures introduced by Government to get Britain working, take people away from benefits and get them back into employment. First, we need pro-business policies that promote growth, enterprise and wealth creation. Secondly, strong measures need to be in place to get people into work and to complement the measures in the Bill to reduce benefit dependency. I therefore welcome the introduction of the Work programme, which is long overdue. It is not covered by this Bill, but has to be viewed alongside it as a complementary measure. The Secretary of State should be congratulated on promoting the role of welfare-to-work providers in getting people into work, and recognising the opportunities that they will create for the unemployed. That is the best approach to take, and the sooner the Work programme is fully functional, the better. Finally, there must be a benefits system that is fair both to the taxpayer and to those who need benefits. I therefore welcome the measures in the Bill that will get people out of the benefits trap by making work pay and removing complexity with the introduction of the universal credit.

I press the Government to use the Bill to take strong action against those who are disregarding the traditional British value of fair play and have been using the benefits system as an alternative to work. We have heard a great deal about that during the debate. The House may be interested to know that more than 500 suspected benefit cheats have warrants issued for their arrest for failing to turn up in court. Despite the levels of suspected fraud, totalling over £50,000 in some cases, because of a ridiculous example of human rights law, defying common sense, the Secretary of State’s Department is unable to name these people to help to track them down and bring them to justice, because it would violate their right to privacy. I hope that the Secretary of State and Ministers will look to alter this ludicrous position, and use the Bill as an appropriate vehicle to do something about it. I would also like action to be taken to prevent Europe from ordering us to pay benefits to immigrants, including illegal immigrants, which causes bemusement to most people in this country.

This Bill is not about penalising the vulnerable but establishing a fair system that penalises those who flout rules, abuse the system and think it right that they should have a better life than those who go out to work. That is why I will support it.