Welfare changes are fair, says PM

1 February 2012 Last updated at 08:15 ET

 

House of Commons live

Prime Minister David Cameron has said welfare changes are "right and fair" and challenged Labour to support the government's benefit cap plan.

The £26,000-a-year cap is one of seven areas on which the Welfare Reform Bill has suffered defeats in the Lords.

The bill has now returned to the Commons as ministers say they are determined to get their plans through.

Labour say they support the benefit cap in principle - but want changes to the way it is implemented.

The party's position on the cap - equivalent to the average salary of a working household - came under attack at Prime Minister's Questions.

Mr Cameron repeatedly pressed Labour Leader Ed Miliband to say whether he would support the government, on what ministers say is a plan that has a lot of public support, accusing him of "complete silence" on the issue.

At the weekend, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said Labour would not be supporting the cap as it stood - because of concerns that it would force many families out of their homes.

He said the party would instead push for a local cap on benefits - to vary across the country and reflect different housing benefit rates - rather than one £500-a-week/£26,000-a-year cap across England, Scotland and Wales.

The cap is just one of seven areas where peers voted against the government.

MPs are now debating whether to back amendments made by peers, or throw them out - re-introducing aspects of the proposed legislation rejected by peers.

The government says it intends to overturn the following measures agreed by the Lords:

• Excluding child benefit from the £26,000 cap on total benefits to households
• Not charging single parents to access child maintenance if they take reasonable steps to reach a settlement
• Exempting cancer patients from means-testing of employment support allowance
• Extending eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) prior to means-testing from one to two years
• Allowing young disabled people to continue claiming National Insurance contribution-based ESA
• Exempting social tenants with one spare room from "under-occupancy" penalties

David Cameron taunted the Labour front bench and called for a reaction on welfare reforms

The government suffered its latest defeat on Tuesday when a coalition of crossbench and Labour peers - supported by two Conservatives and seven Lib Dems - voted to limit a proposed reduction to the lower rate of the "disabled child element" of Child Tax Credits.

A crossbench amendment tabled by Baroness Meacher calling for the lower rate to be at least two-thirds of the value of the higher rate - which ministers want to raise to £77 a week - was passed by 16 votes.

The government says it wants to target support at the children with the highest care needs - and say there will be transitional protection so those already in receipt of the benefit will not lose money.

But SDLP MP Margaret Ritchie said at prime minister's questions it would hit working people facing severe financial difficulties - and could cost them over £1,300 a year.

Mr Byrne says Labour was determined to force the government to change the bill.

"Welfare to work needs jobs - and this bill doesn't create a single one," he said.

"Instead it cuts support for people trying to do the right thing, like mums trying to go back to work and families trying to save, and quite frankly it crosses a line of basic British decency."

Ministers say the public backs the principle of not paying any household more in benefits than the average weekly wage of working families.

Continue Reading... Labels: changes, fair, Welfare

Labour urges rethink on welfare

11 January 2012 Last updated at 23:47 ET

Baroness Meacher: "These sort of defeats are unusual in the House of Lords"

The government is being urged by Labour to scrap its planned welfare changes after a series of defeats in the Lords.

Labour peers and independent cross benchers rejected proposals to means test the benefits of young disabled people and cancer patients.

Half of Liberal Democrat peers in the chamber did not support the coalition.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said the coalition had been defeated for trying to "cross the basic line of British decency".

He urged ministers not to try to reinstate the measures in the Commons.

"For months Labour has been determined to stop this cruel attack on cancer patients in its tracks. And today the House of Lords agreed," he said.

"The government's proposal to cut paid for benefits for people still in chemotherapy crosses the basic test of fairness."

Peers voted by 260 to 216 to protect up to 15,000 young disabled people from cuts to employment support allowance (ESA), has replaced incapacity benefit.

They voted 234 to 186 for a two-year limit on claims, rather than the proposed one year, and by 222 to 166 to exempt cancer sufferers from a limit.

Critics said the plan had meant disabled children who could never work would never be entitled to the benefit.

As part of their drive to cut spending on welfare, the government wants to remove the so-called "youth provision" that allows some young people to receive contributory employment and support allowance (ESA) even though - due to disability or illness - they have not been able to work and build up National Insurance.

Welfare Minister Lord Freud said it was unfair for a young person to continue to get a contributory benefit without having "paid in" - even if they were to inherit a lot of money.

He estimated that 90% of those affected by the change would still get the income-related part of ESA.

The effect of increasing the time limit from one to two years would be £1.6bn over five years, he said.

He said the proposal to time-limit contributory ESA only applied to people in the "work-related activity group" and not those in the "support group" who were deemed incapable of work.

"We will always provide a safety net for those with limited income and people will still be able to claim income-related ESA."

He said that other benefits such as housing benefit and council tax benefit would be available.

In the second defeat on Wednesday evening, peers agreed a move to replace the one-year cap with the ability for the government to legislate for a limit of not less than two years.

"I am sympathetic to cutting the deficit, but I am highly sympathetic to sick and vulnerable people not being subjected to something that will make their lives even more miserable," said the crossbencher and eminent doctor Lord Patel, who introduced the amendment.

His second amendment removed the time limit on contributory ESA payments for people receiving treatment for cancer.

The defeats mean the measures will be removed for the time being from the government's flagship welfare reform bill pending a decision by ministers on how to respond.

The BBC's deputy political editor James Landale said that if the proposals were dropped entirely, the government would lose an estimated £2bn in savings.

The government also suffered a defeat last month over elements of their plans to overhaul housing benefit.

Despite these setbacks, ministers say they are determined to pass legislation that will increase incentives for people on benefits to work while protecting the most vulnerable and making welfare expenditure more sustainable.

"Our plans are about returning the welfare state to its original purpose of supporting those with the most need," a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said.

"This means ensuring that taxpayer's money is spent on those who are too sick or disabled to work and those with the least money."

Continue Reading... Labels: Labour, rethink, urges, Welfare

Bischöfe kritisieren Welfare reform

19. November 2011 Last updated at 20:38 ET

Die Regierung sagt, dass die Änderungen £ 7 Mrd in Wohlbefinden Ausgaben gespeichert werden

Achtzehn Anglikanische Bischöfe unterzeichneten einen offenen Brief, Kritik an der Regierung vorgeschlagenen Wohlergehen Reformen.

In dem Schreiben, in The Observer, die Bischöfe äußern Bedenken über Pläne, die Menge zu begrenzen, dass jeder Haushalt in Vorteile bis £ 500 pro Woche in Anspruch nehmen kann.

Ihre Intervention erhielt die Unterstützung der Erzbischof von Canterbury und der Erzbischof von York.

Die Regierung sagt, dass die Reformen konzipiert sind, um eine Kultur der Abhängigkeit zu verringern.

Die Bischöfe sagen die GAP wäre "zutiefst ungerechten" für Kinder in den ärmsten Familien und, sie haben eine "moralische Verpflichtung zu sprechen für diejenigen, die keine Stimme haben".

Sie sind eine Reihe von Änderungsanträgen auf die Welfare Reform Bill - gegebener sichern im House Of Lords am Montag - erörtert werden, die durch den Bischof von Leeds und Ripon, Reverend John Packer vorgelegt worden sind.

'Falling in die Armut'

Er sagte der BBC: "Es ist ungewöhnlich für eine beträchtliche Anzahl von Bischöfen, zusammen zu kommen und sich einen Brief und wir sehen, wir haben ein ganz besonderes Anliegen, für Kinder und zu verhindern, dass Kinder in Armut fallen."

"Die Rechnung wie es steht uns scheint, als ob es für Kinder - insbesondere in größeren Familien, sehr beträchtlichen Schaden es wird kein Fehler von den Kindern verursachen könnte, dass sie in größeren Familien sind," fügte er hinzu.

Die Regierung sagt die Änderungen aufgrund im Jahr 2013, spart £ 7 Mrd im Tierschutz Ausgaben Inkrafttreten und fördert die Menschen derzeit auf Vorteile zu gehen und einen Arbeitsplatz zu finden.

Die Unterzeichner sind von den Diözesen von Bath und Wells. Blackburn; Bristol; Chichester; Derby; Exeter; Gloucester; Guildford; Leicester; Lichfield; London; Manchester; Norwich; Oxford; Leeds und Ripon; St Edmundsbury und Ipswich; Truro; und Wakefield.

Anfang dieses Monats gewarnt Kirchenführer in Nordirland, dass die Reformen gefährdete Menschen in "prekären Ebenen der Armut" drücken würde.

Es wird geschätzt, dass die GAP, die für das kombinierte Einkommen aus Vorteile wie die Arbeitsuchenden Zulage, Wohngeld und des Rates Steuervorteil gelten würde, etwa 50.000 Familien etwa £ 93 eine Woche schlechtere Weg führen könnte.

London soll eine der am stärksten betroffenen Gebiete, wegen der hohen Kosten der Vermietung in der Hauptstadt sein.

Anfang dieser Woche eine Studie im Auftrag des London Councils, sagte etwa 133.000 Haushalte in London wäre nicht ihre Miete zu leisten, wenn die vorgeschlagenen Änderungen voran gehen.

Continue Reading... Labels: Bischöfe, kritisieren, reform, Welfare