Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said welfare reforms were in ‘the right place’ after a ‘bumpy ride’ – which saw the Government gut its legislation to avoid a Commons defeat
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has been accused of failing to consult disabled people on planned benefit cuts during a fiery clash.
Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling confronted the Cabinet minister over the disastrous plans to slash £5billion from the welfare bill, which were gutted to see off a Labour revolt. Proposals to cut Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the main disability benefit, have now been shelved until a review is conducted by DWP Minister Sir Stephen Timms next year.
At a hearing of the Work and Pensions Committee, Ms Kendall said the scaled back plans were in “the right place” now but admitted it had been a “bumpy ride”.
Mr Darling, who is registered blind, said Ms Kendall had promised last year that reforms would not be led by cuts. But the green paper published in March amounted to the deepest cuts in a decade, he said, adding: “What went wrong?”
Ms Kendall replied: “Forgive me for not agreeing with the characterisation that you put forward. I have never started with pound signs or spreadsheets. I’ve always started with what I believe can help people with long term health conditions and disabled people build a better life for themselves.”
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But Mr Darling said disabled people were not consulted on the changes to PIP ahead of time. Ms Kendall said her department was consulting with Parliament and there were a number of committees looking at it in collaboration.
Mr Darling asked twice: “Why did you ignore disabled people?” The minister replied: “We are not ignoring disabled people. They will be at the heart of the Timms review.”
More broadly, the Work and Pensions Secretary argued that the Government was spending too much on the “costs of failure” and her department was at the sharp end of people who were suffering from poor health, lack of jobs and lack of skills.
“This department ends up picking up the pieces of the problems that are deep rooted from many other government areas and we’ve got to change that,” she said. “Poor health, poor opportunities, low skills, not enough jobs. Those are the problems we have to tackle together. We are at the sharp end of it.”
Ms Kendall admitted the welfare legislation had been a “bumpy ride”, adding: “We have to start shifting resources into the things that really help create better lives for people. We are spending I believe too much on the costs of failure, and not enough on the better health, better jobs, better skills that we need.
“That is extremely difficult to shift because people rely on those benefits and they’ve built their lives around them. But unless we grapple with this, benefits alone is not the solution to a better life.”
Ms Kendall was also challenged over the Government’s delayed child poverty strategy, which is now expected in the autumn. However she denied there had been “slippage” in the Government’s efforts to help the 4.5million children living in poverty.
She pointed to action such as the recent expansion of free school meals to kids in Universal Credit households and free breakfast clubs as a “down payment” on tackling the issue.
In another clash, Mr Darling said: “Childhood is a really short period of time, we’re letting our children in poverty down, why is the Government doing that by not publishing as it promised previously?”
Ms Kendall replied: “I think action speaks louder than words, we have taken action to tackle child poverty.” He asked again: “Can you explain why you haven’t published the child poverty strategy so far?”
She replied: “Would you like me to answer the question?” The MP retorted: “You are very well avoiding it. Why haven’t you published the child poverty strategy?”
Ms Kendall replied: “We want to get this right, we understand there will be funding implications and we think its really important that we spell out a comprehensive strategy. But we have not had slippage on tackling child poverty, we’re putting that into action.”
She added: “I am very proud of the start we have made, we have got a hell of a long way to go. But I think we’ve had some down payments on our chid poverty strategy and myself and Bridget Phillipson will forging forward to do even more in the autumn.”
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