Secretary of State for Work and Pensions makes statement on welfare reform

Making a statement on Welfare Reform, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell stressed that the welfare state was a vital means to support those who were vulnerable and in need of help. However, he stated that by failing to update the welfare system for the modern age, the principles upon which it was established had been neglected. He suggested in particular that the third principle of the Beveridge report had been neglected, and the system had not been used to help people back into mainstream society. The Secretary of State stated that the new reforms would allow for an 80 per cent employment rate, and would meet the Government’s targets for ending child poverty and for equality for the disabled.

He stated that there were 5 main goals. Firstly, the reforms sought to end the system where there was a choice between claiming and working. Mr Purnell explained that there would be work programmes as a sanction for those abusing the system, and a requirement for all claimants to work when they were able; and a requirement for people with drug dependency to seek support, which he argued would increase their capacity to work.

He then explained that the second goal was that nobody would be written off. He stressed that the Government had created a Pathways to Work programme to support people coming off Incapacity Benefit. This benefit was to be fully replaced by the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) between 2010 and 2013 and all existing claimants would be reassessed. All people would be entitled to support, but would be obliged to take work where a doctor advised it, he added.

The third goal was to improve the conditions of the benefit. He explained that specialist services would ensure that anyone that could benefit from access to work could do and that individual budgets would put disabled people in control.

The fourth goal would be to end child benefit with parents on benefits keeping all of their maintenance payments.

Finally, there would be devolution to advisors, providers and communities. He stressed that this would allow greater flexibility and a service that was focused on local needs – Job Centre Plus would have greater opportunity and flexibility to determine how they dealt with their clients.

Mr Purnell confirmed that all the reforms in the Freud report would be fully implemented. These reforms would simplify the benefit system and would abolish income support and move people onto Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), he stated. He went on to say that the conditionality regime would be appropriate for both the JSA and the ESA, and would not change for carers or parents.

He insisted that in consulting further on these proposals the Government would engage with the public, providers and academics.