Next May there is a big choice for the British people on social security

This weekend we’ve seen desperate attempts by the Tories to hide the truth of their failed record on welfare with desperately rushed out promises to restrict to benefits for young people. Their proposals on benefits make no commitment to deliver the training young people need to get a job and fulfil their potential.

It’s yet another example of the failed Tory approach to welfare we have seen over the last four years.

David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith promised to get a grip on the social security budget. But the government’s own figures show they have spectacularly failed and are set to overshoot their own plans for spending on social security this Parliament by a staggering £13 billion.

Social security spending is up because the Tories’ record since 2010 is a record of failure and waste.

The Tories have failed to tackle the cost of living crisis which has left working people £1600 worse off. Rising job insecurity and zero hour contracts have led to millions working harder for less. And as a result more working people are relying on housing benefit and tax credits to get by.

The Tories have failed to control housing benefit spending. The Tory low-wage economy has led to a huge increase in working people claiming housing benefit which is set to cost every UK household £488. Analysis by the House of Commons library last month found the number of working people claiming housing benefit is set to double between 2010 and 2018 costing taxpayers a staggering £12.9 billion.

The Tories have poured millions of pounds down the drain on failing programmes from the delayed £12.8 billion Universal Credit to the Youth Contract which was scrapped last month.

And the Tories have failed to tackle waste with billions of pounds lost every year to benefit fraud and error and are set to miss their own targets.

So what would another five years of David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith would mean for Britain’s social security system?

Five more years of rising numbers of people stuck in low paid jobs relying on housing benefit and tax credits to make ends meet costing taxpayers billions of pounds. And five more years of waste with billions lost to fraud and millions written off on failing projects like Universal Credit.

It’s clearly time for a new approach.

A Labour government will control social security spending by getting more people into work and creating better paid and more secure jobs to tackle the root causes of rising welfare bills.

We’ll do that by making work pay with an increase to the National Minimum Wage and Living Wage Contracts to encourage more employers to pay a living wage. We will tackle rising housing benefit spending by getting 200,000 homes a year built by 2020 following the government’s failure to deliver the affordable housing our countrry desperately needs. We will introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee to get the unemployed off benefits and into work. And we will get a grip of Iain Duncan Smith’s shambolic handling of Universal Credit and disability benefits from Employment Support Allowance to Personal Independence Payments which threaten to breach the government’s welfare cap.

So next May there is a big choice for the British people on social security.

Low wages, more failing programmes and rising social security costs under the Tories who are set to overspend by £13 billion on welfare. A party why only represent and deliver for a privileged few.

Or a Labour future with reforms to make work pay and get social security spending under control.

Rachel Reeves is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions