Sean Woodcock MP: ‘Recent events must not sound death-knell for welfare reform’

No one, regardless of their political views, can argue the recent debate and vote around the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit was the Labour Party’s finest hour.

We must learn from what happened and quickly.

PIP and UC are important, but they are only one part of the social security and welfare system.

We have seen and heard a lot of arguments but overall, one thing that is not disputed is that the welfare system we inherited fails claimants, those with a disability and those who live with long term, often lifelong deteriorating conditions who have had to go through the indignity of repeated reassessment.

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It also fails those out of work who are able and want to work but can’t because the support is not in place to get them into good jobs and to stay there, so they are left to rot in a system that has written them off.

And it also fails taxpayers.

Pin-dancing

Cost should never be the only or even main driver for welfare reform, we simply cannot ignore a system where one benefit, PIP, is now more costly to the Exchequer than the Home Office, Justice, or Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

If one effect of last week is that our policy on welfare reform is fine so long as nothing really changes and the status quo is protected, then we all lose, and the costs will continue to spiral, and people will contine to suffer.

Arguments have been made about our self-imposed fiscal rules, to me it’s pin-dancing.

For a start, we’ve already changed them to allow capital investment for growth and infrastructure.

The very real thing these fiscal rules constrain is borrowing our way out of this situation. The markets have made it clear that we try that and a Liz Truss scenario awaits.

Look at the price we pay, compared to other countries on our gilts. Our debt interest is already extremely high and a further drain on taxpayers’ money that should instead be going into public services.

Any progressive who wants to contest fiscal policy along those lines isn’t serious and is just avoiding tax discussions because they tacitly admit those are too difficult in a cost-of-living crisis.

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It is true that tax rises can be an argument for funding public services or welfare, but they are not a way of boosting growth and growth is something always put in the “too hard to do” box.

Without growth, we will end up either with more tax rises, or cuts to avoid a financial emergency as we saw under Liz Truss.

So we come back to a need to reform the welfare system. Those who cannot work absolutely should be protected from any loss of income, but we need a serious discussion on reforming it.

A fundamental part of any reform must start with the understanding that some people who aren’t in work but who could be, need to be encouraged into it with the necessary support, accompanied by a clear expectation that you accept that support and that there are consequences if you don’t.

Recent events must not sound the death knell to our ambition of welfare reform.

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