Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
George Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): That is exactly the reason why we gave £380 million to local authorities to deal with individual cases. The courts have supported us in this. Again, the hon. Lady did not get up and apologise for the mess Labour left social housing in: overcrowded accommodation, people who could not find the right houses, people on huge waiting lists for accommodation and the lowest level of house building on record since the 1920s. That is the shame of the 13 years of the last Labour Government I spoke a moment ago about the pension freedoms that have been provided. The last pension freedom that has been provided by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor is to allow 5 million annuity holders to access their existing annuities. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Minister for Pensions because that was originally his idea. It shows that the coalition is working at all levels It pays to save and, through our welfare changes, this Government have ensured that it pays to work. We have undertaken the most significant reforms in living memory, which span not only pensions but job-seeking benefits, disability benefits, child maintenance and more. They have been opposed at every turn by the Opposition. We are delivering a welfare state fit for the 21st century Universal credit is rolling out nationally. It is already in 150 areas and is set to be in every jobcentre by this time next year. The earliest claimants are spending more time looking for work, are moving into work quicker, are working more and are earning more than those on jobseeker’s allowance. It will bring economic benefits of up to £35 billion over 10 years, as the Public Accounts Committee agrees The benefit cap has ended the something-for-nothing culture. Capped households are 41% more likely to move into work and 12,500 have done so. Housing benefit is capped too. There has been the first real-terms fall in housing benefit spending in a decade and it is set to carry on falling in real terms up to 2020. Our reforms are restoring fairness and mean that we are making better use of Britain’s housing stock as we build more houses Over this Parliament, the increase in welfare spending has been the lowest since the creation of the welfare state at 0.5% a year compared with the 3.5% increase in Labour’s last Parliament in office. Total welfare spending is below what we inherited in 2010 as a proportion of GDP. In the coming year, out-of-work benefit spending will be back to pre-recession levels. Welfare reforms are set to have saved nearly £50 billion cumulatively, all while departmental baseline spending is down—I say this to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury—by some £2 billion a year. He can say "well done" if he likes. We are doing more, and we are doing more efficiently as a result As we come to the end of this Parliament, I am proud of the work we have done with my right hon. and hon. Friends in this House. I pay tribute to some of my previous Ministers, including my right hon. Friends the Members for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), for Basingstoke (Maria Miller) and for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning), and my hon. Friend the Member for Fareham (Mr Hoban), as well as to current Ministers, including the Minister for Employment, who has done brilliantly in her job, and the Minister for Disabled People, who is doing brilliantly in his. I pay particular tribute to an hon. Friend who is unsung and unfairly traduced by the Labour party: my good friend Lord Freud. He has worked tirelessly for two different Governments, determined only on one thing, which is to improve the quality of life for people in Britain. I am also proud of my working relationship and what has been achieved with the Minister for Pensions. We have worked well together and achieved good things, and we have also worked closely with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on many subjects The last five years have often been hard and difficult, but always rewarding. We took a system that was bloated and unfair, and which under the previous Government seemed to penalise those who tried and rewarded those who did not. The last Government left us a system that measured only the amount put in and not the results obtained, and it trapped many in dependence. We took that system and changed it for the better, leaving a positive legacy: the deficit down, unemployment down, youth unemployment down, long-term unemployment down, employment up, private sector work up, working households up, growth up. That is a legacy of which any Government of any stripe should be proud. This Budget is key to that legacy, and I commend it to the House.