Grayling: Helping people out of poverty 'key challenge' for new government

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Communities and also in Housing

Radical reforms to the welfare to work system are one of the main ways to help lift Britons out of poverty, the Government said today.

Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said helping people escape severe hardship was a "key challenge" for ministers and he pledged his determination not to leave the most vulnerable behind.

He attacked the record of the previous Labour government, which had spent huge sums of money but had made "little progress" on the issue.

And he hailed the restoration of the earnings link with the basic state pension, due to be implemented next year, as a way to allow the elderly to enjoy "dignity and security" in their retirement.

Mr Grayling also lavished praise on senior Labour MP Frank Field (Birkenhead), who has been appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to lead an independent review into poverty in the UK.

Mr Field was "highly regarded" by ministers and the Government looked forward to hearing his conclusions on the matter.

In a Commons debate on poverty Mr Grayling said around five million people claimed out-of-work benefits and at least half of those had spent at least half of the last 10 years on some form of benefits.

He said the Government's Work Programme, to be implemented by the summer of next year, would be a "single integrated package of support" providing personalised help for everyone out of work.

It would offer incentives to organisations to work with the "harder to help", paying them out of the benefits they saved the taxpayer as a result of getting people into work.

He told MPs: "Helping people in the UK escape poverty is one of the key challenges for the new Government and something we are passionate about achieving.

"And whilst this administration faces one of the biggest financial challenges in our peacetime history, we are determined that we will not act in a way that leaves some of the most poorest and most vulnerable in our society behind."

Mr Grayling went on: "Britain is a nation of opportunity.

"As we deal with the deficit... we have to make sure that the jobs that are created in the next few years go to people that are in the most need, who can get off benefits and make more of their lives.

"That is what our welfare reforms are all about."

For the Opposition, Helen Goodman accused Mr Grayling of not giving a fair or accurate account of Labour's achievements in tackling poverty.

"We reversed the trend of rising poverty," she insisted. "The number of lone parents in work increased substantially because of the positive measures we took."

Ms Goodman welcomed the Government's commitment to restore the earnings link for pensioners but condemned its decision not to go ahead with the extension in eligibility for free school meals.

"This will be seriously disappointing for large numbers of families across the country," she said.

"I urge the Government not to start their tenure in office by repeating Mrs Thatcher's snatching of the milk."

Ms Goodman said the Government's decisions to scrap child trust funds and the future jobs fund were not "good omens".

And she questioned the appointment of Mr Field asking: "What is the point of looking again at the definition of poverty. Is the purpose to tell poor people that they aren't really poor?"

Mr Field told her: "I'm disappointed you don't know the record of the last Labour government better.

"We said there was a choice of definitions - four - and asked for views about the balance between them."

Ms Goodman said this ignored the fact that it was less than three months since the Child Poverty Act became law, setting out the four definitions which will be used.

"I hope we aren't going to see the Government reneging on it," she added.