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Welfare reform
and child poverty
 

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October 30, 2006

Speaking in Scotland

Today I was up in Scotland to give a speech to an Edinburgh conference discussing the Welfare Reform Bill. It was organised by the Holyrood Magazine in association with the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). Obviously, Ministers give speeches all the time but do they serve any purpose besides helping me escape the Westminster village for a day?

From my perspective, the answer is an emphatic “yes”. The fact is that different areas across the UK face very different problems. And it’s only by getting out to different parts of the country that you begin to get a real appreciation of what those challenges actually are.

Take Scotland, for example. Research published at the beginning of this year showed that Scotland had 20 of the top 100 constituencies with the largest numbers of incapacity benefit claimants. A worrying statistic when you consider that as many as half of the most severe pockets of deprivation in the UK are to be found within those same 100 towns and cities.

Today’s trip gave me the chance to talk to experts like Morag Gillespie, of the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Chris Oswald, Head of Policy and Communication within the Disability Rights Commission and John Dickie, Head of CPAG in Scotland face-to-face about the problems they face in their own backyard. And it was a vital opportunity to reassure them that our Bill is designed to help.

Edinburgh, for example, along with Glasgow and Dundee has been awarded cities strategy status. That means the private and voluntary sectors in the city will now work with the Government to devise ways of reaching out its hardest-to-help neighbourhoods. It’s just one way we are making sure our reforms meet the needs of local communities as well as the population as a whole.

The Department has also announced today that we introducing a series of 0800 numbers for people claiming working age benefits. The obvious advantage is that people will be able to contact the Department for free, but alongside this, there will be other changes to how people interact with Jobcentre Plus that will help people get the help they want more easily and quickly. You can read about these measures here.

This entry was posted on Monday, 30 October 2006 at 4:03 PM by Jim Murphy.

posted in General, Child Poverty, Incapacity benefits, Cities Strategy.

Comments (1)

  1. Carol wrote:

    Hi Jim, I just wanted to make a comment on your (no doubt well-intentioned) attempts to reassure your audience in Edinburgh about the fact that the Welfare Reforms are designed to help.

    The problem is that people working in the anti-poverty field who have read the Welfare Reform green paper have consistently said that certain elements of the proposals will not help, but will in fact hurt, the people who will be affected. The Scottish Coalition on Welfare Reform have been trying very hard to put this point across. This Coalition is supported by and organised by many of the foremost experts on poverty and disability in Scotland. While so many trusted voices continue to point out the pitfalls of the green paper (such as compulsion) and you continue to refuse to back down on these, there is nothing you can do to reassure me that the proposed reforms will help.

    Jim Murphy responded: Hello Carol. Thanks for your feedback on my recent speech at the Edinburgh conference. I recognise our proposed reforms are a subject of much debate, and it’s right that organisations such as the Scottish Coalition have encouraged those who may be affected to get involved. I understand that some people are concerned about compulsion and would like to reassure you that we will not be forcing people to go to work and people will not be required to be actively seeking work.  However, there is widespread agreement that, in the majority of cases, work is the best way out of poverty and what we’ll be offering people is a great deal more help and support to improve their chances of moving towards work. We won’t be asking people to do any more than in our Pathways to Work pilots which have already shown how this approach can transform people’s lives for the better. I also want to assure you that no-one will be referred to an adjudicator with a view to imposing a benefit sanction until the checks and safeguards – which have been so successful in the Pathways pilots – have been exhausted.

    Of course there’ll be people for whom work related activity would clearly be inappropriate, for example if they’re severely disabled.   People in this situation won’t be required to have work focused interviews, however, they will be able to volunteer to take part in work related activity if they wish to.  I hope this goes some way towards reassuring you that these reforms are not about making things worse for people but are about helping them to explore ways of improving their lives.

    #1 – Posted on 01-Nov-06 at 4:36 pm.

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