Time for change in the social security system
6th October 2009
Many local people who come to see me at my weekly surgeries, in increasing numbers, want to talk to me about the welfare and benefit system.
Many local people who come to see me at my weekly surgeries, in increasing numbers, want to talk to me about the welfare and benefit system. Time after time, I have listened to stories of how if they were to return to work, or by continuing to work in their part time jobs, they will be no better off than if they simply gave up and accepted unemployment.
Time after time, I hear how after years of employment and making National Insurance contributions, precious little help is available to people when it is needed. Many have put aside a little savings, a cushion against uncertainty, and yet they find that when the chips are down, these count against them in getting assistance. All of them speak of a system that seems to reward doing the wrong thing rather than the right one and almost to look for reasons to deny its aid.
Once on benefits, the system seems to want to keep them there rather than to lift people up and back onto their own two feet after they have stumbled. Others are caught up in the massive web of tax credits personally created by the Prime Minister, unable to comprehend how they have become entangled in debt.
These experiences powerfully demand change in a system that seems to have lost touch with the values of ordinary people. I have nothing but admiration for those, such as the CAB, who try to help the individuals I see negotiate a pathway through the complexities of our labyrinthine social security structure. I know how hard they work.
But their heroic efforts cannot repair a system that is broken and in need of fundamental change. The gradual introduction of a simplified welfare provision that truly helps people get back on their feet, rewards those who are really prepared to work, and is not the benefit trap that so many local people have explained to me will be one of the major tasks of a Conservative Government.
