Before being elected to the House, for more than two years, I was on benefit. Those two years were among the most depressing in my life. I was not seeking a benefit increase; I needed a job. Fortunately, I got that job opportunity. I went on to further education college and university, and then to beat the Conservative candidate in what had formerly been the safest Tory seat in Scotland. Is that not a great example of welfare into work as practised in Scotland?
Every time that I hear the Minister try to persuade the world outside, it is as though we live in a parallel dimension in the House—as though we do not connect with what people outside are thinking. They think that we are wrong...There are 3,100 one-parent families in my constituency, many of whom are working and many of whom are living in deep poverty...The reality is that in Lancashire, one third of all people who are entitled to family credit do not take it up, for whatever reason. They may be in isolated workplaces, or there may be a non-unionised workforce. Thousands of people could be lifted out of poverty by claiming family credit, but they do not do so. They depend on the non-means-tested benefits—the child benefit for lone parents, which is being snatched away from them...
We did not promise to reverse the cut that the previous government made in lone-parent benefit. [Hon. Members: “Yes, you did.”] Opposition Members should consult our manifesto. We did not promise to reverse all the cuts that the Conservatives made; for instance, the cuts in the living standards of millions of elderly people in this country.
It sounds too much like a usedcar salesman drawing attention to the small print to continue making generalisations about inheriting the Tories’ spending limits. Certainly none of the single parents in my constituency would have paid £5 for the Labour manifesto and read the small print and the get-out clauses...Rather than turning on single parents, when will the Labour Government start taking on people who are bigger and more powerful than themselves?
Does my hon. Friend recall that we were elected with the slogans “New Labour, New Britain” and “Things can only get better”? We were not elected on the slogan, “Things can only get better, except for lone parents”. I accept that we may not be able to put everything right overnight, but surely we should not penalise the very poorest in society before we make things better for them.
People like me will pass through the Government Lobby tonight, because we believe that this is a short-term measure that will reap long-term gain by creating a modern economy and liberating from poverty all the children and single parents whom I represent...Although £5 on benefit will buy things for the family, in the long term it will not alleviate the poverty trap in which many of my constituents are caught...
Too much sloppy logic is being applied in an attempt to justify measures that are unwarranted, and, indeed, were previously condemned by senior members of the Parliamentary Labour Party...As I have said, there are ten people seeking every job. One must assume from their actions that the Government are prepared to take that gamble — to gamble on the flawless implementation of their New Deal programme in all areas, and to gamble on there being no downturn in economic growth.
The effects of the Bill, if it goes through tonight, coupled with the cuts that went through in November, mean that hard choices will be imposed on some of the poorest people in the country and their children, all because that is what a Labour government—the first Labour government in 18 years—have decided will happen. These are the most disadvantaged families and children in our extremely affluent society. We should not kid ourselves about how those people are managing now—they are living on the margins of society, only just surviving. I am sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I think that it was RH Tawney who described poverty as “someone standing up to their neck in water and a slight wave could drown them”. The cuts represent a tidal wave for lone parents...
Will the New Deal eventually become compulsory? If so, it is a piece of social engineering of which Stalin would have been proud...It defies common sense and decency to support the cuts. I simply do not know why we are making them. I do not know what I am missing. There must be another agenda at work, because I am now receiving letters from people who are fearful about losing disability benefit. We are now reading about the benefits integrity project. It appears to be a hit squad, whose remit is to harass claimants and put them off claiming disability benefit. But disabled people and lone parents voted for us in their thousands on 1st May...There is something rather punitive and cruel about the cuts, and something rather arrogant. Of course they will be approved with the support of the Tories, but they will not go through with mine.
“It is one of those quaint parliamentary conventions that a minister stands at the door of the lobby during a vote thanking MPs for supporting his legislation. Labour MPs emerged to find Mr. Lilley at the door compounding their agony by proffering congratulations for putting his cuts into law.”
Andrew Rawnsley, Observer.
“The spectacle of Labour and Conservatives voting together to cut lone parents’ benefit revealed the contours of the new political geography precisely; the Tories were less like an opposition than the junior partner in a national unity government — of the right.”
Jonathan Freedland, Guardian.