Mark Isherwood
Speaking at today’s Policy Forum for Wales Seminar on Poverty and Welfare Reform in Wales, Mark Isherwood AM emphasised that the most powerful arguments for welfare reform are social not financial.
Mr Isherwood, who chaired the Seminar, referred to the Centre for Social Justice report ‘Signed On Written Off’, published last May, which concluded that “by focusing on income transfers rather than employment, our welfare system has made people dependent on benefits, trapping them in poverty and preventing them from achieving economic independence.”
Mr Isherwood said: “The report identified Rhyl West as the UK neighbourhood with the highest dependency on out-of-work benefits, with 67% of people aged 16-64 – and Blaenau Gwent as the area with the highest percentage of workless households, at 31.8%.
“The report found that the number of people across the UK claiming out-of-work benefits had hovered above four million for more than 15 years. More than 1 in 3 working aged people in Wales were workless before credit crunch, double the UK average.
“It was in this context that the UK Work and Pensions Secretary stated last month that ‘people should not blame long-term benefit claimants, but the politicians who created a failing system that means people can be better-off out of work than in it.’
“He has said that ―It should be about helping people to take greater control over their lives, with work seen as the route to this for all who are able.”
“Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that barriers to work in the tax and benefit system increased from year 2000.
“The objective of Universal Credit is to make work always pay – reducing the highest Marginal Deduction Rate for low-earning workers and lifting the majority of children out of poverty if at least one parent works 35 hours a week at the minimum wage – or 24 hours if they are a lone parent. The pilot scheme in Wales will be launched in Shotton and the UK Government states that the vast majority will be on Universal Credit by 2017.
“In recent meetings with both Work Programme Providers in Wales, they reported sustainable job outcome figures now being achieved from this two year programme.”
Mr Isherwood also spoke about the removal of the spare room subsidy and the identified exempt groups, including older people and disabled people living in accommodation that has been substantially adapted for their needs, including new builds.
Mr Isherwood added: “I will conclude by referring to the statement at December’s Cardiff conference on Co-Producing Resilient Communities, that ‘it is time for change in service delivery by seeing everyone as equal partners in local services breaking down the barriers between people who provide services and those who use them.”
