Hilary Benn rejects 'austerity' and ‘turbo-charged Tory’ claims but acknowledges anxiety of 25,000 Derry & Strabane PIP claimants

Derry Journal

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00:00Secretary of State, in Derry and Strabane there are 25,000 people who are reliant on

00:04the personal independence payments for their income. They're on tenterhooks today.

00:09Yesterday Derry and Strabane Council heard calls that Kendall's Green Paper and the

00:14Spring Statement were sick, they were disgraceful. Michel O'Neill yesterday said that it was turbo

00:23charged Tory policy. What's your answer to that? Well I don't agree with that last comment. I mean

00:30the Conservatives when they came in in 2010 they really did impose austerity on the country. That

00:36is not what this Government has done, it's not. And if you look at the figures you will see the

00:42product of the investment that came through the autumn budget, in public services, in capital

00:50investment and in additional funds for the Northern Ireland Executive. A record settlement

00:55of £18.2 billion for next year. The second thing I would say is that those who can be

01:03helped and supported to come into work for the first time or to come back into work,

01:07that is the right thing to do because it's not fair on them to say we're going to write you off

01:13and that is the rest of your life. Of course people are understandably anxious and worried,

01:18what is it going to mean for them? The important thing is that there should be support available

01:22to help those who can come back into work. As I've already said for those who will never be

01:27able to work, their position will be protected. But what we have been spending and the level of it,

01:35most people would agree is unsustainable in terms of the cost. But the welfare benefit budget will

01:42continue to rise in the years ahead. Some years after George Osborne introduced these kind of

01:48austerity policies, life expectancy for the poorest, dirty men actually fell for the first

01:55time in very many years. Are you not fearful this could happen again under Rachel Reeve's

02:01austerity programme? Well I disagree with the premise with respect of your question. This

02:06government is not implementing an austerity programme because the facts, the figures,

02:13simply do not bear that out. Thank you. Secretary of State, by your own calculation,

02:20your government is about to take £1,700 a year out of the pockets of 3 million people on benefits.

02:26You're about to drive 250,000 people into further poverty. How can you defend attacking the most

02:34vulnerable people in society, especially in a city like this where so many people are on welfare?

02:40Well the current welfare system is unsustainable and it doesn't work to help people who can get

02:50back into work. And that should be an objective that all of us share. The cost is going up. Now

02:56the cost of benefits will continue to rise, it's just going to rise not quite as much before the

03:04measures that were announced by Liz Kendall. What the assessment that you just referred to in your

03:09question doesn't do, it makes no assumption at all about how the measures we've put in as part

03:16of the package to help people back into work and provide support. It makes no judgment about how

03:22many people will get back into work, in which case the position when it comes to their income

03:27will be very different. And the second thing I would say is the government's been very clear

03:32throughout that those who can't work at the moment and will never be able to work will be

03:37protected. What does it say about your party right now that it is prioritising weapons over welfare?

03:45Is this new Labour? Because for some people it feels like old Tories and differences.

03:50Look the first priority, the first responsibility of any government is to protect the nation and as

03:57you all know we are living in a more dangerous and more uncertain world and in those circumstances

04:04it is right and proper for the government to increase defence expenditure which we've done.

04:09We've taken a difficult decision as to how to fund that. It is the right thing to do to protect the

04:15nation and some of that investment of course in respect of Ukraine has come to Thales in Belfast

04:21that's going to create an additional 200 jobs in recognition of the skill of that factory there and

04:26what they make and that's part of our commitment to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian

04:31aggression when they invaded just over three years ago. At the same time we're passionate about

04:40economic growth because in the end that is how we're going to see the lives of all of us improve

04:46and the government having more money to spend on the things that we want. And don't forget that

04:49next week 160,000 people in Northern Ireland are going to see their wages go up when the national

04:56living wage rises by 6.8 percent and that is going to make a real difference to their lives.

05:01Cold comfort I would say Secretary of State for those people on welfare payments because they're

05:05only going to see money disappearing from their weekly intake. It depends on whether they can be

05:10helped to come back into work. If you compare the United Kingdom with other countries

05:16the increase in welfare payments disability benefits in the UK is out of line with other

05:23comparable countries. They haven't seen that. We've got one in eight of our young people not

05:29in education work or training. One in eight. Now that is the future potential of the nation. We

05:35can't sit here and shrug our shoulders and say well that's the way it is. We've got to do something

05:39about it. And the package that Liz put forward it's taken some decisions that you've referred

05:44to but at the same time it said we're going to redirect some of those resources into helping

05:49people who can get back into work to make it easier to try things without being reassessed.

05:54You can't even convince your own MPs that's the right course of action.

05:57Well look in the end people will debate it but it's something that has to be done because most

06:03of the people I've spoken to recognise that the current system a doesn't work and is simply

06:08unsustainable.

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