John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for a statutory right to an employment retention assessment to determine entitlement to a period of rehabilitation leave for newly disabled people and people whose existing impairments change; and for connected purposes.
This is the fifth time that I have raised this subject in a ten-minute rule Bill, so if God loves a trier, he must adore me. I hesitate to add that I have seen off three Labour Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions; I hope that this coalition Secretary of State will be my first and last. Throughout my years of toil, it has become clear to me that there is firm consensus across the House that support should be provided to ensure that people who develop an impairment or become disabled can remain in work. The widespread support I have always received for this Bill is testament to the fact that the matter is not confined to the margins of society.
Every quarter, about 600,000 people become sick or develop an impairment as defined by the late Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Within a year of doing so, 13%, or 78,000 people, will have left work. Of those people, about 25,000 a year permanently leave employment owing to illness or disability and never return. That works out at more than a quarter of a million people since 1997, which more than cancels out the previous Government’s creditable achievement of having helped 200,000 disabled people into work in the past decade and will no doubt hinder the current coalition.
We know that as a result of such barriers, a disabled person is nearly five times more likely to be out of work and claiming benefits than a non-disabled person. Crucially, once a disabled person is out of work they are far less likely to get back into employment. Behind these statistics lie people’s lives, which often become unrecognisable as they suddenly have to come to terms with a permanent life-changing impairment while facing the prospect of losing their employment, their source of income and even, in some cases, their home.
I have made these points before and I will continue to do so until a Government address the problem. Last week, the Secretary of State outlined his new universal credit reform of the welfare system, which aims to move more people from benefits into employment, but today I find myself again making the point that we need to focus on retention if we are to stop people falling into the welfare trap in the first place. I welcome some of his welfare reforms, and if he truly intends to make a constructive effort to put more people into employment, I hope that he will consider me and my Bill as a help and not a hindrance.
I support the underlying principle of simplifying the benefits system and providing real incentives to work by creating a universal credit, but the universal lesson that the Government must take on board is that we will not get more people off benefits and into work if there is no work for them to go into. I agree that there should be real obligations, backed by sanctions, on people receiving out-of-work benefits, but they should be matched by rights and guarantees to work. An approach that involves too much stick and not enough carrot will not work.
There are areas in which I am at odds with the Government. I find their plans to cut housing benefit by 10% for people who are out of work for 12 months, even if they have done everything possible to find a job, abhorrent. That is the wrong approach and, without going into more detail, is completely wrong, and not just on moral grounds. It will only add to the burdens of people who are already heavily laden with a disability, or are in rehabilitation, and will make it twice as hard for them to find a job.
Another issue on which I disagree with the Government is the cut in local housing allowance, which will mean that nearly all the claimants in my constituency in private rentals will lose about £43 a month. That might not seem a huge amount, but for too many of my constituents, including those who have been hit by a debilitating injury, degenerative illness or ailment, it could mean having to find a massive chunk of their rent from somewhere else, thereby adding a further economic hurdle to those who want to remain in work.
Another obvious area of contention is the employment and support allowance, which replaced incapacity benefit and income support. The Government plan to reduce the length of time for which someone can receive ESA, and some think that the sole aim of that measure is to reduce the welfare bill rather than to make sure that recipients return to work. We know from the previous Government’s initiative in this area, pathways to work, that many unemployed people with disabilities take longer than 12 months to secure employment. The Shaw Trust, one of the largest charities to work with employers, social services and the disabled to help people with disabilities find employment, states that out of all the clients whom it has placed in work so far this year, 20% had been supported for more than 12 months before moving into work, and of those, a third had taken about 18 months. The trust also states that 63% of all its clients on incapacity benefit included in these figures had taken more than 12 months.
Under the Work programme proposals, the Government estimate that around 58% of the 1.5 million incapacity benefit claimants will be moved on to the ESA work-related activity group. This would mean a large number of people being rushed through the programme, potentially only to leave that job because they cannot cope, have not adapted to their new disability, or are just not suitable, thus going back to square one. Matters could be made worse, as those with a new disability could be cut off long before a resumption of work or before rehabilitation is completed. Although the Government need to elaborate further on this area, they have not ruled out sanctions being imposed if ESA recipients have not secured a job. In any case, ESA recipients would face a reduction in income which would, in turn, place homes and family members at great risk.
I mentioned that my Bill has received widespread support in the House and that this is shared outside the Chamber. On previous occasions when I have brought the Bill before Parliament, I have found support from a wide range of stakeholders, ranging from the Trades Union Congress to disability charities such as the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the Disability Rights Commission and even the CBI.
Being made unemployed through ill health will have an effect on the individual’s long-term well-being, and will also have an impact on the economy as many disabled people never return to work. The result is a strain on the state, a burden on pension funds and benefit payments, and even additional recruitment costs for employers to replace and train staff. Through the Bill, the Government, at relatively little cost, would be able to ensure that any regulatory burden on employers is kept to a minimum. It would be an investment that would reap the benefits in the short term for employers and employees, but in the long term for the Government through benefits savings and tax collected. As the Minister knows, for every 100,000 people who go on the dole, the cost to the taxpayer is £500 million. If we can reduce spending by 1% and raise revenues by 1%, we can reduce the deficit by £12 billion. In this Bill I offer the kind of thinking that will help us towards such goals.
I hope that the coalition Government will get behind the Bill. This year alone, 25,000 people will be in need of these changes, and 125,000 people since I first raised the issue. All I ask of the Government is that they support the Bill, prove that they want to keep people in work, and work with all parties to achieve that.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That John Robertson, Jim Sheridan, Cathy Jamieson, Miss Anne Begg, Valerie Vaz, Lisa Nandy, Alan Keen, Mr Mike Weir, Alun Michael, Jack Dromey, Jon Cruddas and Jenny Willott present the Bill.
John Robertson accordingly presented the Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 4 February, and to be printed (Bill 107).