Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises an important point. There are some people for whom working from home may be the only practical thing that they can do because of their condition, and I know that with her background she will understand that very well. But I also think she makes an important point. I know that in my very first job I was probably, frankly, utterly useless for the first few months—I was working in an office; yes, I know, insert joke of your choice here, I realise—and a lot of what I learned, I learned from listening to other people. I learned how people talked on the phone. I learned how you operated a system. I learned how you got on with colleagues and how to navigate a difficult environment—which has stood me in great stead, I must say, in recent years. When people are starting out on a career, in most cases it will be helpful for them to have experience. One of the things we are doing is looking at how we can invest in work experience early on, work experience in schools, so when you turn up on day one it is not the first time you have been into a workplace. I think that the noble Baroness makes an important point.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that blunt cuts in benefits do not work and the most effective way of reducing benefits and getting people back to work is to give them the support that they need?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an excellent point. Successive Governments have looked very hard at finding ways to do this. The reason that we asked Alan Milburn to look carefully at young people and the drivers behind inactivity is that we need to understand why people are not in work, not just tell them that they should be and cut money. We need to find a way to make sure that the social security bill is sustainable over time, but we also need to make sure it is doing its job of supporting people to get into work and, crucially, supporting them to stay there and to flourish when they do.