Welfare

Matthew Patrick Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Patrick (Wirral West) (Lab)]

I am a progressive. I believe in a social safety net to help people in their moment of need. That might be to manage a health condition or to deal with a moment of crisis, or it could be to support people through the natural ebbs and flows of employment, which I think we will see more of with the advent of AI. There is a challenge, however, in getting that support to work for people. It requires a safety net, which needs to be the right size. It needs to be wide enough to catch people when they fall, but not so wide that people cannot escape it. The modern safety net should not simply break someone’s fall; it should support them to get back into work.

The benefits of work are many, and those benefits can bring so much to an individual: self-esteem, money, mental health, physical health, resilience, routine, friendship, socialising and demonstrating to yourself and others that you can make a difference. I believe that the benefits are endless, which is why it is so heartbreaking when we see just how many young people do not have them.

One million young people are not benefiting from a job or not expanding their opportunities through education or training. Why? The Conservatives created the broken system that led to the outcomes we see today. They do not like to hear it, but it is true. Their system pushed people further away from the job market. They scrapped the Work and Health Programme, shut down Work Choice and left Access to Work in chaos. They made support so difficult that people were pushed towards the health component of universal credit to simply deal with the cost of living crisis.

What was the consequence of that? There was no requirement for those people to look for work, apply for jobs or do any work-related activity. The Conservatives’ system both cost more and pushed people further away from work. Their system told people that they cannot. We need a system that helps people see that they can. Members will forgive me if I do not look to the Tory party for a route to achieving that.

[Simon Hoare]

Does the hon. Member not kick himself that, in the 14 years that Labour sat quietly on the Opposition Benches, with think-tanks and everything else, it did zero planning for welfare reform? We are two-and-a-bit years into this Government. We await the Timms review; we await the Milburn review. Labour should have had a plan ready to go from day one, should it not? That is a missed opportunity, is it not?

--- Later in debate ---

[Matthew Patrick]

I regret the results of the Conservatives’ failure; I sincerely do. I will come on to talk about how some of the benefits of the system we are introducing now will bear fruit.

The Conservatives say they have a plan, and as Members can imagine, it is pretty thin on detail. There is something that they are clear on, however, and there is something that they have a plan for: they can save money in the here and now. I do not think it is a long-term plan, but it saves some money now and that requires us to accept putting half a million children into poverty. That is not what I got into politics for. Let us say that a Member sits on the Conservative Benches and they can stomach that. Let me ask them: what is the long-term cost to society of plunging half a million children into poverty? That, for me, is not the route to reducing welfare.

There is a better way—a sustainable way—and we have already started. It starts with sorting out the very foundations that people rely on: mental health support in our schools, waiting lists falling in our NHS and quality homes that give people security. We are building on that by creating a new jobs and careers service that brings employment skills and career support together. There is a jobs guarantee that will help support over 90,000 young people into work over the next three years. We are personalising job support for disabled people to tackle the unacceptable disability employment gap of 28%. We are taking action with £3.5 billion of support for people who are too sick or disabled to work, but who want to work. We are rewarding employers who take a chance on a young person. If they hire a young person who has been out of the jobs market for too long, they will be backed with £3,000.

I do not pretend that this will solve everything overnight, but I think it makes a big difference. It helps now, and it is a down payment on the future of our young people. When the Milburn review comes out, we will have a plan to go further still. That is how we will do this for the long term. It is about finding solutions, not scoring points. A country that is hopeful and optimistic cannot go back to the failure that leaves young people on the scrapheap. The country has seen the Tory way, and it hears what the Tories are saying now. I do not think the country likes their politics of, “Do as I say, not as I do.” It wants a new approach grounded in problem solving. That is the Labour way that we are charting, whereby we will bring down the bill by helping people get back into work. It is the long-term solution: believing in the potential of our young people, and knowing that a good job gives them so much more than simply money at the end of the month. Our constituents deserve that, our country deserves that, and I am proud to support that.