Maggie Throup OBE, MP for Erewash has welcomed the Government’s Plan for Welfare, which will tackle the unprecedented rise in economic inactivity and ensure that Britain’s benefits system is better targeted at those who need it most.
A statement from Ms Throup's office said the Government has taken significant steps over the last 14 years to reform the welfare system it described as having been inherited from Labour in a broken state, and that the Government has put work at the heart of welfare through Universal Credit and is boosting pay by cutting taxes for 27 million working people.
However, it also said that despite making progress, new challenges have emerged since the pandemic, specifically the UK seeing a drastic rise in the number of people being ‘economically inactive.’, with 2.8 million people across the country reported as being 'economically inactive’ due to long term sickness which has in large part been driven by mental health conditions.
In response, the Government is unveiling a package of welfare reform measures to tackle what it describes as "the unprecedented rise in economic inactivity" with the aim to ensure that the benefits system is better targeted at those who need it most. The eight-point plan for welfare includes reforming the fit note system, strengthening the sanctions regime, reviewing the disability benefit system, and investing £6 billion to get people into work.
Maggie said: “Since the Pandemic we have seen a worrying trend in our welfare system. More people are being written off work unnecessarily, and spending is growing at an unsustainable rate.
“I welcome the Government’s decisive plan for a new welfare settlement founded on the lasting British values of generosity and compassion but also a system that is ambitious for all those who want to work.
“I know this announcement will be well received by people across Erewash. The reforms will give Erewash residents the help they need in their return to and stay in work.
“Whilst the Conservatives are sticking to the plan to get more people into work and are growing the economy, Labour still cannot say how they would tackle economic inactivity because they do not have a plan, taking us back to square one.”