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New welfare plan won't help, says MP

Alice McKeegan
30/ 7/2008

RADICAL plans to get hundreds of thousands of people off benefits and back to work will fail to tackle the needs of people in Rochdale, according to the town’s MP.

Details of the government’s controversial green paper on welfare were announced by the secretary of state for work and pensions, James Purnell, who visited Falinge in May after it was revealed that the area has the highest concentration of benefit claimants in the country.

A television crew from GMTV also provoked anger when they transmitted live from Falinge when it was announced that more than 76 per cent of working-age adults were unemployed and claiming out-of-work benefits.

The latest proposals are being hailed by Labour as the biggest shake-up of the modern welfare state since the 1940s, but Paul Rowen, MP for Rochdale and the Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman, claimed that the needs of people in Falinge would be ignored under the plans.

He also claimed that the reforms fail to address some of the pressing reasons why people don’t work.

Mr Rowen said: "I welcome a number of initiatives like personalised back-to-work support.

"The paper fails, though, to address the needs of those with mental health problems and the disabled, who make up 40 per cent of those on incapacity benefit.

"During a recent disability conference in Rochdale, I heard horror stories about the discrimination that still ensues when disabled people apply for jobs.

"The government needs to look at issues like this across the board."

The plans would see incapacity benefit being scrapped by 2013 and income support would also be axed.

The new system would allow people with medical problems being entitled to claim Employment Support Allowance and those who are fit to work could claim Jobseekers’ Allowance.

All incapacity benefit claimants would have to undergo tests to determine their level of need and the government has vowed that the plans signal a ‘tougher’ approach to the welfare ‘culture’.