The House of Commons returned from the Christmas recess on Monday and
the following day we were straight into one of the main topics of
concern; the future of support for people to find work and also those
living on benefits. In 2012 I had meetings with the team at the
Folkestone Job Centre, Avanta, who run the new Work Programme locally
for people who have been out of work for six months or more, and the
volunteers who the organise the jobs club at St Saviours Church in
Folkestone. Shepway Council’s apprenticeship programme has also now
placed over 70 young people in work. We are fortunate to have some
excellent people locally delivering excellent programmes to help
people get into work. The incentive to work should not just come
from the sense of dignity and respect that people have in employment,
but also the knowledge that you and your family should always be
better off in work, than out of work. That is why we have capped the
total amount of benefits that a household can receive, so that the
working family is not worse off than the non-working family living on
out of work benefits.
On Tuesday I voted in the House of Commons to support a new Government
Bill to limit the increases in benefits for working age people to just
1% a year over the next three years. This decision is based on the
need to get the country’s finances back into balance so that we can
live within our means and avoid having to put up taxes. This 1%
increase will mean that benefits will not be going up for some people
as fast as earnings. Over the last few years many working people have
seen their own wages frozen or only increased by a very small amount,
yet during this time out of work benefits have continued to go up in
line with prices, and actually went up 5% last year. Again, it can’t
be right for working people to have to live with cuts in their wages
in real terms, whilst people on benefits continue to get an annual
increase. By freezing the increase in benefits to 1% we will be
removing this gap.
The next general election is planned for May 2015 which means we are
just over halfway through the parliament. On Monday the Prime Minister
and Deputy Prime Minister produced a mid term report which also set
out some priorities for the rest of the parliament. There were a
couple that I wanted to highlight, as I think they are particularly
important for working and retired people. Firstly, the cost of
childcare is a big consideration for working families and the
government has set investment to reduce these costs as a priority, and
also acting to give more flexibility to childcare professionals in the
way they deliver their service. I know one of the concerns that local
people have put to me is that the bureaucracy around childcare is
making it more expensive to deliver. As always we need to get the
balance right. The Government has also promised to bring forward
detailed proposals to cap the costs of long term care for the elderly,
giving people certainty to plan for their future needs. Again, I don’t
think it is right that people who have worked all their life should be
required to lose their savings and home to pay for care, when others
without these savings get it for free.