Emma Lewell MP: Cutting benefits will not incentivise people to go out and find a job that doesn’t exist

Since these changes were announced, I have repeatedly raised concerns that they will not result in increased employment levels, nor are they likely to make any of the savings predicted.

There is no financial or moral case to restrict eligibility for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions in this way.

Recent analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that already in the North East, the number of people searching for work by far outpaces the number of available vacancies. Cutting benefits will not incentivise people to go out and find a job that doesn’t exist.

PIP is not an out of work benefit. 510,000 people who claim PIP are in work. It is estimated that 55% of them, under the new proposed rules, would lose it. For many of these people, the payment supports them to get to and to stay in work. These proposals will increase unemployment.

Over 9,000 people in South Shields are claiming PIP. Despite the North East being one of the regions most negatively effected by these cuts, the DWP had excluded our region from the in-person consultation events taking place. This was only changed after I raised it in the House of Commons Chamber.

There remain a number of impact assessments on these reforms outstanding, so we are being asked to vote on measures that we don’t have all the relevant information for. What we do already know is that the measures in this Bill would push 250,000 people into poverty including 50,000 children, as well as triggering losses of other benefits such as carers allowances.

We also know what happened when the previous Government restricted eligibility – both the welfare bill and reliance on health and other public services increased. The human cost was devastating and final – people took their own lives.

I hope that by the time this article goes to print, the Government has listened.

If not, I will be voting against this Bill.