27 July 2023

Britain’s welfare system needs fundamental reform to reward work, protect the vulnerable and rebuild personal responsibility, Cllr Luke Myer has said.

Speaking during a meeting of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, Luke said “the entire system of Universal Credit is in need of reform”, arguing the current model too often fails on both counts: it leaves too many people trapped outside the labour market, while also pushing children deeper into poverty.

Luke believes the welfare state should be built around a simple principle: those who can contribute should be helped and expected to do so, while those who genuinely cannot should always be protected. That means reforming employment support, delivering targeted ‘work and health’ programmes, making it safer for disabled people to move into work, strengthening local, personalised help, and ensuring welfare is a route back to independence rather than a permanent destination.

Labour is the party of work, and believes that good-quality work gives people dignity, purpose and independence. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth MP has called for an end to people being “trapped on welfare”, describing it as “an unforgivable waste of their potential”. A Labour government will help people move off Universal Credit and into work, and will help those who are not expected to work to test out work if they wish to.

Tackling Child Poverty

Cllr Myer said responsibility must never come at the expense of children. Responding to questions from councillors, he criticised the Tory Government’s two-child benefit limit, arguing that the policy had failed to increase employment.

“The evidence is clear that the two-child benefit cap is not effective at moving people into work and is in fact keeping some 1.1 million children locked into poverty.”

As Cabinet Member for Children, Cllr Myer confirmed that tackling child poverty was his number one priority locally, and that he had already established a cross-council task & finish group to bring together education, housing, public health and family services to better address the issue. He acknowledged that “the overall majority of policy levers to intervene on child poverty are national ones”, but said “we cannot use that as an excuse”.

However, Cllr Myer warned that Tory economic chaos made the prospect of scrapping the two-child cap “very challenging” in the immediate term.

“We are still recovering from last year’s unfunded Liz Truss mini-budget, backed by Simon Clarke and paid for by working people. Our party does not make unfunded commitments; we will tackle child poverty, and we’ll do it in a fiscally responsible way.”