Hilary Benn rejects 'austerity' and ‘turbo-charged Tory’ claims but acknowledges anxiety of 25,000 Derry & Strabane PIP claimants
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00:00Secretary of State, in Derry and Strabane there are 25,000 people who are reliant on
00:04the personal independence payments for their income. They're on tenterhooks today.
00:09Yesterday Derry and Strabane Council heard calls that Kendall's Green Paper and the
00:14Spring Statement were sick, they were disgraceful. Michel O'Neill yesterday said that it was turbo
00:23charged Tory policy. What's your answer to that? Well I don't agree with that last comment. I mean
00:30the Conservatives when they came in in 2010 they really did impose austerity on the country. That
00:36is not what this Government has done, it's not. And if you look at the figures you will see the
00:42product of the investment that came through the autumn budget, in public services, in capital
00:50investment and in additional funds for the Northern Ireland Executive. A record settlement
00:55of £18.2 billion for next year. The second thing I would say is that those who can be
01:03helped and supported to come into work for the first time or to come back into work,
01:07that is the right thing to do because it's not fair on them to say we're going to write you off
01:13and that is the rest of your life. Of course people are understandably anxious and worried,
01:18what is it going to mean for them? The important thing is that there should be support available
01:22to help those who can come back into work. As I've already said for those who will never be
01:27able to work, their position will be protected. But what we have been spending and the level of it,
01:35most people would agree is unsustainable in terms of the cost. But the welfare benefit budget will
01:42continue to rise in the years ahead. Some years after George Osborne introduced these kind of
01:48austerity policies, life expectancy for the poorest, dirty men actually fell for the first
01:55time in very many years. Are you not fearful this could happen again under Rachel Reeve's
02:01austerity programme? Well I disagree with the premise with respect of your question. This
02:06government is not implementing an austerity programme because the facts, the figures,
02:13simply do not bear that out. Thank you. Secretary of State, by your own calculation,
02:20your government is about to take £1,700 a year out of the pockets of 3 million people on benefits.
02:26You're about to drive 250,000 people into further poverty. How can you defend attacking the most
02:34vulnerable people in society, especially in a city like this where so many people are on welfare?
02:40Well the current welfare system is unsustainable and it doesn't work to help people who can get
02:50back into work. And that should be an objective that all of us share. The cost is going up. Now
02:56the cost of benefits will continue to rise, it's just going to rise not quite as much before the
03:04measures that were announced by Liz Kendall. What the assessment that you just referred to in your
03:09question doesn't do, it makes no assumption at all about how the measures we've put in as part
03:16of the package to help people back into work and provide support. It makes no judgment about how
03:22many people will get back into work, in which case the position when it comes to their income
03:27will be very different. And the second thing I would say is the government's been very clear
03:32throughout that those who can't work at the moment and will never be able to work will be
03:37protected. What does it say about your party right now that it is prioritising weapons over welfare?
03:45Is this new Labour? Because for some people it feels like old Tories and differences.
03:50Look the first priority, the first responsibility of any government is to protect the nation and as
03:57you all know we are living in a more dangerous and more uncertain world and in those circumstances
04:04it is right and proper for the government to increase defence expenditure which we've done.
04:09We've taken a difficult decision as to how to fund that. It is the right thing to do to protect the
04:15nation and some of that investment of course in respect of Ukraine has come to Thales in Belfast
04:21that's going to create an additional 200 jobs in recognition of the skill of that factory there and
04:26what they make and that's part of our commitment to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian
04:31aggression when they invaded just over three years ago. At the same time we're passionate about
04:40economic growth because in the end that is how we're going to see the lives of all of us improve
04:46and the government having more money to spend on the things that we want. And don't forget that
04:49next week 160,000 people in Northern Ireland are going to see their wages go up when the national
04:56living wage rises by 6.8 percent and that is going to make a real difference to their lives.
05:01Cold comfort I would say Secretary of State for those people on welfare payments because they're
05:05only going to see money disappearing from their weekly intake. It depends on whether they can be
05:10helped to come back into work. If you compare the United Kingdom with other countries
05:16the increase in welfare payments disability benefits in the UK is out of line with other
05:23comparable countries. They haven't seen that. We've got one in eight of our young people not
05:29in education work or training. One in eight. Now that is the future potential of the nation. We
05:35can't sit here and shrug our shoulders and say well that's the way it is. We've got to do something
05:39about it. And the package that Liz put forward it's taken some decisions that you've referred
05:44to but at the same time it said we're going to redirect some of those resources into helping
05:49people who can get back into work to make it easier to try things without being reassessed.
05:54You can't even convince your own MPs that's the right course of action.
05:57Well look in the end people will debate it but it's something that has to be done because most
06:03of the people I've spoken to recognise that the current system a doesn't work and is simply
06:08unsustainable.