Yesterday in Parliament, Stephen spoke in the debate following the Autumn Statement. Stephen welcomed the Government’s decision to uprate benefits and rebase the local housing allowance rates, while criticising the Government’s wider benefit reforms.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his Autumn Statement, setting out the Government’s plans for taxation and spending, on Wednesday 22 November. Stephen responded to the Statement in the following debate, saying “after the misery of the past few years, we must all hope that [Labour’s plan] is put in place next year, finally, to reignite much needed growth in the UK economy.”
In October, it was reported that the Chancellor was considering not increasing working-age benefits in line with inflation. Research by the Resolution Foundation showed this would lead to 400,000 more children growing up in poverty. Stephen wrote to the Chancellor in October to urge him to reconsider and was delighted that the Chancellor had.
Stephen was also pleased that the Chancellor agreed to rebase local housing allowance rates (LHA), which Stephen had also written to him about. LHA caps the amount of housing benefit that low-income households can receive towards their rent. LHA has been frozen since 2020. Crisis, the homelessness charity, estimated that freezing LHA actually costed the Government £2 billion per year by driving up homelessness.
However, Stephen was critical of the Government’s wider reforms to benefits. He said that “3.8 million people were experiencing destitution in the UK last year” according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, while “food bank demand is 16% higher this year than it was last year” according to the Trussell Trust.
Stephen criticised the Government’s reforms to assessments for disability and health benefits. Consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment - which assesses whether someone who is disabled is able to work - have been “rushed and inadequate,” Stephen said.
Stephen further argued against increasing the harshness of the Government’s sanction regime. He noted the lack of evidence that sanctions help people back into work, and pointed out that he had received a letter with 70 signatures from single parent groups, children’s charities, and domestic abuse charities stating that new work requirements for carers with young children are simply excessive.