| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
1.42 pm
Mr. Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam): I pay tribute to and congratulate the hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches today. Those speeches were impressive in content and delivery and--as many hon. Members did not refer to notes--were quite intimidating for those who, like me, will have to use notes on most occasions.
I delivered my maiden speech during the Queen's Speech debate. The Liberal Democrats supported the Queen's Speech because we supported many of the aims that the Government set out in that speech. However, we said at the time--we still believe it today--that the real test would come with the Budget, when we would see whether the Government would deliver the means of achieving their ends. We do not believe that this Budget does that.
We believe that the Budget fails the modest test of the Queen's Speech, which was accepted only six weeks ago. Although we supported that speech, we want to take things further than the Government seem willing to do in
this Budget. We have criticised the Government over their self-imposed straitjacket and the fact that they have chosen to stick, by and large, with the previous Government's spending commitments.
What do we have with this Budget? In my constituency, and in many others throughout the country, we face another winter of crisis and chaos in the national health service. The Budget, when implemented, will do nothing to tackle lengthening waiting lists. It will do nothing to stop the cancellation of operations. Similarly, it will do nothing to deal with the underlying deficit in the health service. Nothing will be done to deal with those matters this year.
The Budget provides no new funding to deal with health or social care during this financial year. The money will come next year. The jam will start to come, albeit thinly spread, over the next few years, and that will be too late. Of course, any extra money is welcome, but the £1.2 billion that the Government have committed to the NHS represents only 2.5 per cent. growth in real terms.
When in opposition, Labour shadow Ministers rightly criticised the Conservative Government for undermining and underfunding the NHS, but the previous Government increased resources, on average, by 3 per cent. a year. If 3 per cent. a year was not enough under the Conservatives, how can only 2.5 per cent. be enough under the Labour Government? My constituents did not vote for a Government or a party that would not tackle the crisis in our health service this year. They faced the nightmare, under the previous Government, of waiting for hours on hospital trolleys for want of a bed. We need action now, and the Budget does not offer it.
For all the talk of greater co-operation between health and social care services, the reality is that the Government, in their Budget, still continue to treat the two sectors as if they operate in splendid isolation. With the exception of education, local government--where social services are provided--looks set to suffer probably one of the worst settlements in living memory. As a result of the Budget, local councils such as Sutton, in my constituency, will be faced with presenting their council tax payers with a double whammy of higher council taxes and still further cuts in public services.
All the evidence points to the forthcoming winter being an especially bad one for community care and social services. A survey published earlier this year by the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Association found that eight out of 10 English and Welsh local authorities were increasing charges for services as a result of the previous Government's final Budget. It found also that four out of 10 councils were introducing new charges. In addition, most social services departments were introducing stricter criteria for access to services and changes to the conditions under which services would be provided.
We face the unedifying prospect this winter of local trusts and social services departments playing pass the parcel with people's lives as they struggle to make do with inadequate budgets. Pressures on community care budgets will increase because of bed blocking in the NHS, with all the implications that that has for waiting times, while pressures on the NHS to avoid the spectre of people waiting hours on trolleys in accident and emergency departments this winter will lead to the cancellation of non-urgent elective surgery such as hip replacements and cataract operations.
Cancelling those sorts of operations in turn places pressure on community care services because those concerned find themselves disabled in the community and needing support. The vicious cycle must be broken, and clearly the Budget does not provide the resources even to scratch the surface of the problem.
The Government's welfare-to-work proposals raise several questions for disabled people. The welfare-to-work press release in the Budget bundle refers to £200 million being provided over the lifetime of this Parliament to help incapacity benefit recipients and the university for industry's start-up costs.
What will that £200 million be used for, and how much of it will go towards helping disabled people to get out of dependency and into paid employment? Will some of the money be used to increase the access to work budget, or to assist organisations such as Remploy? Will Ministers clarify how the money will be used?
The inclusion of disabled people in the welfare-to-work programme is welcome. Disabled people have the same aspirations as the rest of us. They want to be economically independent, yet often they are trapped in dependence on benefits. Only 40 per cent. of disabled people are economically active, compared with 83 per cent. of non-disabled people. Although some disabled people may never be able to enter or re-enter the work force, many can and want to do so. The inflexibility of our benefit system and widespread discrimination deny disabled people the opportunity to work.
Discrimination against disabled people will end only when the House votes for and delivers comprehensive and enforceable civil rights legislation. I hope that such a proposal will be included in a future Queen's Speech, and that the House will finally deliver the long-standing commitment that Labour made in opposition. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995--the weak and limp legislation which crawled its way through the House to try to make amends for the lack of comprehensive legislation--fails to tackle the employment needs of the vast majority of people because 96 per cent. of employers are not even covered by its employment provisions.
Anti-discrimination legislation on its own is not enough: we also need reforms to the benefit system. Currently, the benefit system treats people as either fit for work and thus not eligible for benefit, or unfit for work and eligible for benefit. It does not treat them as they are: we need a benefit system that recognises their needs. The crude categories currently used are not acceptable.
The Government could make small and technical changes to smooth the transition from benefit dependency to paid employment. For example, they could examine the earnings disregard on means-tested benefits for disabled people. At the moment, people are allowed £15 a week: that figure has remained unchanged since 1988. Such a low disregard is a barrier to the labour market, and makes it impossible for people to develop the required skills. As a consequence, for every pound people gain, they lose a pound. The Government must make changes to deal with that problem.
Another change that would make a difference is a change in the therapeutic earnings rule for incapacity benefit. At present, work can count as therapeutic only if it improves, prevents or delays deterioration in someone's condition, so a disabled person whose condition is stable has no chance of qualifying. As a result, people who are
visually impaired or have spinal injuries are excluded from receiving the disregard. Surely a more flexible approach to the definition would enable such people to receive the benefit, provided they had acted on the medical advice of a general practitioner to promote their rehabilitation.
Those small measures could make a difference to many thousands of disabled people. However, I hope that the Government will go further than that and will be more ambitious for disabled people. The Jobseekers Act 1995 introduced powers to pilot changes in social security. Those powers are already being used to test the earnings top-up scheme. If the Government are serious about being inclusive, they should not hesitate to pilot partial capacity benefit schemes. Different pilots could test levels of benefit, duration and conditions of payment. A partial capacity benefit could make a difference to the lives of thousands of disabled people. It could be that helping hand out of dependency and into independence, which is what they want.
The disability working allowance has not been successful. In April 1996, only 9,500 people received it, against a Government target of 50,000. Disability working allowance is not an effective incentive. It does not deal with the needs of the majority of disabled people. Disability Alliance estimates that 2.2 million people are in work or on incapacity or disability benefits, but want to work. The disability working allowance is paid to less than half of 1 per cent. of those 2.2 million people.
Finally, on disabled people and the Budget, the Government announced capital receipts initiatives on Wednesday and figures of £200 million for this year and £700 million for next year. If the Government are committed, as they say they are, to taking action for disabled people, they have to ensure that that initiative releases resources to local authorities that will provide accessible housing through renovation and new build programmes, whether in partnership with the private sector or with the voluntary sector. If the Government do not do so, it will be a travesty and a great betrayal of the many disabled people who have high expectations of the Government.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |