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Mr. Simon Hughes: I do not dissent from what the Secretary of State has just said, but have he and the Government a target for reducing the gap between the richest and the poorest within a normal parliamentary term of five years?
Mr. Darling: People want not just a commitment, but action. We know that poverty exists in every corner of the land. We know that there are inequalities and a lack of opportunities, and, right across the board, we have emphasised the need to tackle the problem. We will tackle it through, for example, the new deal.
The Conservative party has accused us of spending some £11,000 per job. The hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green said that that was in the press today, but it was in the press because he told the press.
The Conservatives have priced the new deal in the manner of someone trying to price the cost of a new car on the basis of its first few weeks of operation. In fact, the cost is about £1,000 per job. The Conservatives are happy to ignore the success of the new deal: the fact that some 30,000 young people will have been given work. When they criticise us, it should be remembered that they would do absolutely nothing for a whole generation--a generation that was written off under their Administration. The new deal has been extremely successful in getting people--sometimes they have been in extremely difficult circumstances--back into work. That is something that any civilised Government should do for good economic and social reasons.
We set out the principles that will govern our welfare reform in a Green Paper which was published earlier this year. In answer to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood), the success measures there set out were responded to and overwhelmingly endorsed. I published the results of the consultation and I think that a list of responses has been made available in the Library.
Over the past 18 months, we have made progress in reforming tax and benefits, including child benefit. There are further reforms to come, including to the Child Support Agency, for example. I say to the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr. Rendel) that we are proposing to introduce more than 20 Bills in the coming Session, which will be shorter than the previous Session, which was quite long. We cannot legislate for everything in the first or even second year of the parliamentary term. We have been
elected for a five-year term and we are consulting on the CSA proposals. The Government will bring forward legislation as soon as we can. However, as I understand it, the Liberal party is against the concept of the CSA. That being so, I am surprised at its anxiety to get a new or improved version of it on the statute book.
Mr. Kirkwood:
Is pre-legislative scrutiny still planned by the Government?
Mr. Darling:
I certainly hope that we shall have an opportunity for pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. That is an extremely important part of some of the changes that we have made to the way in which Parliament works. Indeed, a number of measures were announced in the Queen's Speech, to which I hope other Bills will be added. The disability rights commission, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East (Dr. Kumar) referred, is an important part of our reforms.
I welcome the fact that so many Members have supported our approach on the single gateway. It is a complete change of culture for the Departments of Social Security and for Education and Employment. It is surely right that everyone should have the opportunity to know what options may be open to them if they come out of benefit. It is an example of how the culture and approach of government is changing. We are not merely reacting to problems but, ending a situation in which someone simply receives benefit and no help. I think that, overwhelmingly, people now believe that the Government must have a different approach to get people back into work.
Miss Widdecombe:
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Darling:
The right hon. Lady has been containing herself for long enough. I shall certainly give way to her. Having done so, I want to talk about disability and bereavement issues, which some of my hon. Friends mentioned.
Miss Widdecombe:
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for at last giving way. He may have thought that as a result of delaying giving way for 10 minutes, I had forgotten what he was talking about, but I have not.
As I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman would not knowingly or willingly mislead the House, I can conclude only that he is the victim of his own propaganda. I have never, either from the Opposition Dispatch Box or from a sedentary position, called upon the Government to spend more. I have said that they are claiming to be spending vastly more than they actually are by using a rather quaint form of accounting. If they really were spending all that money, what on earth is their difficulty about funding such things as keeping open community hospitals? I have said that. The supposed conflict between myself and my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude), the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, is a figment of the Prime Minister's imagination, which the Minister is trying to perpetrate. Will the right hon. Gentleman apologise?
Mr. Darling:
I take it from that that the right hon. Lady is confirming my suspicion that Conservatives do not want to spend the £21 billion that we shall invest in
Mr. Burns:
Will the Secretary of State give way?
Mr. Darling:
No, I will not. I want to deal with disability and bereavement benefits, which hon. Members have raised.
First, I turn to disability and a point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Mrs. Cryer). We are determined to ensure that disabled people have the opportunities that are available to others. We are determined also to ensure that no one asks anyone who is disabled to do anything that is unreasonable. I entirely take my hon. Friend's point that people with disabilities sometimes have quite substantial difficulties and that we must take account of that.
I want particularly to deal with two points on incapacity benefit. One is in reply to the hon. Member for Newbury and his complaint that we are taking into account people's occupational pensions. I remind him that we are ignoring the first £50 and introducing a taper of some 50 per cent. Given the rise in the amount of insurance that people now have, it is not unreasonable that there should be a better and fairer balance between their contribution and the contribution from the state. If we were designing a system from scratch, I am sure that we would not ignore that.
The hon. Gentleman and others spoke about the principle of means testing. The welfare state has always had a mix of contributory benefits and means-tested benefits--benefits paid on the basis of need. We are extending some aspects of disability and bereavement benefits. We are extending some of the benefits available to those who are most severely disabled--for example, we are extending the mobility allowance component of disability living allowance to three and four-year-olds. For the severe disablement allowance, we have dramatically increased the amount of money that will be available to people disabled from birth or very early on.
We have also made changes in widows bereavement benefit. The choice was whether to extend it to everyone, at a cost of £250 million a year, or to continue with the absurd situation where 40 per cent. of the women who receive the benefit are in the top half of the income bracket, whereas a man on low income with young children gets nothing. When faced with these difficulties, we must make difficult choices. We must ask ourselves what approach we would take if we were starting from scratch. My approach is unashamedly to do more for people who need it most. That is what I was elected to do, and that is what I am determined to deliver.
Mr. Rendel:
I accept entirely that the doubling of the initial lump sum will help people who need it very much.
Mr. Darling:
We are spending a great deal more in the first five years because we are extending the scheme. In future there will be savings. I am determined to ensure, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Mr. Coaker) said, that the welfare state is affordable and manageable over the next 20 to 30 years. I know that additional needs will arise that we must deal with. The great thing about being a Liberal is that one need not bother about any of these things. One can pick and choose--take the good things and ignore the rest.
In the time available, I shall deal briefly with pensions. The Green Paper on pensions was promised before the end of the year. If there has been any delay, that is entirely my fault. I want to ensure that when we publish the Green Paper, it is the right solution to the pensions problems that we will face over the next 20 to 30 years. Right hon. and hon. Members will see that it is. The reason that it is not mentioned in the Queen's Speech is that it will be in the Green Paper.
The debate has been instructive, as it has shown clearly the divide between the Government and the Conservative Opposition. First, we are determined to reform the welfare state and provide more help for those who need it most, to carry on encouraging people who can work to get into work, and to change the whole emphasis of the welfare state in a way that never happened during the past 18 years. The welfare state will help people to get into work and provide security for people who cannot work. The Conservatives never tackled that task.
The second point that shows the distinction between us is that we believe that where investment is necessary, in the health service and in education, we will make the necessary investment. We have created a secure economic platform which allows us to build for the future and plan for the years to come. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has made sure that we have that secure future, which is enabling us to invest record amounts in the health service. Most people believe that that was long overdue and much needed.
The Government are determined to modernise the institutions of Britain. We are determined to provide opportunity for individuals. The Queen's Speech represents another major step forward in the Government's second Session. We have much more to do in the coming years, but we are well on the way to delivering our manifesto promises.
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