Labour has ‘hidden away’ welfare claimants
The Conservatives slammed Labour’s unemployment record today as official figures showed the number of adults in workless households increased by half a million, to 4.8 million, in the last year.
In a speech to think tank Policy Exchange, shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said that the recession has exposed the truth about the welfare system under Labour.
She claimed that two million people in the UK have never had a job, and that Labour’s benefit bill over 12 years of welfare dependency totals over £300bn.
Labour has presided over the rise of a ‘benefits culture’ that has seen three million fail to find a job since 1997 and has hidden away those failed by its welfare system, she said.
‘The reality is that under Labour there has been a steady growth in welfare ghettoes – unemployment did not disappear during the ‘boom years’,’ Ms May said. ‘It was merely disguised, renamed and hidden away in ever growing pockets of poverty.’
The Office of National Statistics reported that the number of children in workless households rose by 170,000 to almost 1.9 million in the last year.
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) called for a recession survival package to help those families without work, including extended access to free school meals and to the Social Fund as well as increased benefits and tax credits.
‘The situation with families losing work and income is of tremendous concern and calls for urgent action’, said chief executive of CPAG Kate Green. ‘Without adequate support the loan sharks will be circling and families are in danger of spiraling into debt.’
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