PM sets out need for welfare reform
Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered a speech outlining the need for welfare reform.
In a speech, delivered聽as the聽Government鈥檚 was announced, Mr Cameron set out a reform package which he said would deliver 鈥渢he most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system鈥� since it was created.
皇冠体育app Bill will radically reshape Britain鈥檚 welfare system for the next sixty years by sweeping away the patchwork of benefits and credits and replacing them with a Universal Credit to make work pay.
皇冠体育app PM said:
At the heart of this Bill is a simple idea. Never again will work be the wrong financial choice. Never again will we waste opportunity. We鈥檙e finally going to make work pay - especially for the poorest people in society. And we鈥檙e going to provide much greater support for unemployed people to find work - and stay in work.
When the welfare system was born, there was what we might call a collective culture of responsibility. That collective culture of responsibility - taken for granted sixty years ago - has in many ways been lost.
But I refuse to believe that there are five million people who are inherently lazy and have no interest in bettering themselves and their families. 聽What I want to argue is that the real fault lies with the system itself.
Alongside the publication of the Bill, the PM and Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith announced a review into the sickness absence system.
With 300,000 people off work every year claiming sickness-related benefits, the Government has asked David Frost and Dame Carol Black to consider whether with the right help and support more people could stay in work in some form.
Mr Cameron said:
We simply have to get to grips with the sicknote culture that聽means a short spell of sickness absence can far too easily become a gradual slide to a life of long-term benefit dependency.
皇冠体育app Prime Minister concluded:
We will make the system simple.聽We鈥檒l make work pay.聽We鈥檒l help those who want to work, find work.聽But in return we expect people to take their responsibilities seriously too.聽To look for work.聽To take work.聽To contribute where they can.聽It is a vision of a stronger society, a bigger society, a more responsible society and today, the building of that society starts in earnest.
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