Welfare Reform Bill

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. I should like to start by welcoming the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) to her new post. I also welcome the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) back to his old post, although we are no less happy to see him for all that. I know that we will disagree on many things, but also that their scrutiny will improve this important Bill. I look forward to working with both of them, where we agree. In the debates ahead of us, we shall hear much jargon. We will hear talk of contribution conditions, taper rates and conditionality, but it is important that we start by remembering what the Bill is about. It is about changing lives—of the people who have been stuck on incapacity benefit for too long and of the lone parents who could work if they knew about the support available to them. The Bill is also about giving disabled people control over the public services that they receive, instead of them being controlled by the bureaucracy. This Bill is based on the simple idea that people will be given more support and, in return, more responsibility. That is not the Government's idea, nor the Opposition's. It was expressed in the Beveridge report—indeed, it is one of his three founding principles. In his report, Beveridge said:"““social security must be achieved by co-operation between the State and the individual…The State in organising security should not stifle incentive, opportunity””" or responsibility. The Bill is intended to renew the partnership between the state and the individual by ensuring that virtually everyone on benefits is preparing for work, so that support is matched with responsibility. We will support people, but in return they must support themselves. Some people have asked why we are taking measures now. The answer is simple: it is because it would be wrong to abandon people. If we gave up on welfare reform now, we would be condemning people who find it harder to get back into work to not being able to do so. That is precisely the mistake made in the recessions of the '80s and '90s, when conditionality and investment were cut, and unemployment rose more than it need have done. Governments have a choice: we can either invest millions now in helping people back into work, or we can waste billions in the future when we cannot get people back into work because it has become too difficult. We have a choice between an ambitious welfare state that lifts people out of dependency and a passive one that traps them there.