Context
Concern over high unemployment rates and long-term sickness benefit recipients. The questioner mentions 1 million young people not in work, education or training and 2.8 million out of work on long-term benefits.
Question
Having 1 million young people not in work, education or training and 700 thousand people out of work on long-term sickness benefits is both a financial catastrophe and a moral failure. The Prime Minister has rightly said that it is his moral mission to get young people into work, but how does the Minister square that with two Budgets that have hiked taxes on working people by £66 billion while giving a pay rise to those on benefits?
Answer from Torsten Bell (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury)
The hon. Member is right to call those things a moral and economic disgrace. Does he know who created them? It was the Conservative party opposite. Who saw a 50% rise in the number of those not in education, employment or training? The party opposite. Who created the benefits system that is failing today? The party opposite. Who failed to reform the benefits system? The party opposite.
Not addressed: The questioner's specific ask about reconciling tax hikes and benefit increases was avoided by blaming previous policies of another political party.
How: Blaming A Previous Government, Shifting Focus To Opposition Failures
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