Social Security

I completely agree. Indeed, until two years ago when the Government made the change, it made no financial sense for many people on low incomes to save because they were better off depending on the state in their retirement. The Government have taken some steps to reduce that disincentive to save but it still exists to some extent. Incapacity benefit is also being uprated. I do not want to comment at length on the welfare reform Green Paper, as I am aware of Madam Deputy Speaker’s strictures on the subject. However, it discusses the need for a reduction in the number of IB claimants over the next 10 years, and how we achieve that is relevant to the debate. All Members can agree that the aim is desirable, but it is a major challenge for the Government and there are some specific problems that they need to address. The vast majority of the 2.7 million IB claimants have been in receipt of the benefit for more than four years. We are dealing with a large proportion of people who are in the most difficult category in terms of getting back to work. They include some of the most vulnerable people—the most severely disabled and the most persistently unemployed. Whatever the Government may say about the previous Conservative Administration’s attempt to shift people from unemployment benefit to incapacity benefit, the number of IB claimants under the Labour Administration has risen significantly—it has gone up by more than 300,000—so they cannot make that accusation without acknowledging that the number has risen significantly under Labour as well. The pilot pathways-to-work schemes that the Government have introduced over the past couple of years are making modest progress in increasing take-up, thus getting more people back into work. The percentage for each pilot area varies between about 7 per cent. and about 11 per cent. I acknowledge that that is an improvement, but that is the percentage increase for all claimants in the area, irrespective of the duration of their being on incapacity benefit. Our performance, even in the pathways areas, is not as good as that in other countries. As a member of the Select Committee on Work and Pensions, I had the advantage of visiting Holland with other Members last week, and some dramatic and significant reforms have taken place there over the past few years, as I am sure the Minister is aware. Particularly in addressing long-term incapacity benefit claimants, great strides are being taken in changing the attitudes of people in receipt of benefit and putting in place an array of measures to encourage people back into work. The main focus in Holland is on making employers and individuals who have disability aware of the fact that they have the potential to work. The focus is on what they can do, not what they cannot do. Although that is a rather simplistic description, that change in attitude is dramatic. Unfortunately, the pathways pilot schemes do not provide that. They continue to encourage people to think that they have a right and an entitlement to benefit and to think about what they cannot do and what they are entitled to if they cannot do it. The Government need to address that change in attitude. The Minister is aware of the final issue that I should like to raise, which relates to how the Department for Work and Pensions copes with the voluntary and private sector agencies with which it enters contracts to supply training and other services to long-term incapacity benefit claimants. The Department is in the midst of reviewing its relationships—and it needs to do so, because they have been chaotic. We have evidence from many of those organisations to show that the Department has been running its supplier contracts in such a way as to shut them all down—