Northamptonshire MP says welfare system is 'broken'
MP for Northampton South Mike Reader has been speaking to us as welfare reforms go before Parliament later
As parliament prepares to vote on welfare reforms one Northamptonshire MP says the system is broken.
Since 2019 in the East Midlands there's been an increase of 115 percent in people claiming Personal Independence Payments, known as PIP.
Mike Reader is the Northampton South MP:
"It's leaving people unable to work, and it rewards people for and not working, and that can't be right. We're the only country in the G7 where our employment rates haven't returned to what they were before the pandemic.
"1000 people every day are signing on for PIP. It's not sustainable now."
Around 150,000 people will be pushed into poverty by 2030 as a result of the Government's welfare cuts despite Sir Keir Starmer being forced into a partial U-turn.
The figure is down from the 250,000 extra people estimated to have been left in relative poverty after housing costs under the original proposals.
Modelling published by the Department for Work and Pensions said the estimate does not include any "potential positive impact" from extra funding and measures to support people with disabilities and long-term health conditions into work.
Mike Reader says there will be help for those that need it:
"This bill also doesn't cover the whole of the changes that the government's proposed in its Green Paper on getting back to work, and there's a lot of things that are to come that will really, really help people, and that's what we want to give. Give people the dignity of work and earning."
The Labour leadership still braced for a substantial revolt despite the changes aimed at averting a Government defeat in the Commons on Tuesday.
A No 10 spokesman said: "The broken welfare system we inherited is failing people every single day.
"It traps millions, it tells them the only way to get help is to declare they'll never work again and then abandons them.
"No help, no opportunity, no dignity and we can't accept that.
"For too long, meaningful reform to a failing system has been ducked."