This afternoon, Stephen spoke in the debate on yesterday’s Spring Budget. He welcomed the government’s changes to childcare support for people using Universal Credit and the Health and Disability White Paper, while criticising the government for removing the lifetime allowance on pensions.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered the government’s Spring Budget yesterday. The Chancellor raised the amount parents on Universal Credit can claim for childcare from £646 to £951 for a single child and announced that the government would pay costs upfront rather than in arrears. Stephen welcomed both these changes. The Work and Pensions Select Committee, which Stephen chairs, previously recommended them.
However, Stephen was critical of the Chancellor’s plans to remove the lifetime allowance on pensions. The lifetime allowance is the total amount a person can save in their pension before it is taxed. Analysis by the Resolution Foundation shows scrapping the lifetime allowance benefits the top 10% of earners by £370 on average but has no effect on those in the bottom half. Speaking in the debate, Stephen said,“the Chancellor, when times are hard, has decided to give another billion to the wealthiest in pensions tax relief!”
Stephen also cautiously welcomed the government’s Health and Disability White Paper. The White Paper suggests changes to the welfare system to help people with disabilities and long-term ill health find work. Stephen welcomed the removal of work capability assessments, saying “nobody will mourn [them].” But he urged the government to improve Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which often “come up with the wrong answer,” and to target the gap in employment between disabled and non-disabled people.