Welfare Reform Bill
4:00 pm
Martin Narey: I have sympathy with much of what has been said, but Barnardo’s takes a somewhat different view. It is important that that view is not caricatured; we are not suggesting that the vast majority of people who are unemployed or out of work do not want to get into work, but we believe that many of them need help and assistance to get into work. We do not shy away from the fact that a small minority needs pushing into work. We have some sympathy with the conditionality aspects of the Bill, particularly the emphasis given to getting those on long-term and incapacity benefits back into work. I say that on the basis of not only my experience running Barnardo’s, which works with about 120,000 children and young people, but, and perhaps more significantly, my previous experience running the Prison Service.
When working with offenders, which I did for 23 years, I was constantly struck by the worrying number who believed that the world of work was simply nothing to do with them. They came from families with parents who had not worked. Indeed, there is some evidence now of young people in families in which work has not been a factor for three generations. Work can provide a route out of poverty—although not always, and it is a real problem that 60 per cent. of children living in poverty in the UK have one or both parents working—and it also improves self-esteem and self-worth. A child growing up in a family in which one or more parents work is much more likely to think that the world of work, a potential career and getting on in the world is something to do with them. The number of young people in the UK who think that jobs and careers are things that people like us do is a real worry.