Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 13 January 2014.
Fiona Bruce
Conservative, Congleton
2:30,
13 January 2014
What recent assessment he has made of the OECD disability spend.
Mike Penning
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions
The most recent OECD figures, from 2009, show that the United Kingdom spent 2.4% of its gross domestic product on benefits for people with disabilities. According to UK figures for 2012-13, we are spending about £50 billion a year on such benefits.
Fiona Bruce
Conservative, Congleton
Can the Minister explain how that money is being used to help disabled people in my Constituency to lead full and independent lives?
Mike Penning
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions
The reason we are spending so much money is that we want to ensure that people with disabilities or other long-term conditions can lead lives that are as fulfilling as possible, and, if they are able to do so, enter the workplace. Much of the money is spent on the Access to Work scheme, which has proved very successful. It is interesting that not many Opposition Members seem to approve of the £50 billion that the Government are spending.
Kate Green
Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
Ministers have been taking a pick-and-mix approach to the OECD figures, claiming that the United Kingdom is a top spender on disability-related benefits while referring to only one indicator rather than to total incapacity-related benefit spending. Is it not time that they came clean? Will the Minister now admit that disabled people are bearing the brunt of the Government’s welfare reforms?
Mike Penning
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions
We do not “pick and mix” at all. Those who look carefully at the figures will see that Germany spends roughly half the amount that we spend in relation to GDP. If the hon. Lady thinks that we should spend more, that will mean another spending commitment from the Opposition.
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