Welfare reforms will make work pay

Mary Scanlon has been speaking in the Scottish Government debate on the welfare reforms currently being considered by the UK Parliament.

Speaking after the debate, Mary Scanlon MSP said:

"The current system is a mess of multiple benefits paid at varying rates and is open to widespread abuse, the result of which costs the taxpayer over £5billion a year.

"Spending on working age welfare rocketed by 50% in real terms under Labour before the recession. A system that was designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate – with almost 500,000 people of working age in Scotland on 'out of work' benefits.

"How can it be right that we ask the unemployed to move from benefit into work when they face losing more than 95 pence for ever additional £1 they earn? As a result of this poverty trap the poor are being taxed at a rate that far exceeds the wealthy.

"Surely simplifying the system, removing bureaucracy and making it easier for people to receive the support they need has to be a good thing. The measures proposed will lift families and children out of poverty and make work pay. No one who is fit to work will be better off on benefits than in work."

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