division_name: Autumn Statement Distributional Analysis, Universal Credit and Esa
motion: <p class="indent" pid="a261.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes with concern the &#163;3.4 billion reductions to the work allowance element of universal credit and the &#163;1.4 billion reductions to employment and support allowance; calls on the Government to reverse those reductions; and further calls on the Government to reintroduce detailed distributional analysis for the Autumn Statement and all further Financial Statements, as was done between 2010 and 2015.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a266.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;notes the role of universal credit in ensuring that work pays; welcomes the &#163;60 million package of additional employment support announced in the Summer Budget 2016 available to new claimants with limited capability for work from April 2017 and set out in the recent Work and Health Green Paper; further welcomes the proposals for employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions set out in that green paper; and notes the comments by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Treasury Committee on <phrase class="date" code="2016-10-19">19 October</phrase> 2016 on his intention to publish distributional analysis at the forthcoming Autumn Statement.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a272.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Normally, working-age benefit recipients would also be at least partly protected as benefits usually rise in line with prices, but, as we have discussed before, their benefits have been largely frozen in cash terms, meaning that their income from this source   is fully exposed to future inflation. Those in work will, unless they are able to negotiate a bigger pay rise, find that their earnings will stretch less far than they otherwise would have done.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a274.4/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;will ultimately have a similar impact to the changes to tax credits which are not now going ahead, though the impact of changes to UC work allowances will not be fully felt until the roll out of Universal Credit is complete.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a274.4/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;At present, the 2016 Budget&#8217;s plan to reduce Universal Credit work allowances will not be the most effective way of controlling welfare expenditure and, moreover, it goes against the key principles. The planned reduction will affect more than three million people, reducing their income by an average of over &#163;1,000 per year. This will reduce people&#8217;s incentive to move into work. Moreover, in November 2015 the previous Chancellor decided to reverse the reduction in working tax credits, increasing the pressure on Universal Credit as it created an artificial disincentive to move to Universal Credit from Tax Credits.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a274.4/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;remove the financial incentives that could otherwise discourage claimants from taking steps back to work&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a274.4/13" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;no relevant evidence setting out a convincing case that the ESA WRAG payment acts as a financial disincentive to claimants work, or that reducing the payment would incentivise people to seek work&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a274.4/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Average incomes in the low to middle income group were no higher in 2014-15 than in 2004-05, reflecting not just the turmoil of the post-crisis period but also a sharp pre-crisis slowdown in income growth.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a279.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Government has taken unprecedented steps to increase transparency and enable effective scrutiny of policy making by publishing detailed distributional analysis of the impact of its reforms on households.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a279.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The analysis shows average impacts due to policy changes over time across the income and expenditure distributions by decile&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a279.1/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a country that works for everyone&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a280.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;as a result of planned tax and benefit reforms&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a280.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;stand up for the weak&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a280.2/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;notes the role of universal credit in ensuring that work pays&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a283.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;helps with increased bills because I find it so hard to leave the house. Most people spend a chunk of time at work or school or university but I&#8217;m often stuck in my own house using my own gas and electricity. It also gets used on a takeaway or very, very convenient food if I am too exhausted from fighting my illness to cook. Other times it might cover a taxi if I need to get home as quickly as possible because I&#8217;ve become too unwell to be outside the house.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a283.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In my personal experience, losing this money won&#8217;t incentivise me to return to work. It will demoralise me and make me feel like I&#8217;m completely worthless. &#163;30 a week is nothing to MPs but everything to someone as ill as me&#8230;I already struggle with finances because of my condition. Financial insecurity and welfare reform wreak havoc on my mental wellbeing.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a287.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I will look carefully at the best format for doing so, including the issues you have raised around the baseline.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a287.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;cannot be used to determine the effect of government policies on household incomes.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a287.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;not possible to determine the impact of the policies of the present Government on the distribution of tax and spending.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="a287.0/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;public spending on items such as health, police, justice, defence&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="a297.2/13" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="a297.2/14" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 265, Noes 284.</p>