Labour is today (Wednesday) forcing a vote in Parliament to reverse the cuts to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit (UC), which have meant many low-income families have seen cuts in their incomes worth up to £2,100 a year on average, while big business and a very wealthy few have received tax giveaways.

The motion:

That this House notes with concern the £3.4 billion reductions to the work allowance element of Universal Credit as announced in the Summer Budget 2015 and the £1.4bn reductions to Employment and Support Allowance in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016; calls on the Government to reverse those reductions; and the Government to reintroduce detailed distributional analysis for the Autumn Statement and all further Financial Statements, as was done 2010 and 2015

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, speaking ahead of the debate, said:

“Labour is calling on the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, to show he wants to genuinely change direction from the decisions of David Cameron and George Osborne when it comes to making working people pay for the financial crisis.

“In the Budget in March we saw some of the wealthiest individuals who make up just 0.3 per cent of the population get a tax cut worth £3,000 a year on average, while cuts to Universal Credit will leave two and a half million families an average of £2,100 a year worse off.

“Many families on low and middle incomes are struggling as prices rise ahead of wages, and the Chancellor can prove today whether he really is on the side of working people and reverse those cuts to low and middle earners - such as the cuts to Universal Credit and ESA.

“Otherwise it will only further prove that the Tories are still putting a wealthy few ahead of the rest of us, by making working families pay for the tax giveaways to the rich and big corporations.”

Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, speaking ahead of the debate, said:

 “The Government are still putting the richest first, by making working families and disabled people pay for giveaways for a wealthy few.

 “It is clear that the Government’s cuts to Universal Credit work allowances will make it harder for work to pay and will further squeeze living standards. Universal Credit was originally designed to ensure that work pays. Instead these cuts will leave 2.5 million working families on average £2,100 worse off.

 “In addition, their cuts to the ESA Work Related Activity Group will see sick and disabled people lose £1,500 a year, undermining the objective of the Government’s Work, Health and Disability Green Paper by pushing disabled people further from the workplace and into poverty.”