That this House
declines to give a Second Reading to the Welfare Benefits Up - rating Bill because it fails to address the reasons why the cost
of benefits is exceeding the Government's plans; notes that the Resolution Foundation has calculated that 68 per cent
of households affected by these measures are in work and that figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that all the measures announced in the Autumn Statement, including those in the Bill, will mean a single - earner family with children on average will be # 534 worse off by 2015; further notes that the Bill does not include anything to remedy the deficiencies in the Government's work programme or the slipped timetable for universal credit; believes that a comprehensive plan to reduce the benefits bill must include measures to create economic growth and help the 129,400 adults over the age
of 25 out
of work for 24 months or more, but that the Bill does not do so; further believes that the Bill should introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee, which would give long - term
unemployed adults a job they would have to take up or lose benefits, funded by limiting tax relief on pension contributions for
people earning over # 150,000 to 20 per cent; and further believes that the proposals in the Bill are unfair when the additional rate
of income tax is being reduced, which will result in those earning over a million pounds per year receiving an average tax cut
of over # 100,000 a year.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan says that the number
of people in need
of more schooling and training — counting dropouts, the
unemployed, immigrants who speak little English and middle - aged workers in
declining industries — is three times as large.