Agenda item

Welfare Reform and Child Poverty

It was moved by Councillor Jackie Drayton, seconded by Councillor Mike Drabble, that this Council:-

(a)       is disappointed that as part of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill the Government is planning to:-

(i)         scrap binding, measurable targets to reduce child poverty;

(ii)        stop setting targets that aim to reduce the proportion of households with a below average income;

(iii)       repeal the majority of the Child Poverty Act, including all the targets, the provision for the Child Poverty Commission (replacing it with a Social Mobility Commission), and the duty to publish UK and local child poverty strategies; and

(iv)       remove the word ‘poverty’ from the relevant legislation, renaming the Child Poverty Act 2010 the Life Chances Act 2010;

(b)       believes the Government should amend the proposals set out in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill as follows:-

(i)         include targets against all measures so that government can be held to account for progress and we are all clear about the amount of change that is needed and by when it is needed;

(ii)        retain the four income related measures (and the additional severe poverty measure set out in the national child poverty strategy) in addition to any new measures;

(iii)       ensure that families who are working and in poverty are included in the measures used;

(iv)       retain the legal duties for local authorities and named partners to cooperate to reduce and mitigate child poverty;

(v)        retain the word ‘poverty’ in the name of the Act; and

(vi)       ensure that there is sufficient time to debate and propose amendments to the elements of the Bill relating to changes to the Child Poverty Act as well as the other changes contained within the Bill;

(c)        notes the recent report by the New Policy Institute whose analysis estimates that a further 300,000 children are living in poverty since the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition Government implemented a raft of welfare cuts in April 2013;

(d)       notes the findings of research carried out by Sheffield Hallam University last year which found that households with children in Sheffield will have lost on average £1,690 per year as a result of the Coalition Government’s welfare cuts;

(e)       is concerned that more children will be pushed into poverty over this Parliament as a result of the further cuts to working-age benefits announced in the Chancellor’s Budget;

(f)        agrees with the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation that cuts to tax credits will lead to increases in child poverty;

(g)       agrees with the Child Poverty Action Group that “No serious plan for the low-paid begins with making them poorer by cutting their tax credits”;

(h)       notes the recent report by the Resolution Foundation that showed that two-thirds of those affected by the cuts to tax credits are in work;

(i)         believes that tax credits:-

(i)         improve the work incentive, and that the dismantling of the tax credit system will damage work incentives; and

(ii)        have played a key role in reducing child poverty;

(j)         praises the impressive record of the previous Labour Government on child poverty, including the introduction of Child Tax Credit and the national minimum wage, the rolling out of Sure Start centres, and improvements to childcare, all of which helped to support families on low incomes and lift children out of poverty;

(k)        recognises the current Administration’s attempts to reduce child poverty in Sheffield, including the establishment of Sheffield Money, the Fairness Commission, and the on-going implementation of its recommendations; and

(l)         welcomes the Council’s new Tackling Poverty Strategy which will take action to make things better for children and adults who are in poverty now, and tackle some of the root causes of poverty.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Colin Ross, seconded by Councillor Steve Ayris, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council” and the addition of the following words:-

(a)       recalls previous resolutions this Council has passed denouncing the Government’s planned cuts to the welfare system;

(b)       is disappointed that four of Sheffield’s five Labour MPs failed to oppose on the second reading of the Government’s Welfare Reform and Work Bill, including former deputy leader of the Council Harry Harpham MP;

(c)       notes that the eight Liberal Democrat MPs, including Sheffield Hallam MP, the Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg, voted against the Bill;

(d)       recognises that these cuts will have devastating effects on many of our city’s residents, as latest estimates suggest that:

(i)         22,000 Sheffield residents and their families will lose an average of £260 per year;

(ii)        3,500 of which are hardworking people whose families will have to make up an average £280 shortfall per year in lost tax credits; and

(iii)       around 4,200 residents in the Employment and Support Allowance work related activity group, considered only temporarily too ill to work, will lose a further £30 per week as their allowance is brought down to the level of Jobseekers Allowance;

(e)       recalls previous resolutions this Council has passed remarking that the impact of the previous Coalition Government’s cuts to welfare in Sheffield were ‘hitting hardest the poorest in the City’;

(f)        regrets that after five years of attacking the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government on welfare cuts, Labour MPs have, through silence, nodded through much deeper and unnecessary ideological cuts to the welfare budget which will hit the working poor hardest;

(g)       recognises the Liberal Democrats’ role in the previous Government as a moderating force, blocking many of the harshest measures put forward by the Conservatives, such as:-

(i)         reducing Employment Support Allowance to £30 a week, bringing it in line with Job Seekers Allowance;

(ii)        withdrawal of housing benefit from 18 – 21 year olds; and

(iii)       scrapping of maintenance grants for students;

(h)       notes the Labour Party leadership’s position of abstaining on the Welfare Bill because they agreed with measures such as:-

(i)         reducing the welfare cap to £20,000 per household (£23,000 in London); and

(ii)        limiting child tax credits to two children;

(i)         calls on the Leader of the Council to write to Nick Clegg and Louise Haigh, MPs, to thank them for voting against the Welfare Bill; and

(j)         calls on the Leader of the Council to send a copy of this resolution to the four Sheffield MPs who failed to oppose the Welfare Bill.”

On being put to the vote, the amendment was negatived.

Following a Right of Reply by Councillor Jackie Drayton, the original Motion was then put to the vote and carried, as follows:-