Whately and McFadden compete to provide most misleading contributions to king’s speech debate

A Commons debate that followed last week’s king’s speech was littered with misleading statements about disabled people’s support, both from the Conservative opposition and the Labour government.

Much of the hostile rhetoric on Thursday came from Helen Whately, the Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary, who is slowly building a reputation for aggressive attacks on benefit claimants.

But there were also misleading statements about government policy from work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.

The debate followed a king’s speech which did not include a new welfare reform bill, although legislation on out-of-work disability benefits and personal independence payment is expected next year.

Whately delivered a series of attacks on a social security system that her own party spent 14 years developing, claiming that “‘alarm clock Britain’ is sick of paying out for ‘Benefits Street’”.

Much of her attack was based around the number of households receiving more than the annual benefits cap due to exemptions – including, she claimed, 16,000 households who claim more than £60,000 a year in benefits.

Many of those exempt from the cap are disabled people, particularly those receiving personal independence payment or the universal credit limited capability for work-related activity component.

But her party has so far been unable to explain how her figures were reached; an example of the kind of household, including a disabled person, that receives more than £60,000 a year in benefits; and whether Whately has talked to social security experts to find out why disabled people might need that level of support.

She also became the latest Conservative figure to wrongly claim that the “benefits bill is out of control”, when, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, total spending on welfare as a proportion of GDP is roughly stable.

Again, her party had not said by noon today (Thursday) whether she accepts these figures.

Whately also repeated her party’s frequent untrue claim that people are receiving “free cars for tennis elbow or acne” through the Motability scheme.

Her party has yet to say if she genuinely believes that someone can receive a Motability vehicle with tennis elbow or acne and no other condition, or to provide evidence of a single case of someone in this situation.

Whately told MPs that “welfare” spending “could be so much better spent on things such as defence or making our streets safer or – think of this – it could be left in people’s pockets for them to spend”.

But it was not just the Conservative party that misled MPs during the king’s speech debate.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden told MPs that the government had introduced its new “right to try” policy, which he said would give disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits “the confidence to work” and “means that entering employment will not automatically trigger a benefit reassessment”.

But this was deeply misleading, because guidance introduced by his own department means starting work or volunteering can trigger an immediate benefit reassessment if a DWP decision-maker decides that the type of work being tried suggests the claimant’s “functional ability” has improved.

McFadden also told MPs that reforms introduced by his government had introduced “fairness” to the Motability scheme.

He said: “We are providing better value for money in the Motability scheme, with a target for half those cars to be made in Britain by 2035, so that this important scheme supports the British car industry too.”

What he failed to tell MPs was that the government had also imposed VAT at 20 per cent on most advance payments for cars leased through the Motability scheme and removed the current 12 per cent insurance premium tax exemption.

These changes have led to Motability introducing sharp cuts to its annual mileage allowance and increased excess mileage rates for most vehicles.

Elsewhere in the debate, Liberal Democrat shadow work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling told MPs how Disability News Service had revealed “behind-the-scene cuts” to the “broken” Access to Work scheme.

One clear sign of support from a Labour backbencher against any further cuts to disability benefits came from Apsana Begum.

She appealed to the government to “ensure that there are no further attacks on the rights of disabled people in the UK”.

She said: “The Timms Review is due to report in autumn, and I am obliged to make it clear for my constituents, many of whom are already impacted by cuts to the health component of universal credit, that any further attempts to restrict or cut personal independence payments would be disastrous and have to be dropped.

“If they are not dropped, at bare minimum there must be a full parliamentary vote.”

She added: “I cannot in my conscience allow the poor, the sick, the elderly and the disabled to be exposed to any further brutality.

“If there is no money for disabled people not to be further punished through the welfare system, then the money must be found.

“If the way our economy is run means that large scale human suffering and wasted potential is unavoidable, it is up to the government to change the way the economy is run.”

Picture: Pat McFadden (left) and Helen Whately