‘We shouldn’t write the DWP off’: Ex-work and pensions secretary Stephen Timms thinks DWP can change lives under Labour
By Isabella McRae Big Issue Social Justice Reporter
DWP
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has the capacity to do a “fantastic job” under a Labour government, according to the chair of the work and pensions select committee.
Sir Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham, said: “I don’t think we should write the DWP off. I don’t think our work on the committee pushes us into doing that.”
In an exclusive interview with The Big Issue, Timms said he hopes Labour reforms social security. He wants a less “hostile” benefits system which supports people into employment, rather than “forcing” them into unsuitable jobs.
“I think there is every possibility for the DWP to do a fantastic job,” Timms said. “Hopefully in the future they will.”
An MP since 1994, Timms served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in several roles, including as minister of state for the DWP and later shadow minister. “In the early Labour government days, you would talk about Jobcentres as helping people,” Timms said. “People didn’t laugh at you. That was reasonable.
“Now, most people find Jobcentres pretty unpleasant. They feel the Jobcentre is trying to catch them out. I think Jobcentres should be places that you go to be helped, not hit.”
The Conservative government is on a mission to drive benefit claimants into work to boost the economy, but its “punitive” tactics have faced criticism.
As The Big Issue has reported, sanctions and government rhetoric can exacerbate people’s mental and physical health conditions and push them further away from work.
Timms said: “Benefit levels are now so low that people are forced to take the first job they come across, even if it’s not the right job for them. There’s an increasing suggestion that one of the reasons for the UK’s low productivity problem is we’re forcing people into the wrong jobs. And therefore, the British economy isn’t as productive as it should be.”
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall recently said there would be “no option for a life on benefits” under a Labour government, while setting out plans to encourage unemployed young people into work.
Questioned over this, Timms said: “The system has to make work feasible and accessible. There are an awful lot of people at the moment, young people especially, who are out of work on the grounds of
