09/12/2012 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Hello, you're watching the Sunday Politics for Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire. Coming up today. We ask whether the latest benefits

shake-up will make work pay or leave thousands worse off? We'll

also find out why council tax is going UP in some places - despite

there being government money available to freeze bills. Our

guests. Mary Creagh is the shadow environment secretary and Labour MP

for Wakefield, and Alec Shelbrooke is the Conservative MP for Elmet

and Rothwell. When the government says it wants to reward workers not

shirkers, posed hard working families would welcome that,

wouldn't they? Absolutely, but the question is what the Government is

doing, will reward people in work? 60 % of the people being hit by the

changes in welfare of people in work trying to do the best for

themselves. Thought we are seeing the bedroom tax hitting families in

work. It will hit dad trying to share the care of their children.

It will have some perverse outcomes. I have been looking at some WORK

and I had an up letter from a man with a disability estimating his

income this could go down by �6,000 next year. This week, a group of

church leaders from Yorkshire wrote to the government St though thought

the welfare reforms were unfair. Do you think the Government will

listen? I think the word fairness is at the heart of the entire

discussion. It is not right that with the index linked inflation to

people's benefits, people on benefits had a far bigger increase

than people in work. On Wednesday there was a lot of good schism

about the one % rise in benefits, which was linked to that that for

the public sector is going to get, but nobody complained in the House

about the fact that the public sector and get a one % pay rise. We

have had to tackle the something for nothing culture and it is

painful but it has to be done. If Tomorrow, the Work and Pensions

Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, will unveil full details of the new

Universal Credit. For the first time, many working-age benefits

will be simplified into one payment. The ultimate aim for the government

is to try persuade people they'll be better off in work - but there

are claims it could push more families across Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire into poverty. Kate Sweeting reports.

Single mum and there from Hull is one of those concerned about the

way to the payment of her benefits. She says she wants to work but is

struggling to find a job that fits in with child care. I need a job

between 10 to 12, for jazzmen. For me to get longer hours is not

possible. It has been described as the most radical redesign of the

welfare system other country has ever seen. Universal credit aims to

contents 5 work-based benefits into one. But there are concerns that

the changes could make some of the poorest families even poorer.

in five Mans already skip meals to feed tickets. These kind of changes

will not help those people. It will lead to higher levels of poverty

and debt. In the most extreme cases, this may lead to homelessness

through evictions and potential abandonment of properties. For Emma,

money is already extremely tight, but come the benefits changes next

year she says she is expecting things to get even harder. She has

been told she will have �13.50 a week deducted from her benefits.

She also have to pay towards a council tax. From October, she will

be paid monthly, which she says is one of her biggest concerned.

get paid for Neilly, so my worry is that when I get paid monthly, my

money has to stretch. I do not want be dreading that I have another two

or three weeks before I get paid. If the bill comes through my door,

I cannot pay that bill. government says the current welfare

system must change. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has

found that 6.1 million working households are currently in poverty.

But in households where no one works, 1 million fewer families

live in poverty. The think tank which has helped develop the new

Universal credit system says it will encourage people back into

work by giving them greater incentives because they all hold on

to more of their earnings. At the moment, the system means it is very

unrewarding to take work. So people make a rational judgment, which is

that I'm better off on benefit. Universal growth will help people

keep more of their money. One of the difficulties that I find in the

House of Lords is that when we are talking about poverty there is no

one there who is actually experience seep the sort of poverty

that you're talking about in Hull. Those of us who on meeting with

those in poverty, those who are seriously deprived, have an

obligation to present their needs to the body politic. The government

says more than 2 million families will be better off after the

welfare reform. But for some families the changes are already

causing sleepless nights. Alec Shelbrooke, T looks a but a

lot of people in Yorkshire will be worse off after the Universal

Credit? Up until now, coming off benefit and going into work was a

98 % tax. But the meant it is coming down to a 67 % tax. Also

what we have to remember is that the idea of the Universal Credit is

not just to try and crack down on the fraud within the system, but

actually, I get people coming to my surgery he could have been entitled

to other forms of benefit. Benefit is not a dirty word, people deserve

to have benefits. If the system is so complicated that they come a

worker what they are supposed to have, but any to those in need not

get it, but those who work against the system find it easy. Mary

Creagh, do you think the government should be given some credit for

finally tackling Dott welfare system that spiralled out of

control trying the Labour years? All the moves aren't universal

credit his predicated on the government spending less on the

welfare bill. It is also predicated on people having a bank account and

having access to the internet. Over 51 % of families, even in the pilot

areas, did not have that. They are trying to deal with a very complex

system. We're already seeing the people are better off or on

benefits and there are I'm work because people living -- working

for less than 16 hours a week lost �3,000 a year in a tax benefits. We

know with the bedroom tax coming in. When Ed Balls refuses to commit to

supporting welfare reform is then not a danger that a party are on

the wrong side of this argument? want to see a guarantee that

anybody his out of work for more than a year will get a job, and

that is a guarantee that the government is unwilling to give. If

we can guarantee that people will be in work and have a job, then we

will be behind it, because we want to see the system reformed. There

has to be the work there for people to go to. When you have claims that

one in four mothers are regularly skipping meals to feed their

children, clearly there are worrying times ahead? Which is why

we moved into the bigger picture of why we have to stimulate the

economy, we balance it, make sure that the public sector spend is

reducing and get the private sector economy going. That is why was so

important to scrap the 3p rise on petrol again. It is now 13p we have

taken out of the system on petrol. All the food in the supermarket,

everything that you go on by in the shops, is delivered by road.

the time we hear that people say it is not worth my while getting a job,

because the benefits of at least making not worth it. When we were

in government we make the changes. We guarantee that people were

better off in work. In the Autumn Statement we have seen a growth has

been revised down and the economy is forecast to shrink this year.

Debt is rising for every year of this Parliament. As the same time

as they are paying down the benefits, they are giving a �3

billion tax-cut to people earning over a million pounds. With respect,

you know that is just political spin. The richest in our country

will be pay more tax and the lifetime of this Parliament than

they are the paid under Labour. why including in that the money

salted away in Swiss bank accounts which is result of tax avoidance.

No, I'm including the tax rate which will bring in more money than

13 years of the Labour government. �7 billion was lost out of the

British economy on the 50p tax rate. The richest in our society are pay

more than they have been decades. In terms of pain down the deficit,

women and children are paid twice In the next few days, local

councils will find out how much money they'll receive from

Whitehall in order to set their budgets for next year. The

Government says grants will be available for Town Halls which are

willing to freeze, or even reduce council tax bills. But one

Yorkshire authority is standing firm and refusing to freeze its

bills. Nick Morris has been finding out why.

In 2009, this family received a special guest and the cameras were

there to capture the moment. think one of the things we will do

is freeze the council tax. Three years on, and the government is

offering to freeze council tax for the third time in a year. After

inflation, or families in band D will see them Cup by nine %. But

because this family giving your, they will see an increase. We are

struggling as it is, why cannot York council look out for families

and the people a matter to the city? The fact that so many

councils have taken them up on the offer and your council had decided

not is a bit of or slap in the face for working families. City of York

Council turned down this year's Rees and raise the council tax. It

is one of the first in England to save it will do the same next year.

Hibbert going to protect the most formidable people that we do have

to have a small increase in council tax in order to put that fund into

the right people. Last year, away increase went -- brought in �2

million, and �1.5 million when told people's care and one. -- nor by

5,000,002 children in care. Can my Honourable Friend agree with me is

out of order. 2.5 % was under the threshold that the government

allowed, which indicated they would have held to hold a referendum. And

two % is again just under the threshold. City of York Council are

just holding the rise is just below the levels that would indicate they

would have to hold a local referendum. For the Charlton family,

council tax is going up again. Surely in the current climate,

councils should be doing all that they can to freeze bills. But is

very difficult. David Cameron made his promise that bills would not

rise but in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review they cut councils

by 28 %. He has announced another cut in 2014. 60 % of the council

budget is on adult social services and children social services. At

his services to keep people in their own homes, helping them

vulnerable, care packages, meals- on-wheels. Councils are in an

impossible position. And councils that have it spits flooding the

share have still not received a penny from the government. What we

do so to cancel it has done so we have not got the budget to care for

elderly and vulnerable people. does a city like leads me to have

an international department, where it is a local council? Hundreds of

thousands of pounds are spent every year on full-time union officials.

There could be far more collaborative spending of things

like stationery. There is money to be cut everywhere. The words I

picked up there were a small rise of 2.9 %. It were these small rises

year on year which meant that council tax doubled. Councils need

to look at themselves and think, do we need to put an increase in? The

actual proportion of council tax towards a council's budget is small

compared to the Budget that he gets overall. Do you think councils

could cost even more? We had the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation

to stay side Wakefield, which is working to do collective purchasing

across all councils. Councils have made incredible efficiencies but

what we cannot have is the situation where there will be a

fatal error to have another two % cut in 2014. I'm sure you're will

not be the last council that is forced to put his council tax up --

in York. Locals refuse are still getting a bad deal from Whitehall,

Hann they? If the council are so convinced that the government has

cut its so far that they're on the side of the public, why have they

learned just below the referendum level? Why not say to the public in

York, this is why we are doing it, because we need to fund the

services, do you agree? Trust they public. The letters get some more

of the week's political news in our part of the world. Here is the

Hillsborough, 2400 serving and former police officers will be

called to give statements to renew their official inquiry. Until this

week they had the power to refuse it but now there is emergency

legislation to make them. This is an important step on it achieving

justice for the victims of the disaster. Good news for supporters

of the high-speed train line between Sheffield and Leeds.

Transport Secretary will set out plans to take high-speed to today

North West and Yorkshire. There's also an upgrading of the A1 and

more super fast internet for the city of York. Labour claims most of

those plans were already in there pipeline and unnecessarily delayed

by previous spending cuts. For Hull, with the road through the city to

the docks be improved? No mention of it in the Chancellor's statement.

Mary Creagh, D you give some credit to the Chancellor? All the big

infrastructure announcements and scrapping the fuel duty rise.

A1 has been a botch from start to finish. It was ready to go in 2010.

The Chancellor Castle the widening and now he has found it again.

Exactly the same thing went flood defences. They cut hundred and �90

million a year from the club budget and then last year announced that

they found �one and 20 million. This is stuff that is ready to go,

no problem with planning permission, why have we been waiting? The

construction industry is in a very deep recession. These are jobs I

can get people into work. He some of these things that were announced

were rehashed. I do not think there is any harm in the open up the

public finances over role. The capital infrastructure money is a

changeover of revenue receipts. Rather than borrow it, it is there.

It is interesting that Mary it mentions the �95 million cut

environment budget. Gordon Brown cut it by �one and 50 million. The

Labour party quite often feel they were not in power for the last 19

years! They have had to be changes made but at least the money now

being spent his money than the country can afford to spend, rather

than carrying on borrowing it. what you think about the Super past

rail link that is good to come to Yorkshire, eventually. It is good

cost �34 billion. Is that money well spent? It is, but in the

legislation we want to see it coming up to Yorkshire and on to

the North West. Absolutely. I'm on the record from this time and again

that it is one of the most vital projects that can happen to the

North of England. If you have major companies in London who expand and

need to be looking for new office space, if you are only one and a

quarter hours away from Leeds, then with the ground rent and the

quality of life that we have in Yorkshire, that makes that a very

viable place to put that expansion. We have to make sure it does come

to Leeds and carried on forwards. The government deliberately did it

in two stages to get it moving from London to Birmingham. It is not

nailed down in in for the burn into Leeds bit but there is every

intention to get it there. Almost every Yorkshire MP is in favour of

this and we have to make sure that it happens. Looking ahead to the

next few days. Gay marriage has made the headlines so far this

weekend. What you think about David Cameron so idea to allow gay

couples to marry in church? I have not heard him say that, but I think

marriage should be open to everybody, regardless of their

sexuality. We have to see the detail of what the government is

putting forward. This will cause begrudge and in your party?

voting against the bill. It strikes of our hearts of my Christian

beliefs in terms of asking the Church to do something. I have no

problem with the civil partnerships. It we won true equality that we

should take it the other way and say that if you get married outside

the church, you have a civil partnership. If the churches want

to marry people they can go into and that now. But we start to

undermine the Church, we cannot stop the Hare once we have certain

running. I fully expect this vote to go through Parliament. With the

whips from Labour and from the Liberal Democrats... We have not

decided what we are doing yet. pleased to hear that. What I found

upsetting about this entire conversation is that if you vote

against this, you're deemed homophobic. I'm not homophobic,