Purnell: More support for more responsibility

Tuesday, 22, Jul 2008 12:00

James Purnell, work and pensions secretary, comments on the government's proposed welfare reforms:

"We know our support works but we also know conditionality works. We can increase employment and reduce poverty.

"In the past, people were… encouraged to spend a lifetime on benefits. Once they'd signed on, the welfare system often switched off.

"This green paper ends all that. It puts us on the road to our ambition of an 80 per cent employment rate… It will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of people."