Andy Burnham says UK benefits policy is often written to ‘please certain newspapers’

Andy Burnham has said that UK welfare policy under governments of all parties is often written to “please certain newspapers”.

The Greater Manchester mayor, a former Labour MP, criticised the “punitive language” that he considers as often linked to benefits policy.

The comments came in a special public session of the work and pensions select committee, which travelled to Manchester to hear the evidence of Burnham and other regional policy makers.

In his evidence, Burnham called for a “bottom up” approach to welfare policy and reform of the system so that it is “truly empowering”.

He said: “Whitehall should increasingly and the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] see itself more of an enabler of more localised approaches that may come through across the country.

“You can’t order people’s recovery from the top down, you can’t batter them with sanctions towards work – or you can try, but it’s unsurprising why we’re having an enquiry because it doesn’t particularly work.”

He added: “From my time in Westminster, and I very much was guilty of it at the time, I think benefits policy in this country is too much – under all governments – been sort of written to create headlines to please certain newspapers and not actually to do the job of encouraging the recovery of people back towards a better position in the in their life.

“And I think what happens is when you leave, when I left as a minister, as a shadow minister, and you come in as a mayor, I just don’t think about all that – ‘will this please this paper?’…

“And it’s obviously a completely different bottom up sort of offer that you give to people.

“When you give that offer, people respond… It is having the courage to step outside of a sort of ‘you’ve got to have a punitive language linked to benefits’. I mean, that’s been the Westminster way for quite a long time.

“If you really want to help people, if you really want to save money and get more people into work, I think you have to come at it a completely different way.”

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