Dundee LibDems support Sir Menzies Campbell on welfare reform.

6.46.00am GMT Thu 28th Dec 2006

Allan Petrie supports Sir Menzies Campbell on welfare reform

Dundee Liberal Democrats today (Thursday 28th December) lent their support to calls by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell for fundamental reform of the welfare system.

Sir Menzies has warned that Gordon Brown's "obsession" with means testing has created a culture of dependency. The Liberal Democrats have unveiled proposals to drastically simplify the welfare system. These include:

* Stop encouraging couples with children to split up by removing the financial penalty that low income parents incur if they choose to stay together

* Consider raising child benefit to the same level for every child in a family

* Reduce the age of the youngest child at which we expect lone parents to work

* Sign up to the child poverty target and set two additional 2020 goals for (a) increasing child literacy and numeracy and (b) halving the number of people claiming incapacity benefit

* Simplify the whole benefits system and aim to cut the number of benefits from 50 to 25 and reducing by half the number of people facing marginal tax rates of 60% or more

Sir Menzies said, "Gordon Brown's strategy of mass means-testing is undermining work, saving, and families. If you work all your life, you now get a basic state pension which is over 25% lower than if you had not worked at all. I am determined to take the fight for a fairer Britain into the mainstream of British politics.

"With Labour wedded to dependency, and the Tories to compassionate inactivity, the Liberal Democrats are the only party that can effectively stand up for the poor and the disadvantaged."

Locally, here in Dundee, Liberal Democrat spokesperson Allan Petrie said, "We greatly support the proposals spelled out by Sir Menzies to provide for a fairer system of welfare provision. Only the Liberal Democrats have solid proposals to improve the system for our citizens."

Related Links:

Campbell slams Labour's dependency Britain.

Lib Dems launch plan to simplify welfare system - Guardian.