Government Must Make Work Pay - Laws

5.13.45pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 4th Oct 2006

Commenting on today's Institute for Fiscal Studies report, which concludes that Labour's reforms of the benefit system have weakened average work incentives, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, David Laws MP said:

"It is inevitable that Labour's obsession with means testing and an increasingly complex benefits system has led to reduced work incentives.

"Britain should be a land of opportunity, not a state of dependency.

"It is insane that low paid workers can lose over half of any increase in their earnings through tax and the withdrawal of benefits.

"It is critical that we simplify our tax and benefits system to make it fairer and better understood. Citizens need to know that by working harder they can improve their quality of life."

Applicability: this item refers to England. Due to devolution, detailed policy may be different in other areas of the UK.