Secretary of State for Work and Pensions visits Falinge

Date published: 15/05/2008

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell MP, paid a visit to the under-fire estate of Falinge today and said it was time to put an end to “unfair stereotyping”.

Invited to meet local residents and attend a community forum by Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, the cabinet minister said that he was encouraged to meet so many people who were either working or actively seeking employment.

“I think this area needs someone to stand up for it, as it’s clear that Falinge is becoming stereotyped in the media,” he said. “This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy in that people start to believe the negative headlines and then it makes it harder for them to make something of themselves.”

One resident told the minister that the adverse media attention was having a damaging effect on people’s self respect. “I thought they had finished the story in March [Falinge was reported as having the highest concentration of out-of-work benefit claimants in Britain], so I didn’t expect them to come back and assassinate us again,” she said in response to last week’s GMTV report.

“Now when people ask me where I live, I say ‘Lower Falinge and your point is?’ You do get a bit defensive,” she added.

Unlike GMTV’s correspondent, Jonathan Swain, who said that Falinge was “certainly not the place you’d happily wander around”, Mr Purnell said he was happy to walk about the estate and talk to members of the public and local business owners. “The challenge is to help people who are out of work get back into work,” he explained. “I’ve looked at the figures and I know the jobs are available for people here. We have record levels of employment in Britain today. It’s not like the early 90s when the jobs just weren’t there. People who are able to, have to work. They can’t be expected to remain on benefits.”

Speaking after the Prime Minister had outlined a series of welfare reforms to the House of Commons yesterday, as part of the draft legislation programme, the Minister told people that the government was looking at options to modernise the benefits system. He said this would strengthen the benefit contract between the individual and society – the individual’s right to support in exchange for clear personal responsibility for improving their own circumstances.

Later, when speaking to community members as part of a debating forum he was told that some people found it very unsettling to be put under immediate financial pressure when they moved off benefits and into employment. “This is a real issue,” said the Minister. “The reason I’m keen to hear about your experiences of housing benefit is because some housing organisations aren’t very good and I’m aware that people can get into arrears quickly while they’re waiting for their housing benefit to be recalculated. We’re working to make a more stable benefits system that helps people back into work.”

The Minister was also told that a lack of children’s facilities in the area was resulting in youngsters not feeling sufficiently involved in their community to want to put something back into it. “Rochdale does get funding from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund and the council should be making sure you get a fair share,” he explained. Other issues put to him included that of asylum seekers not being allowed to work and being pushed into areas where there were scarce resources, which causes resentment, a need for more English language classes and the problem of agencies discriminating against job applicants because they had a Falinge address.

Promising to raise some of these matters in government, Mr Purnell paid a special tribute to a number of volunteers who had come to share their experiences. “Without people like you, communities fall apart,” he said.

Simon Danczuk added that he would be challenging his colleagues in the council to do more for the area. “I want to see Falinge getting a better deal from the council and I want to see better leadership from our MP,” he said. “He should be expressing horror that the Lib Dems are committed to abolishing the New Deal, which has helped thousands of people into jobs.”