Credit: Wazzle
Labour MP Rachel Reeves has criticised a new Tory guideline that will integrate a ‘family test’ into the process of forming new laws and policies . The ‘family test’ guideline, which was published on Friday, aims to ‘support strong and stable families’ with the hope to assist cuts in ‘…costs related to social issues’.
The Department for Work and Pensions has stated in the guideline that ‘all departments need to fully understand how government policies support strong family relationships…’ and encourages ‘departments to identify and take action to address any policies that could undermine them’.
The test, which was produced with the help of families groups, encompasses five questions that will be answered before policies and laws can be passed. The questions are as follows:
- What kind of impact might the policy have on family formation?
- What kind of impact will the policy have on families going through key transitions such as becoming parents, getting married, fostering or adopting, bereavement, redundancy, new caring responsibilities or the onset of a long-term health condition?
- What impacts will the policy have on all family members’ ability to play a full role in family life, including with respect to parenting and other caring responsibilities?
- How does the policy impact families before, during and after couple separation?
- How does the policy impact those families most at risk of deterioration of relationship quality and breakdown?
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves challenged the efficacy of a ‘family test’ and previous Tory efforts to improve family life:
“This new test will do nothing to help the millions of families who have lost out over the last four-and-a-half years as a result of this government’s policies”.
Reeves criticised Tory policy over the last four years stating:
“David Cameron promised his government would be the most family-friendly ‘ever’ but the independent IFS has said families will be £974 a year worse off because of tax and benefit changes since 2010”
The Labour MP further condemned the Tory government in its approach to childcare and austerity:
“ Families have been hit with soaring childcare costs and huge cuts…Child poverty is set to rise, not fall under David Cameron as millions of families struggle to cope with the cost-of-living crisis”
Rachel Reeves (Credit – Pinkhandbag)
Reeves outlined planned Labour approaches to keeping family’s strong:
“A Labour government will freeze energy bills for families…raise the minimum wage and introduce a lower 10p starting rate of tax which will cut taxes for 24 million working people on middle and lower incomes.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said that the new guideline displays “a clear and unqualified commitment to strengthening and supporting family life for our children and for generations to come”.
Smith stated that “Families are the foundations of society…. So in order to build a stronger society and secure Britain’s future we must ensure we support them, and the relationships on which they are built.”
Ruth Sutherland, Chair of the Relationships Alliance and Chief Executive Officer of Relate, supports the ‘family test’, saying ‘We very much welcome the implementation of the family test, which was announced at our Relationships Summit in August’. Sutherland praised the new guidance stating:
“This is an important step towards putting families and relationships at the heart of public policy, something we have been campaigning passionately for”.
The Department of Work and Pensions also plans to spend £20 million on ‘relationship support’ which aims to guarantee ‘family stability’. The department will introduce antenatal classes across the country in ‘6 regions’ which will emphasise the importance of paternal involvement in the upbringing of a child.
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