LAST week I voted in favour of an overall cap on Welfare spending.  There has been some confusion between the overall spending cap and the individual spending cap which came into force last September.

The overall spending cap on welfare does not and will not lead to any automatic benefit cuts.

It is important to point out that state pensions, JSA and related housing costs are also excluded from this cap.

It is based on existing forecasts for welfare spending — which increase year-on-year — and so does not amount to a cut. A future Labour government would be able to amend this cap as it sees fit.

I believe introducing an overall benefit cap is the correct thing to do, not because I want to penalise those on benefit, but because ministers should be forced to address their policy failings.

As Ed Miliband has rightly said, his Labour government will control welfare spending by tackling the root causes, not by cutting benefit.

How will we achieve this? We will scrap the bedroom tax; increase wages by strengthening the National Minimum Wage and encourage employers to pay a Living Wage through ‘Make Work Pay’ contracts; we will build an additional 200,000 homes a year by the end of the next parliament to help bring down spiralling rents which add to housing benefit bills and we will reform the private rented sector to provide a fairer deal for tenants.

The welfare cap is about accountability and not about abandoning the fight against the root causes of poverty.  It is a disservice to those having to survive on benefits to say otherwise.