A Conservative minister has been criticised for suggesting some people had not realised they needed to go without luxuries such as premium TV subscriptions, when she was asked about the tax credit cuts that mean families will lose £1,300 on average.
Tracey Crouch, the sports minister, said some of the problems the government was facing over the tax credit cuts were “about communication”, after the House of Lords forced ministers to rethink plans to save £4.4bn by slashing in-work benefits.
Asked by the Spectator about the cuts, Crouch talked about the case of some constituents who said they were struggling but were still paying for premium television channels.
“We will be discussing this, and I’m sure that DWP [the Department for Work and Pensions] are looking at all of these issues, in great detail, but I think at the end of the day one of the kindest things that we can do is try to help people to support themselves and work around their finances,” she said.
“Some of my most heartbreaking cases are those that come to me saying that they are struggling and then you go through with them their expenditure and income – I’m not generalising at all, I’m talking about some very individual cases – and actually they just haven’t realised some of the savings that they need to make themselves, you know it can be … things like paid subscriptions to TVs and you just sit there and you think you have to sometimes go without if you are going to have people make ends meet.”
Crouch later apologised for causing any offence.
“I’m sorry for giving the impression of a lack of understanding of the financial pressures many families face. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey, a shadow Treasury minister, said it was “outrageous” that Crouch had said people “need to go without in order to make ends meet”.
“Losing £1,300 a year isn’t about cutting back on luxuries, it’s about families being able to pay the bills,” she said.
George Osborne is working out how to mitigate the impact of the tax credit cuts, having come under pressure from some of his own MPs and from Labour and Lib Dem peers.
Earlier this week, the Conservative-controlled Commons work and pensions committee condemned the changes and urged him to consider a pause to undertake a fundamental rethink of his priorities in reforming the welfare state.
It argued that a slower phasing-in of the tax credit cuts would compromise neither the government’s commitment to cut spending on welfare nor its efforts to balance the books by the end of the parliament.
Crouch made the comments in a candid interview about being the first serving Tory minister to take maternity leave. She also spoke openly about having had a miscarriage during the election campaign.
Having been asked by David Cameron to be a minister, she said, “I said I wasn’t sure because I wanted to start a family and I said it so very honestly. I said to him I’m 40, I want to start a family, that I’d had a miscarriage during the election and it had changed my priorities on life in general.”
She is now expecting a child in February.
