Chris Grayling, Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, answers your questions.
Ewan Watt: Where does the government's Flexible New Deal fall short?
At the moment neither Pathways to Work nor the Flexible New Deal offer a real alternative for the 2.6 million current claimants of Incapacity Benefit. Almost all of the current claimants are excluded from the Government's plans. Yet they are by far the biggest welfare challenge we face, and we know that many of those claimants would like help to get back into work. My view about Flexible New Deal is that it is putting some foundation stones in the ground for us in implementing our much more radical proposals. Its other big drawback is the length of time it will take before it kicks in. Normally now people will wait a year before being put onto a return-to-work programme and even then what is on offer will be too limited. That's all much too long. But the whole Government approach is much too tentative, and as such continues to make relatively little difference.
Tony Makara: How do you intend to move the 1.65 million JSA claimants and the 700,000 expected to move from IB onto JSA into the 665,000 jobs that are available at the better end of the economic cycle? Even if all the vacancies are filled you will still be saddled with over a million jobless. What can you do to help a million people find work?
No one pretends that this will happen overnight, but we do know that between two and three million additional jobs have been created in the UK in the past decade. The Government admits that the majority of those jobs have gone to people coming in to this country from overseas. I just think that it makes no sense to have people coming to the UK to work while we have potentially three million or more people who could be back in work. Of course we will not eliminate unemployment, but I think we can and should do much better than we have over the past ten years. That's the whole purpose of our welfare reform proposals. We should improve the support available to help people back into work, but be much tougher on those who are not doing their bit to get back into work. So we will expect them to take part in comprehensive return to work programmes and to accept reasonable job offers - and if they don't they can't expect to carry on receiving out of work benefits.
Jennifer Wells: How can I help in Henley? I'm a full-time mother who can't travel to help you.
There are a number of ways in which you can help us. There are others in your position, and we are keen to get everyone involved. Give us a ring at the campaign office on 0845 230 4026 and we'll sort out what will work for you.
Daniel Emmett-Gulliver: Which is more lamentable: a nation which leaves its children behind, or a nation which refuses to repay the debt it owes to its older generation?
Neither is great - and we will have to do a better job with both. For our children, we need to stop looking at child poverty in such a two dimensional way. Until we address the root causes of poverty, like family breakdown and worklessness, we will never really tackle the problem. For our pensioners, we need a simpler system of support for pensioners on low incomes and to restore the earnings link so we can move more pensioners out of means testing altogether.
Vince: How's it going in Henley? Are you willing to predict the result? Go on....
I know you'd love me to give a forecast, but you won’t be surprised to learn that I'm not for tempting on that one. Henley has always been a good Conservative seat, and we have plenty of support in the constituency. But by-elections are funny things, particularly if the turnout is low. So we can't afford to take it for granted. That's why we need as many supporters and members as possible to come and spend some time in the Oxfordshire sunshine (well this week anyway - last week it rained!).
Alex R: Are you against plans to roll of the Additional Cost Allowance into a tax free salary top up?
I think, after much reflection, that the current system should remain, but with much greater transparency so that people can see what the money is being spent on.
...and do you agree that MPs should in fact pay an additional tax on the second home they purchased with the ACD to repay taxpayers?
Bear in mind that the sale of a second home is subject to capital gains tax anyway. These things are much more difficult to sort out in reality than they sound in practice. What happens, for example, to someone who becomes a Minister and as a result changes their living pattern mid way through their career. How do you work out which was the second home at the end of their career to calculate the tax? My own view is that the best solution to all of this is much greater transparency.
Dan Beckham: Are big decisions made in shadow cabinet or in small subgroups of the shadow cabinet? Or where?
The detailed policy work is done in smaller groups. But all big decisions are brought to the Shadow Cabinet for approval.
Oberon Houston: In a recent interview on Channel 4 News Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked (with regard t o the Labour 10p tax fiasco after Stephen Timms had been allowed to pitch Browns line): "You want to cut tax for rich people..."
... and you started to reply with a more focused discussion on the reasons for child poverty, "Well Labour have a 2D approach to..."
"You want to tax the rich less don't you..."
"Well, we just think..."
"You want to tax the rich less don't you..."
Now, you were hounded out of being able to answer the question immediately to avoid the 'wife beater' question. Do you think you were allowed to put the Conservative case in a timely and reasonable manner - OR - do you feel that your presence was more important for forms sake than your contribution to the debate?
I think there is a particular desire among broadcasters to provide a bit of balance at a time when much of the news has been about chaos in the Labour Party. So sometimes we are clearly being given an unduly hard time because of that. But I have to say that I haven't generally had cause to complain about the coverage we have had from Channel 4.
Madeleine Stacey: Why did you come into politics?
For the same reason, I suspect, that most do - the desire to make a difference. I do think, though, that politicians should be more up front about how much of a difference we really can make. There's a real danger in promising too much.
'A Candidate': Is the local effect of a good candidate increasing or decreasing?
I think increasing. If you take the example of someone like Grant Shapps, who is a brilliant local campaigner and won by far more than he should have on a national swing, you can see the difference in action. So I do strongly believe that it is worth all of the campaigning effort for candidates - and hopefully many will win and win well next time.
