Labour's new welfare changes are practical and compassionate so why not loudly say so? | Polly Toynbee

"It's the good this government does that can make you hold your head in your hands and sigh. Ask people what they think of Labour policy on benefits and they will probably talk of seizing the winter fuel allowance from freezing pensioners. Or that 5bn snatched from disabled people, until Labour's own MPs prevented it. These were the signifiers that set the wrong tone early on."

"As financial secretary to the Treasury, he took the Child Poverty Act through parliament in 2010. In opposition, he chaired the work and pensions committee scrutinising the Tory years. Now as minister for social security and disability, he chairs two crucial reviews, one on personal independence payments (Pip) for disability and one on universal credit. The basic benefit for adults has never risen in real terms since the 1970s, he said."

"Late, far too late, abolishing the two-child limit has not made the same impression on public perceptions, despite the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) this week reporting it as being behind what could be the greatest ever fall in child poverty in a parliament. The government fails to herald its progress in reversing the worst the Tories did to benefits. Why? I'm not sure if it is ineptitude or a political decision not to trumpet its many progressive policies."

Public perceptions of benefit policy remain negative because early high-profile measures such as proposals to seize the winter fuel allowance and cuts affecting disabled people set a damaging tone. Abolishing the two-child limit is reducing child poverty and could produce the largest parliamentary fall, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, yet the government has not effectively promoted these gains. Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability, oversees reviews of personal independence payments and universal credit. Universal credit's standard allowance will rise above inflation each year for the next four years, delivering a 2.3% real increase and incremental relief.

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