I WAS delighted this week to hear David Cameron focusing on what he called an ‘all-out assault on poverty’, tackling some of the key root causes including mental health problems, addiction, family breakdown and poor life skills.

In announcing additional funding for improved access to mental health services, mentoring programmes and parenting classes, he said that a lot of poverty is expressed as ‘paucity of opportunity’ – the complex circumstances and personal barriers that prevent people from taking up the opportunities they are offered.

Examples of this often come up in my constituency casework. Only recently, I met someone who had apparently transitioned successfully from supported living to having his own flat.

Shortly after, falling ill and suffering a hiatus in his employment, he found himself unable to budget for his reduced circumstances and fell into arrears – severely limiting his future housing options and plunging him straight back into crisis.

There is always a tension around providing the right support to help people manage their lives without inadvertently shielding them to the extent that they lose the ability to function independently.

I believe that the benefits system should take an optimistic view of people’s potential, replicating the real world as much as possible, allowing them the dignity of managing their own money and teaching them the resilience to cope with the challenges that life throws at them.

Also at the forefront of my mind this week has been the action by junior doctors over changes to their contracts.

It is always disappointing when trust breaks down and a great shame that the BMA walked out of talks when so much progress was being made, including agreement on 15 out of 16 of the issues on the table.