Welfare reform is an enormous task that must not be rushed

That is not to say that Smith is not on the right track.

It is good news he plans to scrap the 16-hour rule which allows people to get some benefits as long as they don't work too many hours.

The plans to change the tax rules to ensure there is a financial incentive to work was one of the most sensible pre-election pledges and I'm cheered to see it being implemented. 

But both the government and the opposition need to lay aside political arguments.

The government needs to give equal weight to all suggestions and consider all practical alternatives not just those from its own favoured think tanks.

The opposition needs to be constructive

It is not enough for shadow work and pensions secretary Yvette Copper to claim the plans have not been properly costed. Labour needs to admit that for all its own number-fudging and tinkering unemployment remains a blight on British society. They need to be clear about where they tried but failed and what got in their way.

And everyone taking part in the debate needs to be careful about stigmatising the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed. Not everyone on benefits is a cheat or a scrounger.

Unless you have experienced it, the crippling effects of unemployment on a person's confidence, on their health and on their ability to get back into work are easy to dismiss.

But labelling these people layabouts is to misunderstand how the constant battle with incomprehensible bureaucracy, of being passed from one department to the next and back again leads to a sense of hopelessness and mistrust.

Imagine having to spend every day for months if not years of your life trying to get someone with as much sense of purpose as the people in Santander's customer services departments to help you get a job and how that would affect your state of mind. 

The devil will be in the detail

Smith is talking the talk but as the IFS points out some of the current priorities suggest there is little rationale behind some of the current plans such as the desire to taper housing benefit depending on how long you have been unemployed or the plans to put a cap on housing benefit. 

By penalising those who need the most help and forcing the unemployed out of the London, the government will cut the bill but could add to the ghettoisation that Smith says he wants to tackle, especially if it forces people to live far from where jobs are being created.