Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con)
1. What assessment he has made of the level of charges levied by doctors for completing benefit assessment information.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
The Department is able to request medical information from doctors as part of the process of assessing an individual’s entitlement to benefit; for example, doctors have to complete the fit note and the ESA113 forms and they have also to complete, where we pay them, forms related to the application for the personal independence payment.
Andrew Griffiths
I thank the Minister for that answer, but East Staffordshire citizens advice bureau has raised with me concerns that GPs are charging vulnerable constituents of mine up to £135 to provide information requested as part of the work capability assessment. Although his Department is not responsible for those charges, does he share my concern that vulnerable people on benefits are being charged this amount of money and may actually not be able to access benefits to which they are entitled?
Mr Harper
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. Certainly as far as the WCA for the employment and support allowance is concerned, GPs are contractually required to provide a fit note and to provide the ESA113 form, so perhaps if he and I speak afterwards I can get further details of the specific case he mentions, because it may raise some issues that need to be drawn to my attention.
Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)
Might the Minister extend that invitation to other Members of the House who are equally concerned about the charges made on our poorer constituents so that they can make benefits appeals? I am talking about ESA. Can he justify a group who are among the top 1% of salary earners in this country charging our constituents these extraordinary rates, in order that our constituents may try to establish their right, for example, to ESA?
Mr Harper
As I said in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths), when people are applying for ESA in the first place the Department obviously asks them to provide any medical information they think will be helpful, and as part of that process GPs are required contractually to fill in a specific form. Constituents should not be charged for extra information provided on top of that as part of their application. If the right hon. Gentleman wants to give me the information, I will be very happy to look into the specific case he mentions.
Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)
Does the Minister share my concern that one major reason for inappropriate decisions is a complete lack of evidence submitted by general practitioners and hospital doctors, without whom no appropriate decision can be made? What views does he have on trying to encourage hospital doctors also to provide this information, to allow the right decision to be made first time around?
Mr Harper
Again, the rules are very clear: under a long-standing agreement, NHS hospitals and trusts are obliged to provide the relevant information free of charge and within 10 working days. However, from listening to my hon. Friend’s question it sounds as if he may have encountered at least one case where that has not happened. I will speak to him afterwards to see whether that raises any issues about whether this policy, which is clear, is actually being implemented by NHS organisations.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
When people in my office were chasing up Atos the other day, they were told that it is still dealing with ESA claims from the beginning of 2013, and that one reason for not being able to process claims more quickly was a difficulty in recruiting doctors to submit the medical information. Will the Minister examine this situation urgently, because it is obviously causing huge distress to people who are having to wait well over a year for their claims to be looked at?
David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to ensure that employees will not be auto-enrolled into high-cost pension schemes.
The Minister for Pensions (Steve Webb)
As part of our strategy to ensure value for money in pension savings, we announced earlier this year that we would protect members of pension schemes used for automatic enrolment by introducing a default fund cap of 0.75% from April 2015. We will shortly publish more details on the implementation of the charges measures.
David Mowat
I thank the Pensions Minister for that answer, and I congratulate him on introducing that cap, which is half the level of the one introduced by the previous Government for stakeholder pensions. Over time, our cap will save pensioners £1 billion a year. Can he confirm, for the avoidance of doubt, that the cap will also apply to older, legacy pension schemes, some of which currently charge up to 2% per annum?
Steve Webb
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his supportive comments. Focusing on automatic enrolment, I am pleased to tell him that we aim to protect as many members of automatic enrolment qualifying schemes as possible, regardless of when they started contributing. From April 2015, the cap will therefore apply both to members of schemes newly set up for automatic enrolment and existing qualifying schemes for auto-enrolment.
Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)
How concerned is the Minister about savers who want to take advantage of new pension flexibilities being subject to huge penalties in exiting their scheme? What action is he taking to ensure that that cannot happen?
Steve Webb
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. A review of legacy pension schemes is under way, under the auspices of the Association of British Insurers, and the issue of excessive exit fees is part of it. In most cases, the terms of schemes will allow people to access their budget flexibilities, but there may be some where the contract and scheme rules impose a charge, and that is a contract that people have entered into.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
Locally, auto-enrolment seems to be working smoothly for those on monthly salaries, but it is incredibly difficult for those on weekly wages. Are the Government familiar with that? Is the Minister able to assist in that regard?
Steve Webb
We have made a number of changes to make sure that auto-enrolment works as smoothly as possible for the whole diversity of employment scenarios, such as the one to which my hon. Friend refers. The point about automatic enrolment is that where someone who is paid weekly exceeds the threshold once, they should be automatically enrolled. If in a subsequent week they earn below the threshold, nothing happens—no payment is due and no payment is made. If they go above the threshold again, payment is made, but there is no re-enrolment, disenrolment or leaving of the scheme. The complexity is often in perception, rather than in reality. If she is aware of individual employers who have particular problems, I would be pleased, as always, to receive details.
Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)
May I press the Minister further on the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner)? The Government have changed the rules on pension flexibility at retirement, or are in the course of changing them, yet there are members of pension schemes who will face huge exit penalties if they wish to take advantage of those flexibilities. Does he think pension savers in that situation will be comforted by his saying today, “Well, they entered into a contract and they have to put up with it”? The Government are changing the rules, so surely those savers deserve to be able to take advantage of the flexibilities just as much as anyone else.
Steve Webb
I do not think that the hon. Gentleman in his heart of hearts really wants these flexibilities. We announced in the Budget the flexibility for people to access their money at 55, in full and in cash if they want to do so. Clearly a minority of schemes—it is important not to exaggerate the scale of this—have contractual terms that relate to the basis on which money can be withdrawn. We are not overwriting the rules of existing schemes, but we are talking to the industry to ensure that as many people as possible can access their cash.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
3. How long the average wait for an assessment for a personal independence payment was on the latest date for which figures are available.
Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)
13. How long the average wait for an assessment for a personal independence payment was on the latest date for which figures are available.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
The straightforward answer is that claimants have to wait for too long. We are committed to putting that right by clearing backlogs and improving processing time. Analysts in the Department are currently considering what information we should publish in future. We will pre-announce that publication in due course, in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s code of practice.
Nick Smith
How much has the Department for Work and Pensions returned to the Treasury because of the delayed implementation of the PIP?
Mr Harper
The Department has not returned any money to the Treasury as a result of the delays. There have been delays in processing these payments. I know they cause issues for constituents, which is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made a clear commitment to reduce the waiting times by the autumn and then again by the end of the year. One of my top priorities, having started this job in July, is to get that reform process under way so that we can deliver that improved performance to benefit all our constituents.
Heidi Alexander
One of my constituents, a single mum who has been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, waited over nine months for her PIP claim to be processed. It was sorted out only after my intervention. When will the Minister admit that it is not just how long the claims are taking to process but the fact that the system is utterly shambolic that is causing untold hardship to many people who are already living in very difficult circumstances?
Mr Harper
I would say two things. Clearly, I am disappointed to hear about the circumstances that the hon. Lady’s constituent has faced, which is why we are focusing on improving the system. My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning), put a lot of work into improving the position for constituents who have terminal illnesses. We have made significant strides there, reducing processing times almost to the level we would expect, which is a matter of days. We are now focusing on other claims, so that constituents such as those of the hon. Lady will not have to wait for that length of time in the future.
Bridget Phillipson
In his earlier response, the Minister said that claimants are having to wait too long, but is it not the case, as Atos acknowledged in an e-mail to me, that that is on average 26 weeks? Surely it is wholly unacceptable to leave people in hardship and distress while they wait. What will the Minister do to sort out that chaos?
Mr Harper
First, I agree that the wait is too long. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made it clear that no one should be waiting longer than 26 weeks by the autumn, and 16 weeks by the end of the year, and we will make sure that that happens. As regards hardship, PIP is not an income-replacement benefit for those out of work. It is paid in work and out of work. There are other benefits available such as employment and support allowance, which can help those people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)
What scope is there for increasing the number of people who can get PIP without having to go through the medical assessment? If written evidence is clear that they are entitled to it, why waste everyone’s time by going through an assessment?
Mr Harper
I agree with my hon. Friend. It is a relatively new benefit, and what we are trying to ensure is that in cases where there is clear medical evidence for the impact of someone’s disability, the decision can be made without their having to come in for a face-to-face assessment. That was not happening enough in the earlier stages; it is one of the improvements that we are making.
Charles Hendry (Wealden) (Con)
A constituent has contacted me to tell me that when he turned up for his assessment he was told that it had been cancelled because there were too many people waiting, so he was sent home. He then missed two further appointments, arguably through no fault of his own, and has now been refused a further assessment. Will the Minister intervene to ensure that, as the first one was cancelled through no fault of his own and was a result of a mistake by the assessors, a new assessment can be booked for him as soon as possible?
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
May I first welcome the Minister’s refreshingly clear and straightforward response to the initial question? To get things right, we must first admit that things are not working perfectly. To that end, has he been able to assess how different assessment centres compare against one another and whether any good practice from one can be carried over to the others?
Mr Harper
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. He will know that we have committed to two independent reviews of the PIP assessment, the first of which will report to Parliament at the end of this year. Last week I had the opportunity to meet Paul Gray, who is carrying out that review, and I am confident that his report will give us lots of useful things that we can do to improve matters on top of the things that we already do.
Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)
Delays in getting a decision are causing other problems which I hope the Minister will look into. First, people are waiting so long that the sum they eventually get from the DWP puts them above the capital limits, which can affect their income-related benefits and cause problems with their housing benefit. Secondly, there seems to be some sort of computer glitch that means that when somebody is on ESA and is then awarded PIP the ESA stops and it takes some time for them to get that payment. Will the Minister consider both problems?
Mr Harper
I will certainly consider the points that the hon. Lady makes. I am due before her Select Committee a week Thursday for an extensive session on the personal independence payment. I am sure that she will ask me that question then and I hope that I will have a detailed answer prepared for her in advance.
Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)
5. What recent steps his Department has taken to support older workers.
The Minister for Pensions (Steve Webb)
The Government have abolished the default retirement age, extended the right to request flexible working and given people more freedom in how they draw their pension pots to smooth the transition to retirement. We recently published “Fuller Working Lives: a framework for action”, which sets out the business case for employing older workers, and we have appointed Dr Ros Altmann as the Government’s business champion for older workers.
Steve Webb
My hon. Friend is quite right that older workers have valuable knowledge and experience and that employers who fail to retain their older workers are losing important skills from their work force. However, I can assure my hon. Friend and the centenarians who will be attending his event in Southend that we do not require them actively to seek work.
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab)
What will the Government do to support those workers who, owing to the raising of the pension age in some key public services, might not be physically active enough to do their current jobs?
Steve Webb
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. In a world where people will be of working age for potentially 50 years, assuming that they will do a single job for their whole life is increasingly unrealistic. We need to do a great deal more to enable people to transition into less physically demanding jobs. We have recently piloted something called the mid-life career review, which starts people thinking much earlier about what they might be able to do later in life and other courses of action that might be open to them. We also need to challenge employer attitudes, which we are doing.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
Although unemployment in my constituency is down a welcome 35% and youth unemployment is down by 40%, unemployment among those over 50 has stubbornly not reduced by the same rate. Will the Minister therefore endorse and welcome Enfield North’s first online older employees forum, which we have set up, along with our older employees forum and jobs fair on 26 October?
Steve Webb
I am very pleased to hear about the activity in which my hon. Friend is engaged. We are not asking for charity as regards employing older workers, and we often find when we talk to employers that many of them get it already. They realise that recruiting and retaining older workers benefits both young and old in the work force, and we want to see a lot more of that.
Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)
Why does “Fuller Working Lives” not recognise the difference in the experience of older women workers and older men workers? Older women are about four times as likely to be carers and the biggest pay gap is between women and men over 50. What are the Government doing about that, apart from appointing Ros Altmann?
Steve Webb
I wonder whether the hon. Lady has read the document, given that one of the key groups on which we focus is carers. We specifically state in the document that carers face particular barriers in the labour market and that is why we need more flexible employment, such as our extension of the right to request flexible employment to all workers as of this year.
Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)
6. How many people were awaiting a work capability assessment on the latest date for which figures are available.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
Between April and the end of July, the number of people awaiting an employment and support allowance work capability assessment fell by 75,000 to 637,000. It is worth saying, as I have said in answer to the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), that claimants will normally be in receipt of benefit while they wait for an assessment, and that any arrears due are paid once a decision is made.
Nia Griffith
The Work and Pensions Committee said in its recent report that the flaws in the system were so grave that simply rebranding the work capability assessment for eligibility for employment and support allowance by giving it a new contractor would simply not solve the problem. Does the Minister agree, and what changes will he make to the new contract?
Mr Harper
I am not going to prejudge at the Dispatch Box the detailed response I shall give to the Work and Pensions Committee’s detailed look at the work capability assessment, but clearly one of our key priorities is to continue Atos’s work to the end of its contract, get the new provider in place and ensure that the process is working. The Select Committee made some thoughtful remarks about steps for the future. We shall respond to them in due course, when I respond to its report.
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
I am delighted to congratulate the Minister on his new appointment.
Last month, it emerged that some people have been waiting a year and more for a work capability assessment—we heard that again from my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) this afternoon. The Minister is right that many of those people will receive some benefit while waiting for their claim to be processed, but they may also be subject to inappropriate conditionality and a deep sense of uncertainty and insecurity. What action is he taking to ensure that assessments and claims are finalised within 13 weeks, as the Government intended?
Mr Harper
I thank the hon. Lady for welcoming me to my post. I agree with her. She is absolutely right—I have said that we want to drive down the length of time that people are waiting. My priority is, first, to ensure that Atos performs against its commitments to the end of its contract in February, that we get a new contract awarded to a new provider, and that the new provider picks up the reins smoothly from Atos and continues to drive down the backlog, so that our constituents wait as little time as possible. Those are the things I shall be focused on between now and the election.
Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
7. What progress he has made on the introduction of face-to-face pensions advice.
The Minister for Pensions (Steve Webb)
Our summer response to the consultation “Freedom and choice in pensions” outlined the policy and legislative details underpinning the implementation of the guidance guarantee. We will bring forward amendments to the Pensions Schemes Bill to introduce the guidance guarantee, and the Treasury implementation team continues its extensive service design work. We will publish an update note on the project in the autumn.
Robert Flello
Despite the announcements made in the summer, I understand that the pensions industry continues to express considerable concern about funding the guarantee levy, whether the service will be ready in time and how the scheme will operate. I understand that there is also widespread concern among consumers about how the scheme will operate and whether it will be ready in time. Given that this is perhaps the most important decision that people will face in their lives—it is certainly one of the most important decisions—and that there is concern that people will receive guidance and think it is advice, or that the guidance will not be comprehensive enough, what will the Minister do to ensure that the proposal works properly and quickly?
Steve Webb
We are actively engaged in making those preparations, but we entirely accept that the time scale is tight. I contrast our proposals with the current situation, in which hundreds of thousands of people reach an age at which they choose whether or not to buy an annuity and get no guidance, advice or help whatever. This will be free. The guidance will be independent and will be face to face if people want that. It will be a vast improvement on what currently happens.
Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)
Given that this decision is one of the most important that people make, and that one point they will consider is how they might meet the costs of their long-term care later in their old age, will the Minister take the necessary steps to ensure that this advice covers how to make the right decisions on paying for long-term care?
Steve Webb
My right hon. Friend has a strong track record on long-term care and making it affordable—he and our right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department of Health, have introduced legislation on that. On the guidance guarantee, I have to be slightly wary of trying to jemmy in large numbers of different topics, but it is clear, as my right hon. Friend says, that retirees need to think about financial liabilities later in retirement. The guidance conversation offers an opportunity to start that process and to signpost people to places where they can find further information.
Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
8. What steps he is taking to limit the availability of benefits to migrants from other EU member states.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)
Since January, EU jobseekers have not been able to claim jobseeker’s allowance until they have been in the country for at least three months and can then claim for only a maximum of six months. Shortly, we will further limit the claim time from six months to three months. In addition, EU jobseekers cannot now claim housing benefit.
Stephen Metcalfe
Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the recent fall in non-UK nationals claiming working-age benefits, and will he do all he can to ensure that that trend continues?
Mr Duncan Smith
My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. Overall the total number of national insurance number registrations to adult overseas nationals is down by more than 7,000 on the year, or 1%. NINo registrations from outside the EU are down by 30,000 on the year, or 17%, and outside the EU annual registrations to all world areas have fallen to the lowest level since records began in 2002.
Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State confirm that when the Prime Minister finally reveals the shopping list for presentation to the European Union on renegotiation, it will include renegotiation of the position relating to benefits? Will he now specify which particular benefits he has in mind?
Mr Duncan Smith
I am not in a position to pre-guess what the Prime Minister will decide in his negotiations—he will make it altogether clear. But I hope that both sides of the House, including the hon. Gentleman, will recognise that a negotiation followed by trusting the people to vote on whether they wish to stay in the EU is a good plan rather than a bad plan.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)
21. I congratulate the Secretary of State on the introduction of a much more robust test before people qualify for benefit, but what discussions has he had with his European partners on further steps to prevent benefit tourism and to get the message across that the UK is a place where people come to work, not to claim?
Mr Duncan Smith
I have visited and talked to a number of my colleagues across Europe—in Germany, Holland, Spain and France—and I have also talked to the Danish Minister. Everyone to whom I have spoken so far and many more—I see that the Poles have also come to the same conclusion—have decided that there is something fundamentally wrong with the European Commission interpretation of people’s right to access benefits in a country where they do not have residency. Recently, the Germans have tightened up in almost exactly the same way as we have done. We had all those people saying that what we were doing was terrible, but now that the Germans are doing it, those people have gone quite quiet.
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)
Is not the question of who gets a benefit from this country, or who comes to stay in this country, a matter for this Parliament, not for the EU?
Mr Duncan Smith
That is exactly the point that I have been making from the beginning. We have always said to the European Commission that this matter lay outside the treaties. It is a national Government responsibility, and it is national Governments who should take that responsibility. The Opposition did very little about organising this so that they would be able to stand against the EU Commission on that basis.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
9. How much his Department spent on benefits in 2010; and what estimate he has made of such spending in 2015.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)
In 2010-11, the Department for Work and Pensions spent £54 billion on working-age claimants and children at today's prices, and £106 billion on pensioners. Total expenditure was 9.8% of GDP. In 2015-16, as a result of our changes, the Department will spend £54 billion on working-age claimants and children at today's prices, and £116 billion on pensioners. Therefore, total expenditure is expected to be £170 billion, which is 9.6% of GDP. In this Parliament, we will therefore have saved cumulatively £50 billion, the equivalent of £1,900 for every household in the UK.
Mr Hollobone
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that for the first time in 16 years, thanks to his stewardship, the relentless annual increases in welfare spending have at last been brought under control, so that the proportion of our national output that goes on welfare spending has finally been controlled, allowing our economy more room to grow and more spending on important areas such as health and education?
Mr Duncan Smith
My hon. Friend is right. Last year, welfare spending fell in real terms for the first time in 16 years as a share of GDP, and will continue to do so. In 2010, spending was at 12.5%, and next year it will be at 11.9%. By 2015-16, the out-of-work benefit bill will fall back to pre-recession levels, down to 2.3% of GDP. It peaked under the last Government at nearly 3% of GDP.
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)
The Government claim that they are tackling what they call dependency on welfare. In the north-east, the number of working households claiming housing benefit has shot up by two thirds because wages are failing to keep up with rent. Will the Secretary of State admit that without action to tackle low pay or deal with soaring rents, the welfare bill will continue to rise?
Mr Duncan Smith
The figure the hon. Lady did not give is that out-of-work housing benefit claims are falling, and that is because people who were claiming it are now going into work. That means that they are earning more money, which means that the likelihood of their being in poverty is far less. I wonder whether the hon. Lady would like to get up sometime and congratulate us on getting more people back to work and spending less on housing benefit as a result.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
10. What recent discussions he has had with representatives of local authorities on transition plans relating to the closure of the independent living fund.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
The Department continues to work closely with the independent living fund, and just last week I met the chief executive and chairman of the board of trustees. The independent living fund continues to work closely with all local authorities in England and the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales.
Nic Dakin
North Lincolnshire council tells me that it has insufficient information about the transfer to engage properly with recipients of the ILF to give them a better sense of their future. The Government have consistently failed to give assurances that the changes will not mean that recipients lose their independence. Will the Minister give that assurance today?
Mr Harper
I am surprised by the hon. Gentleman’s comments about his local authority, because the information provided to me is that local authorities actively engage with the ILF: they have attended more than 90% of the meetings with users. The hon. Gentleman will also know that the Government are fully funding local authorities and the Scottish and Welsh Administrations for the amount of money that would be provided to people under the ILF. If he has specific concerns, he and I should have a conversation.
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
As the Government are fully funding local authorities for this obligation, can there be any possible justification for councils removing support from current recipients of the independent living fund?
Mr Harper
My hon. Friend will know that local authorities have a statutory duty to make sure that they properly support those who require social care. A third of the 1.3 million people who already get social care—444,000 people—are of working age, compared with 17,000 who are beneficiaries of the ILF, so I think local authorities are well practised at this and should have no excuse for not doing the job properly.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
May I remind the Minister that while local authorities may be well practised, they are certainly used to the fact that more and more aspects of social care are heaped on them without their having the ability to pay? He is bankrupting local authorities up and down the country and should not make the excuse that this particular benefit is being funded.
Mr Harper
I agree that local authorities have had some funding challenges due to the appalling budget deficit we inherited from the Labour party. Local authorities can set priorities. When my own local authority in Gloucestershire was making its difficult spending decisions, it rightly put adult social care and child protection at the top of that list of priorities and I am very grateful that it did so.
Mr Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) (Lab)
11. When he expects the business case for universal credit to be fully signed off.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)
I announced in December that Her Majesty’s Treasury has approved funding for the universal credit programme in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The final stage in Treasury approvals is sign-off of the full business case, which covers the full lifetime of the programme. We expect to agree that very shortly.
Mr Brown
The answer to a similar question two months ago was “very shortly”, but it is taking rather longer than the Secretary of State intended. What are the major outstanding issues between his Department and the Treasury, and where does universal credit now stand in the Cabinet Office’s traffic light system?
Mr Duncan Smith
Let me explain to the right hon. Gentleman that the reality is that we have agreed—I can run through the list for him—all the spending that is relevant to the plan that we set out at the end of last year. The final point relates to the full lifetime of that programme, which will take it all the way through, probably beyond all the years that anybody present will be in government. [Hon. Members: “Certainly you!”] To be fair, I do not think Labour will be in government given the way its Members behave. That is now being agreed and the reality is that it has to be done very carefully. I genuinely believe, from my discussions, that it will be signed off very shortly. The result will be that the programme will be seen for what it is: a programme that will deliver hugely to those who have the toughest lives and need the most support and help.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
22. One can see the advantages of the introduction of universal credit to those whose lives are toughest, but will my right hon. Friend tell the House what the benefits to both employers and businesses might be once universal credit is fully implemented?
Mr Duncan Smith
I invite anybody in the House to visit areas where universal credit is rolling out—across the north-west, and even here in London—not to talk to the likes of me but to the staff who operate the jobcentres, who will say that it has allowed them to get people started into work far quicker, so that they are taking work earlier and staying in work longer. It means that businesses on the high street can afford to take people on, to begin with for lower hours than they might otherwise have been able to do—in other words, not creating a job—and then expand it into a much fuller-time job, so improving the economy and improving lives.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
20. The Secretary of State has merely repeated what his Employment Minister has already said—that the strategic outline business case is approved until the end of the Parliament—but of course, in parting, the previous head of the civil service said that“we should not beat around the bush. It has not been signed off”,and the National Audit Office has slammed universal credit for “weak management, ineffective control and poor governance.”When are the Government going to get a grip of this chaotic shambles?
Mr Duncan Smith
It is always nice to live in the past, but the reality is that if the hon. Gentleman waits he will see that this programme is running well and will be delivering, that this programme of universal credit will benefit everybody who needs the support they most need, and that all the nonsense he is talking about will all go away.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
The truth of the matter is that this programme—the Secretary of State’s pet project—is being kept on a life-support system, and all he can say is that the Treasury has guaranteed another 247 days of funding, with nothing beyond the end of this Parliament. He comes here again and says exactly what he said on 9 July, which was that this was going to be approved “very soon”. What has gone wrong? Did the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State take two months going on holiday, or are there real sticking points in the programme because, frankly, the sums do not add up?
Mr Duncan Smith
There are no sticking points, but these matters need to be agreed carefully. This test-first-and-then-implement process is the way all future programmes will be implemented. I just want to quote Mr Manzoni, the new chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, who made it clear to the Public Accounts Committee in June that universal credit is stable and on track with the reset plan. [Interruption.] He said that it is stable and on track with the reset plan, so whatever the hon. Gentleman wants to say, when this is signed off I hope that he will come to the Dispatch Box and say that Labour Members fully support it and they will get on with it.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
12. What support his Department is providing for young people seeking employment.
The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)
Young people are offered extra support through the Youth Contract and the Work programme. I am pleased to be able to say that we have seen the largest annual fall in youth unemployment since records began, and the youth claimant count is nearly 188,000 lower than at the 2010 general election. However, we are not complacent. There is more we can do, and we are piloting new schemes for additional support for 18 to 21-year-olds.
Paul Uppal
Since 2010, more than 2,660 people have started an apprenticeship in my constituency. Will the Minister elaborate on further Government initiatives to make sure that young people in particular receive invaluable work experience?
Esther McVey
I thank my hon. Friend for the work he is doing in his constituency by helping to set up the Wolverhampton employment network, bringing employers and the local college together. We are doing many more things: not only are there over 1 million more young people on apprenticeships now, but we have had 150,000 on work experience placements since 2012, and 60,000 in sector-based work academies. In his constituency, we have had 370 on work experience, and 120 in sector-based work academies.
Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)
Youth Contract wage subsidies were an attempt, albeit half-baked, to tackle youth unemployment, but they were abruptly scrapped just before the summer recess, despite an official promise that they would be available for people applying up until next April. Why have they been scrapped? Has the Minister seen that the CBI is pointing out that “young people are struggling”, and that the biggest single cause of long-term disadvantage is “unemployment early on”?
Esther McVey
It seems that only the Labour party is still calling for incentive schemes and guarantee schemes. Even Europe is now saying what a good job the UK is doing on youth unemployment and looking at how we are moving forward. We had a wage incentive scheme, but that has stopped because we are moving the money into other areas where it is needed more. That is the right thing to do—spending the money where it will be used most effectively and efficiently. As I said, we have had the greatest annual number of young people going into work since records began.
Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)
14. What progress his Department has made on its Disability Confident campaign.
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
In July last year, the Prime Minister launched the Disability Confident campaign, which sought to encourage employers to become more confident about employing disabled people. We have reached over 1,100 local and national employers throughout Great Britain, and have received more than 200 pledges from companies in their quest to have better employment outcomes for disabled people. My predecessor wrote to colleagues and I encourage them to hold Disability Confident events in their constituencies.
Sarah Newton
I thank the Minister for his response. May I convey to him how positive the Disability Confident events are, having joined one in my constituency this summer? Will he congratulate Pluss, a great social enterprise in my constituency that has worked with more than 500 Cornish businesses to enable more than 800 people to get into work?
Mr Harper
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question and for the work that she is doing. I am pleased to be able to congratulate Pluss. I think that I am right in remembering that I visited it when I shadowed this brief in opposition. The work that it does and the success of the event are testimony to its efforts to get more disabled people into work.
Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)
The outcomes for people on the Work programme who are unemployed on health grounds are simply abysmal. What will the Minister do about that?
Mr Harper
The important thing is to see whether people who have health conditions are able to work. If we put people through a work capability assessment and they are clearly not able to work at all, we want to ensure that they get the appropriate help, but if people can work, we want to ensure that they do. That is why we have the Work programme and other schemes that give people proper support to get them into work.
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)
15. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment in (a) North Lincolnshire and (b) North East Lincolnshire local authority areas.
The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)
Simply put, the trends for employment are up. In North Lincolnshire, employment is up by 2,400 over the year and in North East Lincolnshire, employment is up by 600. Just like in the rest of the country, employment is up.
Martin Vickers
I thank the Minister for her reply and for her visit to my constituency a few weeks ago. Does she agree that it is not just Government policy that is leading to the fall in unemployment, but the excellent work that is done at jobcentres, such as the work that she witnessed at Immingham a few weeks ago?
Esther McVey
I thank my hon. Friend for inviting me up there to see the good work that is done on the ground at his local Jobcentre Plus, including the initiatives that are happening through the flexible fund and the work that is relevant to that specific area. I had a long conversation with Stuart Griffiths, the area manager, who explained how they are helping young people and how they are helping more and more people into work.
Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)
Today, I welcome an important step in our new test and learn approach to delivering universal credit, with the launch of 11 robust evaluation trials to test support for vulnerable households. We are working with local authorities in a way that has not been done before to make available a system of universal support that is delivered locally and that offers tailored help to get online and budget effectively as individuals progress into sustainable work.
Mr Bellingham
Is the Secretary of State aware that since July last year, unemployment in my constituency has fallen by a very welcome 689 people? That means that nearly 700 more families have a new wage earner and hope for the future. That is surely a clear vindication of his reforms and our long-term economic plan.
The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)
I welcome everything that my hon. Friend has said about what is happening in his constituency. Such things are happening right across the country. The coalition Government—Conservative and Lib Dem colleagues—are developing a better Britain for all of us.
Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)
Two thirds of children in poverty now live in families in which somebody is working, and a record 5 million people are earning less than a living wage. In-work poverty is an injustice and an indignity to those who suffer it, but it also costs the taxpayer through the benefit system. Will the Secretary of State tell us by how much the spending on housing benefit for people in work is expected to increase between 2010 and 2018?
Mr Duncan Smith
I wish the hon. Lady had been listening to my answer to an earlier question—[Interruption.] No, the reality is that the number of people who are out of work and on housing benefit is falling. The number of those who are in work is rising. Under the last Government, we saw a rise in the number of people who were out of work and having to claim housing benefit. Let me also remind the hon. Lady, who has voted against every single measure we have taken, that our housing benefit reforms were set to reduce the amount of money. When the Labour Government left office, housing benefit was likely to rise to £26 billion. It will now rise at a far slower rate than that, because of the reforms that we have made to housing benefit.
Rachel Reeves
The reality is that housing benefit overall is going to go up in real terms from £23 billion at the beginning of this Parliament to £24.6 billion at the end of it. Housing benefit for people in work is forecast to rise by a staggering £12.9 billion between 2010 and 2018. Does that not show that taking action to make work pay would be a much more effective way of controlling housing benefit than the unfair and unworkable bedroom tax, which I and many of my colleagues will be voting to change this Friday, and which we need a Labour Government to repeal after the general election next year?
Mr Duncan Smith
The hon. Lady is in a hole and she really should stop digging. Let me remind her of what we had to take over when we came into government. Left unreformed, the bill that Labour left us with would have exceeded £26 billion in 2014-15. Instead, today, it is £24 billion—£2 billion less. Under Labour, in-work and out-of-work housing benefit claimant numbers increased, and those who were in more despair, being out of work, had to claim higher payments. Under us, homelessness is down 7%, half the peak that occurred under the last Government, and rent collection is currently 98% higher than under the last Government. Also, housing association arrears fell during the last two quarters. All of that is better than anything that the last Government left us as a result of their record on spending.
Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)
T2. A number of my constituents have experienced lengthy delays while waiting for a decision on a review of their personal independence payment application. That is a time of great uncertainty and stress for all concerned. In addition to the efforts that the Minister has already outlined, will he tell us what steps he will take to speed up the application, review and appeal processes?
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mr Mark Harper)
My hon. Friend will know from earlier answers the priority that we attach to this. As well as ensuring that the assessment can take place faster, we are also ensuring that the DWP decision makers will be able to cope with the increased number of cases as those cases move through the system, so that, once we have got the assessment process sorted out, those decisions will be made in a timely way which will benefit her constituents and mine.
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)
T4. Ministers have talked about bedroom tax exemptions, but in reality these do not protect unpaid family carers. In fact, 60,000 carers are hit by the tax, and Carers UK has found that 75% of the carers it surveyed were cutting back on food and heating to make up the shortfall. Will the Minister now accept how cruel and unfair it is to make unpaid family carers pay the bedroom tax?
Mr Harper
The hon. Lady will know that the spare room subsidy is about making sure that people have the size of home that they are entitled to, and that if people regularly need carers to stay overnight, that is considered an acceptable reason for having an extra bedroom. She will also know that we have made considerable funds available to local authorities through the discretionary housing payments, many of which have not even been spent.
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
T3. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to reducing the waiting times for processing benefit applications. At a recent meeting that I organised for Atos, the DWP, citizens advice bureaux and MPs’ caseworkers in Gloucestershire, representatives of the CABs expressed their suspicion that DWP contractors were paid according to how many people they could take off benefits. Will my hon. Friend confirm that that is absolutely not the case? Will he also encourage CABs to work closely with MPs’ offices so that we can intervene sooner to help our constituents who have problems?
Mr Harper
I can confirm to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour that contractors are not paid based on any sort of incentive arrangement to get people off benefits. They are paid to make an accurate assessment, which they then provide to departmental decision makers. Citizens advice bureaux should continue their work with MPs’ offices, which is incredibly helpful.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
T5. Despite the Minister’s earlier optimism, is it not clear that it has all gone badly wrong when the Government can organise to pay disability benefits to an on-the-run convicted killer such as David Richards, who as I understand it just walked out of jail, but cannot organise for some of the poorest disabled people in my constituency even to have their applications assessed within six months?
Mr Rob Wilson (Reading East) (Con)
T7. In a few weeks, I will hold my eighth Reading jobs fair. At the previous seven, 20,000 jobseekers and 300 local businesses have already been welcomed. Will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State join me in thanking all the businesses and partner organisations that have made that possible, and in welcoming the impact that it has had on reducing unemployment in the Reading area?
Mr Duncan Smith
I congratulate my hon. Friend on working closely with businesses to get people back to work. Will he also pass on our congratulations to the businesses, small and large, that have done their level best to help deliver 1.7 million new jobs since the Government came to power and to turn the economy around so that it is the best performing economy in the whole of Europe?
Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)
T6. With the lamentable record of the failures of Atos, the shocking delays in assessments, the injustice of the bedroom tax and the continuing scandal of the IT system for universal credit, why does the Secretary of State stay in the job?
Mr Duncan Smith
I remind the right hon. Gentleman that this Government have got more people back to work, that we now have record levels of employment, that we have cut the deficit and that we are getting the cost of delivering welfare down. We inherited a shambles, and we have turned that around. That is the purpose of government.
Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating Rossendale jobcentre, which has just signed up nearly 45 people to its work experience programme, including me and my office? The first young person to come through my office on work experience, Liam, has just secured a job because of that work experience.
Esther McVey
First off, three cheers for Liam for getting his job through work experience, as many other people are doing across the UK. Nearly 200,000 people have been on work experience since 2011, more than 40% of whom have got a job. That just shows that people can have a positive future when they have a Government like this in charge.
John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)
T8. My hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) mentioned the carers caught up in the bedroom tax. How many of them are still caught up in it?
Mr Harper
The hon. Gentleman knows that, as I have just said, if someone has an overnight carer, that is a perfectly acceptable reason for having a room. He will also know that local authorities have been given significant sums in discretionary housing payments to deal with difficult cases that do not clearly fit the rules. Most local authorities are not spending the money that the Government have allocated to them.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
On 11 March last year, I asked the Secretary of State about under-occupancy. I said:
“Does the Secretary of State agree that no benefit reduction should take place until people have at least been offered somewhere appropriately sized and located?”—[Official Report, 11 March 2013; Vol. 560, c. 22.]
The Secretary of State said, “I agree”. What has he done to deliver that?
Mr Duncan Smith
I remind my hon. Friend that we have given local authorities more than £300 million in discretionary housing payments. What they are meant to be doing right now—many of them are doing it, by the way—is finding people the accommodation that they require and supporting them through discretionary payments while they are looking for it. That is why we are saving £1 million a day and £500 million a year.
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
A constituent of mine, an older, experienced woman, recently told me that when she was made redundant she got barely any help from our local jobcentre. It was therefore no surprise to me to see recent figures showing that the Work programme is getting a job for only one in eight workers over 50. Who is going to fix that—those who are running the Work programme or Ministers?
Esther McVey
The Work programme has proved to be very successful. Some 1.5 million people who are long-term unemployed have been on it, and more than 500,000 of those have got a job. However, if that lady was only recently made unemployed, she would not have been going on the Work programme just then. We have a flexible fund to support people, and we are doing more to help people, extending their working lives.
Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)
I know that Labour Members do not like encouraging news, but youth unemployment in Selby and Ainsty is down by more than a third since the last election, and much of that is down to apprenticeships. Will the Minister join me in thanking the employers who are taking on those youngsters, and encourage them to turn up at my jobs fair—the fourth one in Selby—on 9 October?
Esther McVey
I certainly will—if you are an employer and have a job, please get down to the Selby jobs fair. That is absolutely right. That is what we are doing: we are getting the country back on its feet and helping young people as best we can—hence, we have more young people in work than since records began. I congratulate my hon. Friend on all the work he does on the ground.
Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)
Is the Secretary of State aware of the impending crisis to the stability of institutions in Northern Ireland as a result of the failure to implement significant reforms to the welfare system there? If he is aware of those threats, what message has he for Sinn Fein, which has failed to introduce those changes and appears to be more interested in the need of residents in Monaghan than those in Northern Ireland?
Mr Duncan Smith
Sinn Fein needs to face up to its responsibilities and cannot have it all ways. If it gets the welfare Bill through, it will benefit from the support that it will get, but it cannot sit in limbo land. I support what the hon. Gentleman has just said—it is time for Sinn Fein to get on and do what an elected Government need to do.
Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD)
Will the Minister provide an update on when the decision on the moratorium on funding for deaf interpreters for Access to Work will be announced, because we have been waiting for a report from the DWP?
Mr Duncan Smith
Let me undertake to write to my hon. Friend as soon as I leave the House and give him the full details.