Universal Credit Bill

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) (Valedictory Speech)]

My Lords, it is always daunting to follow my noble friend Lord Sikka. His depth of knowledge and of figures always amazes me. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson, not only on her great pedigree in coming here but on her maiden speech. We are doing our bit for the numbers here, on the basis of one in, one out.

I thank your Lordships so much for all the very kind comments. I blush when I hear them, because I feel a fraud, giving a valedictory speech after only seven years in the House. That is just the blink of an eye compared with many Peers. Despite my short stay, I would like to put on record my thanks to those who have given me support while I have been here, many of whom are in the Chamber today. The doorkeepers have always been tremendous and, from my first day, given me their kind support. Some old friends among them have retired, while other stalwarts remain, and I have seen the professionalism of the newer doorkeepers. I thank them all.

I was honoured to be introduced by my noble friends Lady Chakrabarti and Lady Hayter of Kentish Town—two formidable women from whom I have learned a lot. It has been a particular honour to support my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti in her many attempts to protect human rights during the last Parliament. The most important person who helped me settle in and find my way around, both procedurally and geographically, was my noble friend Lady Gale. She was my unofficial mentor and remains, I hope, a good friend. I also remember that my first Whip was my noble friend the Minister, who was as gentle and supportive as any Whip can be.

However, I have never been reconciled to the unelected nature of the House of Lords. While I wish good speed to the Bill to abolish hereditary Peers, it will not change the fundamental problem of the imbalance in representation in this House. During my time on the Opposition Benches, I saw how difficult it was to pass amendments just to ask the Government to think again. Currently, the main opposition party can defeat the Government simply because, at times in the past, the Conservative Party has used its patronage to create more life Peers than Labour has. I believe that a second Chamber must be a check on the powers of the Executive, particularly when Members of the other place are unable to perform that role. But the basis for a second Chamber should be rooted in democratic accountability. The House has many Members who represent the great and the good, but it is not representative of or answerable to the people who are affected by the legislation it considers, including the Bill we are discussing. So I leave still committed to an elected senate of the nations and regions, and I will continue to write and campaign on that cause.

I turn now to the Universal Credit Bill. I thank campaigning groups for their briefing papers and the many individuals who shared their lived experience, which undermines the false idea that anyone can self-identify as disabled. I put on record my admiration for the many disabled campaigners who were successful in persuading the Government to accept that their first Bill was deeply flawed. I am proud to stand with the MPs who campaigned against both Bills, in particular the four Scottish Labour MPs who stood by their constituents and principles and voted against this Bill.

Despite the decision to consider the future of PIP in the Timms review, the Bill will have a devastating impact on those who need to claim the health element of universal credit. Last week, we saw levels of unemployment rise to a four-year high. Finding skilled, well-paid jobs is challenging for everyone; the slogan “those who can work, should work” is meaningless if employers are even less interested in making the adjustments needed to bring disabled workers into the workplace. Surely that is where the emphasis needs to be. Employers should have an obligation to make space in their workplaces for disabled people.

I hope the Minister recognises that the Bill was perhaps drafted in undue haste. In a debate in 2020, she said the very wise words:

“Occasionally, all of us in politics need to reflect that when we legislate in haste, we may repent at leisure”.—[Official Report, 3/9/20; col. GC 69.]


I hope that the Bill can wait for the publication of the impact assessments and supporting information, including the analysis of the Office for Budget Responsibility on the expected number of people moving into work as a result of these changes. It is likely that that analysis will show that many of the people affected will not be able to move into work; instead, they will be moved into greater poverty.

I look forward to hearing from my noble friend Lady Ritchie, who has been such a valuable Member of this House.

Women’s State Pension Age Communication: PHSO Report

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab)]

My Lords, I would like to ask a supplementary question. I first congratulate my noble friend on her new position. I am only sorry that it has come on the same day as this announcement and that she is thrown right into this difficult debate. I know she will be extremely aware that the very women who are most affected by the change in pension age and the delay in sending out notifications are the very same ones who were least aware of the changes. In many cases, they had already taken the decision to leave work, usually because of caring responsibilities, but with the expectation that they would receive their state pension on the date that they had been led to expect, and hopefully before their savings ran out. These women were probably the most isolated, care-worn and least able to access information online. In many cases, the letters came too late to allow them to make alternative plans.

Just because an injustice is widespread does not mean that it should be ignored. I repeat the question asked by the WASPI women today: what is the point of those six years of the ombudsman giving the report if the Government can simply ignore it?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her opening comment. I fully recognise the point that she is making. There will be women out there who are very disappointed. There will be many women who expected to retire at 60 and then found that they could not. I hope she will agree with me that one of the biggest drivers of that concern and of the impact was the decision of the previous Government to accelerate those state pension changes in 2011. That meant that they were brought forward very sharply, which had a significant impact on a number of women. However, that is not what the ombudsman was talking about today, it is not what the report was about, and it is not what we are doing here.

I should say at the outset that letters are only ever one part of any communications system. There was extensive communication. The ombudsman found that our communications between 1995 and 2004 were just as they should be. The ombudsman was also aware that a lot of other kinds of activity were going on. There were advertising campaigns, work with employers, and all sorts of information going out. The letters were only one small part of that.

The 28-month delay in those letters has led us to believe not that there are not women who had hoped to retire at 60 and were not able to do so, but that this injustice was not caused by the failure that we described. It is because of this that we simply do not feel able to do it. We had to come back to the evidence. Is the evidence there that that specific act of maladministration caused that injustice? We do not believe that it did, and therefore we do not believe that it was appropriate to provide a compensation scheme.

State Pension: Age Increase

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Thursday 14th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, it is crucial that everybody gets to know their state pension age, but the reality is that there are a lot of different ways in which people do that. I already knew that my state pension age was increasing. A lot of that was simply from information in the news and on television. One of the ironies is that, when I was first briefed about this, I was told that the department had written to everybody in that age category. I said that I had no recollection of receiving such a letter, but I was assured that it had happened. Last weekend, I moved house and, when I opened a folder of unfiled papers, what was sitting on the top but a letter dated February 2018 telling me that my state pension age would be 66 and two-thirds. The point is that different people receive information differently. I am of an age where I get most of my information on my phone, from which I am rarely parted, and from news consumption. We have to use every possible means of communicating to make sure that people get the information out there.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that average life expectancy is highly variable depending on many factors, including class? There are parts of Glasgow where people die in large numbers before their pension age, so I hope the Minister can reassure me that the idea of extending it will not be adopted when the people who suffer most are those who need the pension most.

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important point. One of the requirements on the Secretary of State when she comes to do the statutory review of the state pension age is to look at issues such as life expectancy. Every now and again, someone comes up with the idea of varying the state pension age by, for example, location or profession. The reality is that, whereas there are differences between regions or professions, in some cases the differences within them are as great as or greater than the differences between them, so trying to find a way of doing something that would be fair, other than a simple state pension age, is challenging. The real challenge for this Government, as for everyone, is that we should not have these regional variations in our country. We are one country, and we should be tackling those kinds of regional inequalities so that we do not end up in this position.