Child Poverty Strategy

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I will say two things. Children did not fall into poverty overnight and they will not all come out of it overnight. Poverty has a range of drivers. We are determined not simply to address this problem now but to find a way of tackling it in the long term. However, since the noble Lord wants examples of action, I will give him some. What have we already done? As we have made clear, we are going to put £39 billion into social and affordable housing. We are expanding free school meals to all families on universal credit, putting £600 million into the holiday activities and food programme, extending the warm home discount scheme to an extra 2.7 million people, and removing the two-child limit to lift 450,000 children out of poverty in this Parliament. That is action, and this Government are taking it.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, may I ask the Minister what the definition of poverty is? If it is “below the average” then there is no hope of getting rid of poverty. Is it an absolute standard? Secondly, has she calculated the amount owed to the Child Maintenance Service by absent fathers? Why should the taxpayer fund maintenance for children that the father owes and is not paying?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are using two metrics. We are using relative low income after housing costs, which is the international standard measure, but we are also using deep material poverty. That is a new measure that has been devised based on material deprivation, which reflects our commitment to addressing deeper child poverty. Material deprivation is traditionally calculated by asking the public what essentials they think families should have and getting a list of them. They are things such as warm homes, appropriate housing, enough food to eat, et cetera. The measure shows that if a family cannot afford at least four of those then they are in deep material deprivation. Having both those metrics helps us to measure what is going on in families.

I completely agree with the noble Baroness about child maintenance. Everybody should pay for their children, whether they are still with the other partner or not. The Government have done a lot to drive up the rate of support for child maintenance. We are taking reform steps to make it even better, and we will keep doing that.

Student Loans: Review

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I wonder whether the noble Earl has had the opportunity to discuss with some of his colleagues whether they believe that the system that they introduced is a scam. This is a system that was introduced by the previous Government. Plan 2 is no longer in operation for students starting today. Finally, if the leader of the Opposition is trying to suggest to students that they will repay less through a cap on interest, she would, of course, be misleading them, because that would not be true.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, the Sutton Trust, which has done wonderful work in this area, has shown that students who cannot afford to leave home do worse in their studies and throughout life. Will the Minister give student maintenance top priority and make it open to everybody, as it was in my time? I hope she will be brave enough not to shy away from the possible need to cut university places, have some mergers and make sure that we are not oversupplied with courses and universities that are not worth the money that students are paying.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am afraid that I do not agree with the noble Baroness that reducing the numbers of people who can benefit from higher education is the most effective way to address this issue, although I agree that we need to address the cost of living crisis that current students face. That is why we are increasing the support available through maintenance loans, and it is why this Government will reintroduce the maintenance grants cut by the previous Government.

Universal Credit: Two-child Limit

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I think I have made my views clear on the impact of this policy. It is, in essence, a failed social experiment which has been pushing 100 children a day into poverty. We simply cannot allow that to happen. We want to support families. Most parents want to work to support their kids. Already, 84% of parents are in work—that is what people do. I used to work with single parents, who would say, “Even when it’s really a struggle, I want my kids to see this is what you do when you grow up”, but many people face barriers to work, and it is our job to make that possible. If you cannot afford childcare, how can you get to work? If you are not paid enough to be able to make life even bearable, how can you do that? The social security system should be there to support those who cannot work, but for those who can, to make it possible and to help them have a decent standard of living when doing so.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, around £450 million is owed to the Child Maintenance Service by absent fathers and some absent mothers. Some 160,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if the defaulting parents paid what they owed to the Child Maintenance Service. Does the Minister agree that is not right for the taxpayer to pick up the burden owed by defaulting parents and that the Child Maintenance Service must get that money from the parents?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the great advantage is not an either/or. The wonderful thing about child maintenance is that it does not impact on somebody’s social security, so if someone is working and getting some universal credit, maintenance tops that up further. The Child Maintenance Service does an astonishing job in many, sometimes very challenging, circumstances. Here is one simple statistic: since the Child Maintenance Service was set up in 2012, it has collected 93% of all the maintenance owed, but I am sorry to say that there are some parents who simply do not want to pay for their children. The Child Maintenance Service has astonishing powers. It will go after them, and it will keep after them, but we should encourage everybody to do the right thing: pay for your children, go out there and make it possible for them to have a decent life.

Schools: Funding

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

Has the Minister witnessed what I and some of my acquaintances have witnessed, which is a failure of social engineering because very rich parents and many foreign parents can still afford private schools but a larger number of the middle class and the less well-off will be going to state schools, hence a much bigger chasm between the privately educated and the state educated?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am not sure that is unusual. It has always been the case that in order to benefit from a private education, you need to be able to afford it. The vast majority of children in this country attend state schools. That is why this Government are focusing our investment and our reform on those schools. That is the way to solve the problem of children from whatever background not receiving the education that they deserve.

Labour Market

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Monday 8th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I presume the noble Lord is referring to the stories about universal credit. The structure of universal credit was created by the last Government. It was designed to operate in and out of work. We have become aware that there were some imbalances in the system. As the noble Lord will be aware, the Universal Credit Bill that we put through just before the recess has rebalanced the rates of universal credit by halving the amounts that will be paid in future to those who are out of work on grounds of illness or disability. It will increase the standard allowance to help raise incentives to work. I think most people want to work and have a fulfilling life. Our job is both to put the incentives in the right place and to make sure that the jobs are there and that people are skilled to do them. We are determined to do all this.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, thousands of workers who want to go to work today are unable to do so because of the Tube strike. Thousands of Tube drivers who should be at work have stayed at home. Will the Government reverse their policy of giving in to every trade union demand, thereby putting up prices, encouraging inflation and making more people stay at home and not go to work?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, as I am sure the noble Baroness knows, transport in London is devolved to the Mayor and Transport for London.

State Pension Underpayment Errors

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I note what my noble friend says about the gender disparities, which we are alert to. Indeed, the department has a discretionary scheme which allows special payments to be made to customers to address any hardship, but particularly injustice caused by DWP maladministration. Consistent with other large-scale LEAP exercises, special payments under the DWP discretionary scheme will not, however, routinely be made, but I assure the House that they are regarded or assessed on a case-by-case basis. Finally, on prioritising, it is important to note that we are prioritising those who are alive over those who are deceased.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, I am one of those women who were underpaid. For years, I got £6 a week—I was very exercised over how to spend it—whereas many of my women friends who had never worked at all were getting much more than that. With expert advice, I was able to access the department and it was set right, but it seemed to me that the problem was how to access the department. Once it had the issue in hand it responded, but people need to know the email addresses and there need to be pamphlets in post offices. There need to be easy ways for older people to speak to someone in the department and get an answer when they write—without, of course, having to hold on to the phone for ages. Will the Minister ensure that that happens?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

Indeed, and it is very important that we engage much more closely with the customer base. Where underpayments are identified, the DWP will contact the individual to inform them of any changes to their state pension amount and of any arrears involved. There is now, I am pleased to say, a more direct route for those inquiring about underpaid state pension. Guidance on this, the House may not be surprised to hear, is on GOV.UK and went live in July last year.

Employment: Disabled People

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I appreciate the noble Lord’s question and the work that he does in this area. I can assure him that the Government are committed to reducing the disability employment gap, including in relation to the young and interns. It is important that those who have a disability are given every chance to start on the path to a career. What I cannot do, I am afraid, is commit to the noble Lord’s point about extending the scheme beyond the age of 25, but I have noted it and will take it back to the department.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, what happened to the Government’s national disability strategy, which was declared illegal by the Court of Appeal a while ago? It does not seem to have been renewed. Moreover, many of the recommendations made by the committee on disability that I chaired have still not been implemented by the Government. When are the Government going to be proactive?

Universal Credit: Benefit Cap and Two Child Limit

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I mentioned childcare costs before and it is important to support parents who have childcare needs. Of course, we have the child benefit but on top of that there are other support mechanisms to ensure that those who have children—particularly more than two, which is the subject of this Question—can survive and, in many cases, find the next meal.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, research has shown that the majority of children of single parents would be lifted above the poverty line if the absent fathers paid what they owe. For decades, the child maintenance system has let single mothers down, condemned children to poverty and let men get away with it. What is the Minister’s advice?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

This is another important subject. The child maintenance system supports separated parents to agree their own family-based arrangements where it is possible. Where it is not possible, the child maintenance system steps in. It is incredibly important that the paying parent pays, and this is where the system is dealing with some extremely challenging issues in order that the receiving parent receives what they are due.

Unemployment: Disabled People

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Deech]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made towards creating the conditions necessary to halve the unemployment rate of disabled people.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud) (Con)]

Our ambition is to halve the disability employment gap—the difference between the employment rates of disabled people and those of people who are not. We will publish a Green Paper setting out our vision and options for longer-term reform. There are nearly half a million more disabled people in work than there were three years ago, but the gap remains too large.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

I fear—and I wonder whether the Minister agrees with me—that these schemes are destined to fail because the Government have not removed the barriers between disabled people and jobs. There is a lack of transport and an unwelcoming workplace. What disabled people need—and I hope that this will be favourable to the Minister—is that all buses should be accessible with audiovisual information and all the taxi provisions of the Equality Act should be brought into force. Tribunal fees, which deter discrimination claims, should be removed or lowered. Employers should be helped to understand what reasonable adjustments they should make. Will the Minister work across departments to promote those recommendations of the Select Committee on the Equality Act 2010 and Disability, which I had the privilege of chairing earlier this year?

[Lord Freud]

We made a comprehensive response to that interesting report from the Select Committee—but on the fundamental point that the noble Baroness makes, we all have to acknowledge that this is not easy to achieve. Getting more people with disabilities into work is a complicated thing to do, and through the Green Paper we are looking to combine very big and complicated organisations in the shape of the health and welfare systems and employers. You have to do it across all three to have a hope of bridging this gap.

Children: Parental Separation

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Altmann]

I can assure noble Lords that we will be making a full report in the 30-month review of the scheme. However, the indications so far are that it has achieved its objective of helping parents agree between themselves how to arrange maintenance.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that the cuts in legal aid have meant that parents, during the worst time of their lives, have been left to self-represent in court, struggling over the allocation of money to the detriment of the family. Will she tell the House if the Government have plans to reform the law on the allocation of money on divorce, preferably through my Private Member’s Bill?

[Baroness Altmann]

I will write to the noble Baroness about any such plans.