Personal Independence Payments

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Lord Freud

Tuesday 10th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

We are maintaining our spending on disability and disability payments and services are running at £50 billion a year. Indeed, our disability payments have been moving up right the way through this Parliament in real terms.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister tell us how effectively the fast-track service for terminally ill claimants is performing at the moment?

[Lord Freud]

People who are terminally ill are fast-tracked through the process and the median end-to-end clearance time is now, as of this January, seven working days compared with 11 days in January last year.

Poverty and Social Exclusion

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Lord Freud

Thursday 17th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

Does my noble friend agree that employment alleviates poverty, and does he welcome yesterday’s unemployment figures?

[Lord Freud]

It is always a great pleasure to reflect on the fact that we now have the highest rate of employment that this country has ever seen. One of the most interesting figures that I have looked at lately is that which shows what has happened to workless households in the social housing sector. That figure has always been high. It was up at 48.7% when we came into government and never got below 46%-odd at the height of the boom. However, it is now right down at 42.7%. That reflects a major cultural change as we get this country back to work.

Universal Credit

Debate between Baroness Jenkin of Kennington and Lord Freud

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, as my noble friend is aware, several noble Lords were able to visit the jobcentre in Hammersmith this morning to see for themselves how the programme is being rolled out. Perhaps I may take this opportunity to thank officials from DWP and those at the jobcentre who were able to brief us so fully and to say how impressed we all were by how it is working—in particular, we were impressed by the coaches, who were able to give so much care and attention to individuals. Can my noble friend confirm that other noble Lords across the Chamber will be able to visit the jobcentres where universal credit is being rolled out to see it for themselves in a similar way?

[Lord Freud]

One thing I want to ensure is that I can get as much information to noble Lords as I possibly can. I am pleased to say that I have extended an invitation, which has been accepted, to arrange for a group of opposition Peers—as many as the noble Baroness would like to bring; well, not quite as many as that; we could not fit them all into Hammersmith; but enough to fill the room with a little standing room—to go through what is happening on the ground and the process.

One thing that I am keen to show the noble Baroness, which we saw this morning with a small group, is access to the work coaches to see how they work with clients in an entirely different way—in particular, to try to help the most vulnerable, whether it is looking at how they budget or various other things that they will need to do under universal credit.