Child Poverty

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 18th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Lister for bringing this debate to your Lordships’ House. I begin by congratulating the Government on taking the historic decision to remove the two-child benefit limit. This is a bold and compassionate measure that will lift almost 500,000 children out of poverty. It is a policy for which many have argued for many years, but it took a Labour Government to deliver it. It demonstrates that poverty is not inevitable; it is a result of a political choice, and it can be reduced through political action. It should rightly be recognised as a significant step forward in the Government’s child poverty strategy. However, while we celebrate this progress, we must also confront the uncomfortable reality that pockets of child poverty remain in some of our communities. Ethnic minority children continue to face disproportionately high levels of poverty. Recent figures show that around 63% of Bangladeshi children and 52% of Pakistani children are growing up below the poverty line, compared with much lower rates among other children.

Children from these communities are also more likely to experience persistent and severe poverty, limiting their opportunity and affecting their health, educational attainment and life chances. These figures should concern us all. They represent not just statistics but children whose talent and aspiration are being constrained by circumstances beyond their control. A truly successful child poverty strategy must address these entrenched inequalities and ensure that every child, regardless of their ethnicity or background, has the opportunity to thrive.

I also wish to draw your Lordships’ attention to asylum-seeking and refugee children, mentioned earlier by my noble friend Lady Lister. Many of these children have already experienced unimaginable trauma before they arrive on our shores. Yet, having reached safety in the UK, many find themselves living in poverty and uncertainty. Too often, asylum seekers and their families are placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation, living for months or even years without stability. Children are frequently moved from one location to another, disrupting their education, friendships and support network. Many children face delays in accessing school places and other essential services. This is simply unacceptable in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. No child should grow up without a secure place to call home. No child should be denied the stability that is essential for healthy development. No child who has already suffered trauma should have their suffering compounded by poverty and inadequate housing.

The Government have taken an important step by lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, but our ambition must go further. We must ensure that children from ethnic minorities, refugee children and asylum-seeking children are not left behind. The measure of our society is how we treat the most vulnerable. In this day and age, no child from any community should be forced into poverty, insecurity or unstable accommodation. It is morally wrong and economically short-sighted. I look forward to hearing from the Minister how the Government intend to ensure that every child, regardless of their background or circumstance, can share in the opportunity and prosperity of our nation.

Carer’s Allowance: Overpayments Review

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I am so grateful to the noble Lord—trust him to say the thing I should have said right at the outset, but I am very grateful to him for raising it. With all of his experience, he has seen this close-up. As he knows, anyone who has worked in professional social care knows just how much we all depend on the tier of unpaid carers who make all of this possible. I am told that 20 November is Carers Rights Day, so I take this opportunity to pay tribute to all of the unpaid carers who work so hard, day in, day out, to look after not only themselves but the people they care for. The whole of society depends on them. I thank the noble Lord for that very helpful nudge, and I am very pleased to pay tribute to them.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, since the Government halted the recruitment of overseas care workers in July 2025, around 40,000 visa holders who came here in good faith to work in the care sector remain unemployed. What specific steps are the Government taking to support them and to ensure they are able to find suitable jobs in the care industry?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the care route admitted more than 150,000 workers in three years. There have been changes to the Immigration Rules, but that will not prevent those who want to from building a career in the sector, because there is a transition period until July 2028, which allows, for example, in-country applications from people who came in by other visa routes. This means that care providers could recruit graduates, for example, or people who come in other ways.

My noble friend is absolutely right that, on 1 July, we laid changes to the Immigration Rules, which included closing the social care visa route to overseas recruitment. That said, there remain significant numbers of international care workers who are looking for work in the UK who have not had the chance to support the system as they wanted. New measures have already come into effect which require care providers in England to prioritise recruiting international care workers who are already in the UK and require new employment.

More generally, DWP is doing a lot to try and encourage people into social care. We are working with adult social care bodies in developing recruitment events for the sector to encourage people into it. We want people who are committed professionals and who want to work in the sector, and we will do what we can to encourage them.

Child Poverty Strategy

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, removing the two-child benefit cap would significantly impact minority communities, particularly those who have large families and are on low income. This would lead to improved health, education and social outcomes for these children. I am talking about minority community children. You only have to look at places such as Tower Hamlets in London, where child poverty is over 40%. Do the Government have any plans to overcome this and introduce two-child benefits, or to remove the cap?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, if I can persuade the Cross Benches and the Bishops to raise it, I will have a full house. I completely understand the wider point that my noble friend makes. There is an issue in this country for larger families who are facing poverty. However, perhaps I can reassure him by pointing out the impact of some of the things we are doing: for example, expanding free school meals to all children in households. Those meals go to each of the children in that household. We have tripled investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, which is worth another £450 to parents. The Healthy Start scheme supports over 356,000 children. We are extending the household support fund, bringing in a new crisis and resilience fund. All these things help families, and bigger families most of all. I hope that reassures him.

Food Banks

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, our local jobcentres are doing very good work, as I am sure the noble Viscount will know from his time doing my job. There are incredibly good arrangements, including partnership schemes to engage with all kinds of local charities to make the connections, but the most important thing is to have somewhere to refer people to. I am afraid that our mental health service has been in such decline that, even if problems are identified, it is quite hard for volunteers to know where people can go. This Government are committed to restoring our mental health support and investing in child and adolescent mental health. As a down payment on that, we will recruit another 8,500 mental health professionals to work with children and adults. I am really grateful to the noble Viscount for raising that really important point.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, before I ask my question, can I wish all noble Lords a happy Diwali? When all food banks are eliminated, do the Government have any plan for what will happen to all the surplus food that has been donated by the supermarkets and other retailers over time to them?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, obviously I dream of that day. I have visited a fascinating place in the north-east called REfUSE, based in Chester-le-Street in County Durham. It gets free food and has people, as either volunteers or staff, who can help to create meals where people then pay what they can afford. It has branched out from that to start doing catering for events, such as weddings. This does a couple of things. It raises awareness of the tragedy of food waste, while showing how we can reuse things creatively to produce brilliant food; it also helps all of us to think better. If we do not want to end up with food shortages, we all need to get better at reusing and recycling, and buying well in the first place.

Care Leavers: Universal Credit

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

In my opening Answer, I already alluded to what we might or might not do about that. In addition to the £250 million help that we give to care leavers, there is much cross-government support. For example, the Second Chance Learning scheme supports care leavers between the ages of 18 and 21 who wish to catch up on their education, particularly secondary education. I have already mentioned housing. There is an exemption from the shared accommodation rate—the SAR. Importantly, we are improving the transition from local authority support to DWP benefits, so that those who are not able to find a job immediately can be transitioned quickly on to the universal credit system; that was alluded to in a previous question. I do not think that the noble Baroness should be shaking her head; these are genuine issues.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, the savings threshold to qualify for universal credit is £16,000, and that has been the case for years. Do the Government have any plans to increase it?

State Pensions: Canada Free Trade Agreement

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Wednesday 18th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

This issue goes back to what has happened in the past. The distribution of reciprocal agreements with countries is based on historic ties with those countries and the levels of labour and people mobility flows at the time that the agreements were concluded. We therefore very much have to look back at that, but I reiterate that we have no plans to include this in current or future free trade agreements. I also say to the noble Lord that, as he will know, if we look at the overseas territories, for instance, due to past, historic arrangements, Bermuda, Gibraltar and the sovereign base areas of Cyprus are included, but the rest are not.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I know quite a few members of the Asian community who have worked all their lives in the UK, paid their national insurance and taxes here but, after retirement, have moved to Canada because the Canadian immigration system is far more flexible when it comes to joining blood relations and families together. As a former leader of a council, I know how high the cost can be for a taxpayer for adult social care—sometimes as much as 50% of the revenue budget of a council. Therefore, when some of these UK pensioners move to Canada, UK taxpayers save millions of pounds in not having to look after them in their old age; that burden falls on Canadian taxpayers. After all, they have paid their taxes and their national insurance, why can their pensions not be inflation-proof?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I am certainly very aware—this perhaps adds to the Answer I gave to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas—that the Department for Work and Pensions has received requests for a reciprocal social security agreement from Canada in recent years, including 2020, 2021 and, indeed, this very year. The choice of moving to another country—let us say, Canada—is very much a personal choice and it is not for the Government to encourage or discourage pensioners in moving overseas. I am sure they do so for reasons other than necessarily to do with pensions; it could be to do with family or returning to a country of birth. But, I say again, the Government have no plans to change the policy.

Food Price Rises: Impact on Low-Income Families

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 25th May 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I take note of my noble friend’s point on the Farm to Fork food summit, which allowed the sector to get together, discuss the future, provide further innovative methods on food supply and discuss the current situation. Supermarkets’ profit margins are actually surprisingly low; I have some figures that I can pass on.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, with ever-increasing food prices, the Trussell Trust has said that 40% of people on universal credit are using food banks. Is it not about time that the Government looked at this benefit and increased it?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

We remain very aware that food banks are being used to a great extent. As I have done before, I pay tribute to those, including charities, who so ably and selflessly run them. With the Family Resources Survey that we picked up on recently, we are very aware of the issues and are determined to ensure that people do not and should not have to go to food banks.