Welfare Reform Bill

Brandon Lewis Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell]

I appreciate that argument, but there is a difference between having a national system and having a complete free-for-all at the local level. There is a midway point, which would involve the Government setting clear criteria and guidelines, backed up with statutory force, so that when the changes are introduced locally, funds are not diverted but go to people who need them, and local authorities do not face high administrative costs. What I am searching for is Government action to reach a compromise and achieve a balance between national distribution and local distribution, thereby avoiding a free-for-all.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s generosity in giving way, but I would query what he is describing. Would it not go against the ethos of the Localism Bill, which is about trusting authorities with the responsibility to do what is right for their areas, and trusting the electorate to keep them in check so that they do just that?

[John McDonnell]

I understand, and, coming from a local government background—both as a councillor and as a local government officer—I very much support the localist agenda of freeing up local authorities to do as much as they can to reflect the direct wishes of the local electorate. However, we are talking about people in severe poverty, and one of the overall duties of government at every level is to ensure that people in our communities are not put at risk as a result of that poverty. Therefore, there is a danger in the localist agenda, which I support, of allowing a free-for-all. Without establishing national standards and monitoring, we could have a number of local authorities failing to fulfil their responsibilities as we would wish. Although I agree with the hon. Gentleman that the local electorate should hold those authorities to account, we have unfortunately had numerous examples—I speak as an advocate of local government—of that mechanism for keeping local authorities in check not being effective, particularly on the detail of administering such schemes. I am sure that we can all cite examples of that on a cross-party basis, no matter who has been in control.

I am not talking about just my individual concerns. Virtually every organisation dealing with the poor in this country has expressed its concerns about this element of the legislation. My local citizens advice bureau has provided me with numerous examples—which I will not take the House through—of the benefits of both social loans, particularly crisis loans, and community care grants. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Heather Brown, director of the Hillingdon CAB, and all her team for their hard work. They have emphasised the need to explore all the implications locally and nationally before the Government leap into a new system.

Shelter and Crisis, the housing charities, have undertaken their own assessments of the process. Crisis surveyed 250 of its housing advisers. Numerous Members across all parties work closely with Crisis, and we have the greatest of respect for its work. That survey showed that 69% of clients used crisis loans for rent in advance, with 87% using them to help furnish their properties. In its briefing, which many Members will have seen, Crisis quotes one person as saying that unless we have a system that is at least as effective as the social fund, the effect on efforts to get people to move into independent accommodation would be “catastrophic”. Anxieties have been expressed across the board about the fact that we have not yet had that assurance.

I am concerned about the lack of analysis in the Government’s proposals of people’s needs. There is also a lack of detail on how the proposals will work. My worry is that poor and vulnerable people will be put at risk as a result. It therefore behoves us as a House in discussing this Bill, as well as the Government, to come forward rapidly with detailed proposals that have statutory backing, in order to assure our constituents and all those working in the field that we will have a system to provide emergency support to people who are poor and vulnerable, but not one in which local decision making risks diverting those resources away from where they are needed. It is on that basis that I have tabled this amendment for discussion. I hope that, as a result of this debate, we will at least gain a clear understanding of how the Government are going to address these issues—and address them fairly urgently—given that they are causing considerable concern.

Welfare Reform Bill

Brandon Lewis Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

I should like to thank the Secretary of State for the assurances that he gave to cancer sufferers and their friends and families. Will the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) also assure us that he will examine how we can deal with the inequality that exists between cancer sufferers who have intravenous treatment and those who have oral treatment? There is an unfair disparity between them at the moment. Science and medicine have moved forward, but our system has not kept up with that progress. It would be good if we could do something for those sufferers.

I represent an area with above-average unemployment. That is one of the legacies of the Labour Government, who forgot about the problems experienced by some of the coastal towns and about their regeneration. They took away public sector workers, and disincentivised people from working and businesses from investing and from employing people, through their heavy regulatory system. There are people in my constituency who are second and even third generation unemployed. That presents a problem that has two sides. On the one side, we have residents who work hard and who air their frustration at what they perceive to be the injustice of people who do not work and who stay at home having a lifestyle that is similar to that of the people who work all those hours. We need a system that will change that. The Bill is courageous in introducing some great changes, and it could start to change that as well, so that people who work hard would realise that they are not simply subsidising people who do not want to work.

On the flipside of that coin are the people who want to work but who cannot find a job or who are not properly trained for work. I have constituents who are crying out for the right kind of support and training to enable them to apply for the jobs that are out there. There are jobs beyond those that they might hear about in the jobcentre. The local press and organisations such as Jobcentre Plus do a great job in advertising the wide variety of jobs available, and this can enable people in areas such as Great Yarmouth to understand that they could be well trained enough to have the option to find work, not only in Great Yarmouth but in the wider community, perhaps in Norwich or even beyond, where jobs exist that they could reasonably commute to.

What I applaud most about the Bill is that it will introduce a move to a simpler system, and the evidence presented to the Select Committee shows that that is universally what people want. They want a system that they can understand. Too many people have come to my surgeries who simply do not understand the system and cannot get the support that they need because of that. Even some of the experts working in the system do not understand it.

A single mother with two children came to see me recently. She had a job which paid her £15,000 a year for working three days a week. She wanted to work five days a week, and her company wanted her to do that as well. She phoned the tax office to ask what the implications of that would be, so that she could work out whether she could afford to do it. It is crazy that we live in a society in which someone has to make a phone call to see whether they can afford to take a job that will pay £25,000 a year.

The most worrying aspect of the story, however, was the fact that the tax office could not answer her question. There are 30 different kinds of benefit, and a tax system that is set out over thousands of pages, so it is no wonder that, when someone is offered a well-paid job, they cannot work out—even with the help of experts—whether they can afford to accept it. I congratulate that person, because she decided to take the job even though the experts told her that the tax calculation would be done in arrears and it would be a year before they could tell her what sums would be involved, and whether they would need to claw any money back. She took quite a risk, and I applaud her for doing it. That is the kind of spirit that the new system will help to encourage. It will also provide support through the use of the taper.

Labour clearly does not understand the disincentive to work that exists at the moment. In some cases, there is a 96% marginal deduction, and that is simply not sustainable if we want to encourage people to work. I applaud the Bill, because it could really help to motivate and support people in my constituency, and help them to get back into work. That is what matters: people getting back to work and employers wanting to employ them. That is what this entire package can give us, and that is why I applaud the Bill.

Benefits Uprating

Brandon Lewis Excerpts

Wednesday 8th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

What is a great source of pride to me is being part of a coalition Government who are restoring the earnings link. I assure the hon. Gentleman that, although the measure was certainly in the Liberal Democrat manifesto, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer had not been happy with the plan, it would not have happened.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one real benefit to pensioners that will result from today’s statement is that it gives them certainty and stability, something that, to their frustration, has been lacking over the past couple of years because of the measly and in some ways insulting changes that were made to their scheme?

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend is right. The nature of the triple guarantee is that, whatever happens to earnings and prices, pensioners will be guaranteed a 2.5% rise. Picking up on one of the points that the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), made, I should say that the previous Government, in their spending plans, pencilled in a 2.4% rise in 2012. I have no idea what prices or earnings will be next year, but I do know that 2.5% is bigger than 2.4%.