Oral Answers to Questions

Callum McCaig Excerpts

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

We are looking at a range of issues to improve the assessment process for PIP and ESA and the person’s experience of it. The recording of assessments is one of those things, so we are looking at that issue.

[Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

For many young people, staying in the family home is not an option, so housing benefit is a lifeline not a lifestyle choice. When will the Government finally clarify how their scheme will not see these people lose vital support?

[Caroline Nokes]

The regulations regarding the removal of housing benefit from 18 to 21-year-olds have yet to be published. We will provide full details, particularly of the exemptions that will be involved, in March.

State Pension Age: Women

Callum McCaig Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ian Blackford]

We are not talking about concessions; we are talking about these women’s pension entitlement. How dare the Government talk about concessions, when people have paid into their pension and deserve to get it!

This is not a comedy but the reality of a Government letting women down.

[Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

There are suggestions from Conservative Members that money does not grow on trees, and that is correct, but this money came from these women paying in through national insurance. It did not grow on trees; it came, hard-earned, from their own pockets.

[Ian Blackford]

My hon. Friend is quite correct. We keep hearing about fiscal responsibility and how we cannot afford it, but of course we can, because the surplus is there in the national insurance fund.

When the new Prime Minister took office, the first thing she did was bring a motion before the House asking us to renew the Trident missile system, and effectively every single Conservative Member went through the Lobby and gave the Government a blank cheque. They can invest in weapons of mass destruction but they are not prepared to give women pensioners their just deserts.

Oral Answers to Questions

Callum McCaig Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vara]

Pension Wise is there to give impartial and free advice. When necessary, it will direct people towards professional advisers. The Money Advice Service has on its books a directory of some 2,300 firms throughout the country. In Scotland, there are 162 firms. The total number of advisers is more than 6,000. We are trying to make sure that the public have proper access whenever advice is required.

[Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

2. If he will make an assessment of the potential effect of benefit sanctions on claimants’ mental health.

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

7. If he will make an assessment of the potential effect of benefit sanctions on claimants’ mental health.

[The Minister for Employment (Priti Patel)]

Many factors affect an individual’s mental health. To assess the effect of sanctions in isolation of all other factors would be misleading. A number of checks are built into the system to support all claimants, including those with mental health concerns.

[Callum McCaig]

That answer is disappointing. Opposition Members are concerned about the terrible damage that the ideological cuts being made by the Government are doing to the most vulnerable in our society. For the last two weeks at Prime Minister’s questions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) has asked the Prime Minister about suicides following benefit reductions. Will the Minister publish the details of the investigations forthwith?

[Priti Patel]

The Department carries out reviews to identify whether any lessons can be learned. I should emphasise that the Information Commissioner has considered this issue and upheld the Department’s decision not to publish the details because of the level of personal information they contain. For that reason, it would be unlawful to release this information.