Youth Unemployment

Chris Webb Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

The rate of young people not in education, employment or training is, I believe, even higher in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole. The hon. Member asks for more information on timescales. The hiring bonuses, for example, will be introduced from this summer, and the apprenticeship changes will be introduced from later this year.

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

I start by thanking my right hon. Friend for joining me at my jobs fair a few weeks ago, where more than 1,100 people secured work on the day. Some 900 are already in those jobs, working in our economy. That is Labour in action. I have spoken many times in this House about the need to support the hospitality and tourism industries, especially in coastal communities such as Blackpool, so that they can hire more young people and give them that opportunity. I got my first job at age 14, on Blackpool seafront. It was a great job that helped me get countless more jobs in hospitality. We need more young people to have access to those jobs. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me, Blackpool businesses and the Federation of Small Businesses that this plan is a game changer in tackling youth unemployment in Blackpool and other coastal communities across the country?

[Pat McFadden]

I thank my hon. Friend for the enormous amount of work that he put into organising the successful Blackpool jobs fair, which I attended a few weeks ago. He is right that the evidence from that jobs fair is that the vacancies are there, with more than 1,000 jobs allocated on the day of the jobs fair itself. Hospitality is a great entry route for young people. We have announced a foundation apprenticeship in hospitality as part of this process, and I hope that extends opportunity to other young people, similar to the opportunities that he had when he was a young man.

Winter Fuel Payment

Chris Webb Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Torsten Bell]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question, but the equalities analysis was done. Unusually, the poverty impact analysis was also published over the last year. I do not agree with the statement that she has just made, but she is right to say that we need to make sure that we are improving things for pensioners. As I said before, this Government’s priority is to keep raising the state pension and to rescue the NHS. As I said, one in five over-75s are currently on an NHS waiting list, and the funding to make that happen is possible only because of the tax rises that I hear the Liberal Democrats oppose week in, week out.

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister’s announcement and the change in course from the Government. Many of us were uneasy about the low threshold for the winter fuel payment, especially in deprived communities such as mine—I have the most deprived borough in the country. Will the Minister assure my constituents that all pensioners under the threshold will automatically receive the new winter fuel allowance and will not have to do a single thing in the winter to come?

[Torsten Bell]

That is an absolutely crucial point and has been central to the work that we have done to decide on the policy. We want a system of automatic payment, so that pensioners do not need to do anything to claim the payments, and one that is automatic for those who have incomes above £35,000, so that they do not have to take action if they need to have the funding recouped, unless they choose to opt out. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we need a simple system that supports pensioners.

Welfare Reform

Chris Webb Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I can confirm that we will focus PIP on those with the greatest needs by changing the assessment so that people will need to score a minimum of four points to qualify for the daily living component. That will apply to new claimants from November 2026. Reassessments will be conducted on a personal, case-by-case basis, and therefore, while I entirely understand why Members raise issues about individuals, we cannot determine those cases from the Dispatch Box.

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

I represent the second most deprived constituency in the United Kingdom, where nearly one in two children are living in poverty, and I worry about the impact that these measures could have on child poverty numbers. Moreover, the number of young people in my constituency who are not in work, education or training is double the national average, but they cannot gain access to the mental health support that would enable them to get into work. That is happening throughout Blackpool, but it is also happening across the country. What can the Secretary of State do to turbocharge the health service while also putting representatives of the voluntary sector, the third sector and the charity sector into jobcentres, so that people can find mental health support immediately rather than waiting for us to rebuild the NHS that the Conservatives left in such a terrible mess?

[Liz Kendall]

We are considering putting jobcentres into GP surgeries and community centres. I believe in a jobs and careers service going to where people are, rather than always expecting them to come to us. I think I am right in saying that authorities in some parts of the country, such as the combined authority in Manchester, have commissioned specific talking therapies for people who are looking for work. That is the direction in which we want to move, and I should be more than happy to discuss it with my hon. Friend in more detail.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Webb Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and, through her, I would like to thank Gingerbread for its work on this issue. There have always been, and always will be, conditions attached to social security, but the past 14 years show what happens when we have a Government who are more interested in blaming people and creating cheap headlines than offering real help. In our manifesto, Labour committed to review universal credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty, and the report that Gingerbread has written will also help inform our child poverty taskforce.

[Chris Webb (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Liz Kendall)]

I am determined to put transparency at the heart of the DWP, so I have today published 31 reports that were sat on by the previous Government—something that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability has long campaigned for. Under this Government’s leadership, the DWP will be honest about the problems that the country faces and focused on the solutions needed to help people build a better life. That starts with our forthcoming White Paper, to get Britain working again.

[Chris Webb]

I first joined WASPI women—Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—in their welcome campaigning activity back in 2017. Seven years later, they are still fighting for justice. Can the Minister assure women in my constituency and across the country that she will act urgently, unlike the previous Government, and bring this injustice to an end?

[Liz Kendall]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I met representatives of the WASPI campaign before this Government were elected. My hon. Friend the Minister for Pensions was the first Minister to meet them in eight years. It really is a serious report that requires serious consideration. We will do everything possible to get this issue resolved as soon as possible.