Income Tax (Charge)

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

Listening to the Chancellor yesterday, I was surprised by the tone that he took. He seems to have forgotten that his Government’s shambolic handling of the covid pandemic has seen the UK suffer both the worst death toll in Europe and the worst economic crisis of any major economy. As we move towards recovery, I share the concerns of many of my constituents, who feel that the confused policy making of the last year means that this is not a Government who can be trusted to deliver the recovery that the UK needs.

Following the financial crisis, the Tories responded with austerity. Labour warned against cutting too far and too fast, and we ended up with soaring rates of poverty, threadbare health and social care services and one of the most unequal economies in the western world—a situation that no doubt exacerbated the impact of the covid pandemic. Now the Government’s failure to recognise the role that poverty and inequality play in holding our nation back means that they are once again risking the economy. In particular, it is noteworthy that, despite countless charitable organisations arguing that the £20 universal credit top-up should be made permanent, the Chancellor could commit to it for only a further six months. Indeed, there are almost 16,000 individuals in Coventry North East who could do with that extra £20 per week, yet this Government seem determined to find a way to take it off them. The Chancellor has said that the increase is only temporary and that it is unaffordable in the longer term. Yet we only have to look at how easily and freely they hand out Government contracts to their friends and close associates to see that when it comes to the question of affordability, it helps to be a personal friend of a Minister. Sadly, for the 16,000 recipients of universal credit in Coventry North East, this means that this much needed increase may soon be ripped away from them. With many of those people already on furlough or in insecure work, there is a real danger that when this is taken away from them, they will become even more dependent on the state for support, which is not what anybody wants.

A society that is built on shaky foundations will not be able to tackle the challenges this country faces, nor take advantage of the opportunities we are presented with. The Government’s plan for the post-pandemic recovery does nothing to tackle the poverty and inequality that resulted in the worst death toll in Europe and the worst economic crisis of any major economy. We all want a strong and resilient country, but unless the Government start to take these issues seriously, they will once again leave us vulnerable to the future challenges we will inevitably face.

Oral Answers to Questions

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The hon. Lady is right to praise volunteers at her local food bank who support vulnerable people in their area. I visited a similar food bank in my own constituency that has been working together with food redistribution schemes. Marrying the two is a perfect way to try to address the challenges that people face at difficult times in their lives. The hon. Lady will be aware of the work that we have been trying to do with the Trussell Trust, and I am pleased to say that we will also be having a roundtable of independent food banks to understand how we can help them and their customers to move forwards.

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

T6. Many constituents have raised concerns with me about their PIP assessment, and the accuracy of the information contained in the assessor’s report. All too often they say that the report does not accurately reflect how their condition affects them or what happened at the assessment. Can the Minister tell me what mechanisms are in place to ensure that assessments are carried out appropriately, so that we can be sure that the correct decisions are made on people’s claims?

[Justin Tomlinson]

We rightly welcome the fact that we are now providing an additional £6 billion to some of the most vulnerable people in society through the PIP system, but we recognise that more needs to be done to gather evidence early. Through the forthcoming Green Paper, we will be looking at how we can work better with claimants to ensure that as much evidence is presented as early as possible in order to get the right decision first time.

Oral Answers to Questions

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Newton]

I would be happy to meet the hon. Lady to go through the report. I assure the House that healthcare professionals are thoroughly trained and often work with leading national charities that represent people, including those with epilepsy, but of course there is always more we can do, and I should be delighted to meet the hon. Lady to discuss that.

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

I am told that many PIP claimants in Coventry with severe mental illnesses are being forced to attend medical assessments miles away in Birmingham. The assessors are rarely mental health professionals, and many of them fail to understand the complexities and fluctuating nature of the claimants’ conditions. Will the Minister commit herself to ensuring that Coventry claimants are assessed in Coventry and that all assessors are appropriately qualified?

[Sarah Newton]

Let me reassure the hon. Lady. People with severe conditions, including severe mental health conditions, can have home assessments; and many more people are benefiting from PIP than benefited from the legacy benefit, disability living allowance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 21st May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Guy Opperman]

I would be delighted to take up that specific example and will definitely take it forward. I remind my hon. Friend that 12,000 people have been auto-enrolled in his constituency.

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

The latest quarterly figures show that in Coventry, 81% of PIP, 76% of ESA, 83% of income support and 100% of jobseeker’s allowance appeals heard by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service were decided in favour of the appellant. Does the Minister accept that the high proportion of successful appeals highlights the flawed nature of the DWP’s decision-making processes?

[Sarah Newton]

It is really important to put all those numbers in context. Let us be absolutely clear: we want to make sure that we make the right decision the first time and we are working really hard to make sure that that is the case. We have recently recruited 150 presenting officers, who now work in the courts, providing invaluable feedback so that we can improve the situation.

State Pension Age for Women

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Westminster Hall

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

The 1950s women have faced challenges and disadvantage throughout their working lives. Those women—I include myself among them—started work before the Equal Pay Act 1970 came into force, and they predated the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. They regularly experienced harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and they frequently had to resolve to accept low-paid, part-time jobs because flexible working was not then available to them. They are the group of women who, because of a lack of childcare provision and paternity leave, gave up work to raise children, which not only affected their personal occupational pension, if they were lucky enough to have one, but their future earning capacity.

The Government’s decision to accelerate state pension age equalisation is the most recent affront to that group of women, who, despite facing such adversity, have contributed all their working lives and deserve a decent retirement, built on solid foundations of stability and certainty. Unfortunately, the gross unfairness of the Government’s decision, combined with their inability to communicate properly the changes they introduced, has robbed that group of women of the capacity to plan their retirement with certainty and to make informed decisions. They have not been given the time needed to adjust to their new circumstances.

The Government must now act to address that intrinsic unfairness by introducing transitional arrangements for those women. Everyone agrees that the retirement age for the state pension should be the same for men and women. That is not the question. It is not equalisation that is so unfair; it is the pace of the changes and the way the Government are bringing them in, along with the indifference shown towards those affected. That needs to be resolved without delay.

Oral Answers to Questions

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Crabb]

I will repeat the point that people being moved from tax credits to universal credit will have transitional protections. The hon. Gentleman is making the mistake that so many of his colleagues have made of trying to compare the present position, falsely, with the previous situation under tax credits. Let us not forget that when tax credits were set up, there was no national living wage, child care support was not at the same level, and there were not higher rates of personal allowance. We are transforming the landscape of support for people on lower incomes.

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

17. What steps his Department is taking to increase the accuracy of decision making during the initial assessment and mandatory reconsideration phases of benefit claims.

[The Minister for Employment (Priti Patel)]

The Department has a range of quality measures to drive improvements in the accuracy of decision making. Of course, we are committed to getting our decisions right. There will always be more opportunities to learn when decisions are overturned on appeal. We feed back on every single case.

[Colleen Fletcher]

The latest figures show that 75%—75%—of PIP appeals heard by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service were decided in favour of the appellant in Coventry. These figures clearly demonstrate the flawed and draconian nature of the original refusal decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions. Will the Minister assure me that further improvements will be made to the DWP decision-making process to increase accuracy and prevent more vulnerable people from being forced to go through the appeals process needlessly?

[Priti Patel]

I would make two points to the hon. Lady. First, the Department has a range of quality measures to drive improvements in the accuracy of decision making. Secondly, I understand from my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People that only 2% of decisions on PIP claims are changed, and that is on the basis of new evidence being submitted.