Welfare Reform and Work Bill

Debate between David Burrowes and Jeremy Lefroy

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

I am going to speak extremely briefly to amendment 29 in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland), which asks the Government to look again at withdrawing the full amount of the WRAG component, which affects approximately 492,000 people. Let me briefly explain the reasons.

First, as the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Dr Whiteford) mentioned earlier, many in the WRAG are in that group for a long period—two years or more, compared with six months on average for jobseeker’s allowance, for instance. As she said, it is extremely difficult to exist on these levels of income for long periods, whereas it might be possible for a few weeks or even a few months for those with other kinds of support. It is therefore important that we look at the length of time.

Secondly, the costs for people in this group are often higher. It has been said to me that the personal independence payment will compensate. It will not compensate for all those costs; for instance, heating is not part of PIP, nor are the special diets people may have, although caring and mobility are part of PIP, of course.

Thirdly, there is the question of the incentive. Because the support group has a component of £36.20 a week at present as opposed to the WRAG of £29.05 a week, which it is proposed to take away, there will be the incentive and a tendency for people to be put into the support group rather than the WRAG. Surely the whole point is to bring people into the WRAG so that they can be given support to come back into work. For instance, 30% of people with Parkinson’s are wrongly placed in the WRAG. This means that instead of receiving the £29.05 component a week, they will receive nothing in future. I have seen instances of people placed in the wrong group in my constituency.

We are talking about a benefit where sanctions are wrongly applied in a number of cases, as has been mentioned in the debate. I need to be very brief and I apologise for not making my points in more detail, but I want others to come in. I ask the Minister to come back on this—

[Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)]

This may be an opportunity to mention amendment 31. I recognise my hon. Friend’s concerns. What we need is specialised tailored employment support. I understand that in Committee the Minister agreed to come back in the autumn with details of what support the Government will give when the package rises from £30 million to £100 million. The sooner we get those details, the better.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I entirely agree that we need specialised tailored employment support, but people also need cash to pay their heating bills. That is extremely important and needs to be borne in mind.

Finally, I was not quite clear from my hon. Friend the Minister’s remarks earlier whether the freezing of benefits applies to those in the WRAG who will be on the present JSA rate of £73.10.