Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I know that my hon. Friend is passionate about helping more people into work. Youth unemployment in her constituency is almost twice the national average, so it is essential for her constituents that we sort this out. Alongside work experience, we want to expand the number of sector-based work programmes, which have tailored courses for employers. We will also hold summits in three key growth areas—construction, health and social care, and clean energy—to bring employers together with local areas so that we can really go for growth.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The ambition of the Secretary of State for an 80% employment level is bound to be made more difficult by the findings in the impact assessment of the Employment Rights Bill, which foresees a £5.4 billion increase in costs and a 53% increase in strike action, is it not?

[Liz Kendall]

Government Members are ambitious for people right across the country. We do not accept the situation that we inherited from the Conservative party, as the only country in the G7 whose employment rate had not gone back to pre-pandemic levels. Creating more good jobs in every part of the country and narrowing the employment gap between different areas is tough, but we believe that it is achievable, and it is no less than the British people deserve.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

There are unfortunately many such cases in which people are preyed on by scammers. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the case further.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

T3. Why did the Office for Budget Responsibility estimate that the Budget would cost 50,000 jobs?

[Alison McGovern]

I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the OBR report that says that overall, employment will go up.

“Get Britain Working” White Paper

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

My hon. Friend will know of our plans to make work pay, bring in day one employment rights, end exploitative zero-hours contracts and improve flexibility at work. We need to do all those things to make sure that there are good-quality job options out there for young people. There will be new leadership roles for mayors in combined authorities, but also clear accountability for delivering the outcome that we want, which is that every young person has an opportunity to earn or learn. We will make sure that happens.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

To ensure that

“if you can work, you must work”,

will the Secretary of State familiarise herself with the works of Jeremy Bentham?

[Liz Kendall]

If I have time.

Women’s State Pension Age: Ombudsman Report

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

I beg to move,

That this House notes the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on Women’s State Pension age; and calls on the Government to deliver prompt compensation to women born in the 1950s who had their State Pension age raised.

I am delighted to have secured today’s debate on this very important issue. The motion urges the UK Government to deliver prompt compensation to women born in the 1950s who had their state pension age raised, following the report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on the Department of Work and Pensions’ communication of changes to the state pension age for women. I extend my thanks to the Backbench Business Committee for granting the debate. I lament the fact that it will not be possible to press the motion to a vote, as Tellers from both sides of the argument would be required for such a vote to be held.

Although I am disappointed that there will be no vote, there is nothing at all to prevent the Government from bringing forward such a vote in Government time. Indeed, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has invited the House to express a view by laying its report before Parliament, so that clearly needs to happen.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Will the hon. Lady address the prejudice touched on at the Work and Pensions Committee last week, namely that there has been an element of contributory negligence, in that the change was not a state secret—it was advertised and covered in the newspapers—and that some women who were approaching retirement or early retirement did not take proper notice? Will she knock that on the head?

[Patricia Gibson]

If the right hon. Gentleman reads the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report, he will see that it makes it very clear that action was not taken to inform women in the appropriate way that one would expect and, indeed, that the DWP was negligent in that regard.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Paul Maynard)]

Let me simply point to what the Resolution Foundation had to say in its Living Standards Outlook: pensioner poverty is forecast to fall.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

T2. Given that it would not survive under Labour, just how vital is the work plan?

[Mel Stride]

My right hon. Friend is entirely right to raise that point: in the absence of this Government, the work plan will be no more. The problem is that we do not know exactly what will replace it, because there is no plan from the party opposite—no plan on work capability assessments, no plan on personal independence payments, no plan on fit notes. We do not know what Labour stands for, so let us stick with the plan, and let us elect a Conservative Government at the next election.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 19th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman; I opened my door to him as soon as he requested and had him and his colleagues in for a discussion. We continue to consider those matters as part of the general policy going forward, and I will keep him informed of news as it may or may not occur.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Is the disability action plan in addition to the national disability strategy?

[Tom Pursglove]

The plan is in addition to the national disability strategy. We as a Government disagree with the position that the Court has taken regarding consultation. We have been given permission to appeal, and we are appealing. The disability action plan is about short-term measures that we can get on and deliver.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 24th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Laura Trott]

I am sorry to hear about the pensioners involved. If they are eligible for pension credit and not claiming, I assume the hon. Lady is helping them. As a Department we are happy to give any assistance to those individuals. We are doing all we can to boost pension credit uptake. There was a campaign before Christmas, which I am sure she was part of, to get people to claim the cost of living payment, which we will repeat this year. We saw a 177% increase in claims just before Christmas. There will also be the pension credit week of action for the summer on 12 to 16 June, which I hope many hon. Members will take part in.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Ministers agitated for us all to get involved in the campaign to extend the uptake of pension credit. Has the Minister any innovative plans that will make it easier for us to do so, such as toolkits and the like?

[Laura Trott]

Absolutely. I am also looking at what more we can do to use data from housing benefit and from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to make it easier to target people for a claim. Working together, we can make a real difference in the number of pension credit claimants in this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride]

The two reports to which I have just referred are independent—from the Government Actuary’s Department, on matters such as life expectancy; and from Baroness Neville-Rolfe, on the metrics that should be taken into account in determining when the next increase in the state pension age should occur. We certainly take into account issues such as pensioner poverty, on which we have an excellent record. In fact, relative pensioner poverty before housing has halved since 1999, and there are 400,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty—that is before or after housing—compared with 2009-10.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Is it realistic to continue to expect people to spend a third of their lives on a pension?

[Mel Stride]

I have great respect for my right hon. Friend, but I am afraid that although he tempts me to answer that question, I cannot prejudge the decisions that I will take in the review.

Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Wednesday 15th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I agree with the hon. Member. Opposition to the cut is truly universal, for those reasons. It includes MPs, charities, unions and six former Conservative Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions. If we are being honest, I think several serving Conservative Ministers also share that view. In this debate, I want to knock down the fiction that there is somehow a choice to be made between cancelling the cut and getting people back into work. I want to talk about what the cut will mean for the families affected and the impact that it will have on all our local economies and the national resilience necessary to meet future challenges. I also want to talk about how the Government could easily fund universal credit at its current rate without making this counterproductive and harsh cut.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

I am inundated every week by employers who simply cannot get workers. Should we not be seeking to raise the sights of many working people to get another, better-paid job? They are out there.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

In the right hon. Member’s constituency, 4,000 households are in receipt of universal credit. I want to ensure that, at the beginning of the debate, we knock down the argument, which we have also heard from the Prime Minister, that a focus on jobs will somehow mean that we do not need to keep universal credit at its current level. Of course we should get people back into jobs, but it is simply false to say that the choice is between keeping the uplift and doing that.

Let me remind the House again that universal credit is an in-work benefit. Almost half of the incomes that Government Members wish to cut are of people in work. Either the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and several Conservative MPs do not know how universal credit works or they are being wilfully misleading. I do not know which is worse. Let us have a real debate rather than this ignorant rhetoric about work or welfare, because—this is the crucial point—if as a country we could get the people affected into better-paying jobs, the cost of keeping universal credit at its current level would go down automatically. That is exactly how the system is designed to work. Anyone saying that the cut needs to happen to get people back into work, or to get them working more hours, does not know what they are talking about.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Coffey]

Of course, we now have a record number of vacancies, but we are also about being ready and anticipating. The OBR forecast that there would be a significantly higher unemployment effect as a result of what happened, and it mattered that we had jobcentres and work coaches ready to help people with that. I hope that we can now make sure that our army of work coaches can continue to help just under 2 million people still looking for work to get into those 1 million vacancies, as well as their efforts to help people progress in work.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

rose—

[James Cartlidge]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Coffey]

I would not normally rely on John Maynard Keynes to help the cause, but undoubtedly, there is an element of investment; we are seeing plenty of investment by the Government in our economies and in businesses in support of that, not least the £650 billion programme announced by my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Chancellor earlier this week, which we estimate will generate an extra 425,000 jobs just in the next few years. We want people to have more take-home pay. That is why we have pursued increases to the national living wage, which is now at 60% of median earnings. The intention is that it will reach 66% of median earnings before the end of this Parliament—and that is just the minimum. We want people to have high-skilled, high-paid jobs, and that is why our plan for jobs is all about helping people take advantage of the support that is there.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Spending £6 billion handing an uplift to all recipients of universal credit, irrespective of their circumstances, was never a targeted way of affecting those people who are most in need. That is why it was temporary. When the Secretary of State comes to the longer term, will she consider the taper and the way that childcare costs are met?

[Dr Coffey]

My right hon. Friend is right that it was quite a blunt way of quickly delivering instant support, particularly for those most financially impacted by covid, many of whom were made redundant for the first time in their lives. I am conscious that we have still more to do to try to make sure that people can keep more of what they earn. I also have strong views that we need to continue to try to make best use of the funding that goes into childcare. As my right hon. Friend will know, under universal credit 85% of childcare costs, worth up to £13,000 per family, can be reclaimed. That is higher than that possible under tax credits.

Coming back to universal credit, the point has been made by hon. Members across the House that it is a dynamic benefit. It supports people in work and out of work, which is exactly what it was designed to do. People are better off working than not working, unless they cannot work. That is why, automatically and instantaneously, when people started to see a change in their working patterns due to the covid pandemic, it responded to the needs of people already in the system. Those affected saw their universal credit payments rise straight away when they lost working hours or found themselves out of work completely. That is a key part of why the UC system is absolutely vital. I am pleased that the Opposition seem at least to have decided to drop their opposition to that, even if it is just to rebrand. Nevertheless, we decided to somewhat cushion the fall of people made redundant.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies]

As part of our plan for jobs, the new job-finding support and JETS services will, crucially, help jobseekers move back into employment as quickly as possible, helping them to identify sectors that could be growing or new to them. I met our JETS providers just last week to hear some of their early success stories from across England and Wales. JETS rolls out in Scotland in early January.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Is there any evidence that the financial effects of coronavirus have been less severe on the recipients of legacy benefits than those on universal credit?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Will Quince)]

First, let me say that I appreciate that many people are facing financial disruption due to the pandemic, and the Government have put an unprecedented package of support in place. The universal credit uplift was designed to be targeted at those facing the most financial disruption, but most working-age legacy benefits will be increased in April next year in line with inflation, and legacy benefits recipients could benefit from the local housing allowance or, indeed, the local welfare assistance schemes. I remind the House that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim to universal credit if they believe they would be better off, but I would encourage them to check their eligibility as their legacy benefit entitlement will cease on application.