Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

It is obviously difficult to be exact in an individual circumstance without knowing about the case, but my message to all those in receipt of benefits is that this change affects only those in the work-related activity group who have the potential to return to work and who have another means of income or who have savings in their household. It does not affect those who cannot work in the support group. It does not affect those who need the financial support through an income-based benefit. It affects only a minority of claimants who have the potential to return to work and have other means.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

I understand why the Minister would want assessments to consider people individually. However, the frameworks for those assessments need to be got right. Take, for example, how a blind person may fare in applying for the new personal independence payment. Will the Minister and his colleague look again at the weightings that will apply to the activities supported by this payment, since if someone with full sight loss is unlikely to qualify for the enhanced level of support, surely there would be a case for changing the weightings?

[Chris Grayling]

We are trying to get this right. We want a reform that produces a system that reflects genuine disability and does not provide support to those who do not need it. We are in the middle of a consultation about this. I ask my hon. Friend to take part in that consultation and to encourage his constituents who may be concerned about the reform to do so. We want to get it right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is continuing to cite figures that are statistically inaccurate. The figures to which he refers were distorted by the previous Government’s propensity to bury young people in the statistics where they would not be visible. Now that we do not put people on to a training allowance, which counts as being off jobseeker’s allowance, we are telling the truth about the scale of youth unemployment and seeing the real picture. Our statisticians have made the calculations and found that, when those statistical adjustments are taken into account, there has been no increase in youth unemployment of more than six months over the past two years.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

Rather than falling since the general election, youth unemployment in my constituency has risen by five people; it is still too high, however, and I certainly welcome the youth contract. Clearly, it has also risen in other parts of the country at a rate that the west of England has not experienced, so will there be a way of ensuring that the take-up of the youth contract will be high in the parts of the country where it is most needed?

[Chris Grayling]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that this is a huge challenge for us. The truth is that, since the general election, youth unemployment has risen by approximately 100,000, with about half that increase coming from full-time students looking for part-time jobs. I regard any level of youth unemployment as too high, and I hope that the subsidies that we provide for employers who hire young people, together with the extra work experience and apprenticeship places being created through the youth contract, will help those in precisely the parts of the country to which he is referring.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady will know that the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) is doing a great deal to support women and men back into work in these very difficult times. I should like to commend him for the excellent work that he is doing further to expand the Work programme.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

Families with children that are currently in receipt of disability living allowance are among those who are worried about what they read in the papers about the Government’s welfare reforms. Will the Minister take this opportunity to reassure them that they will not experience any reduction in the cash value of that benefit under the reforms?

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend is referring to the future of the personal independence payment. He will be aware of my firm commitment to ensuring that that payment is focused on helping those who need help the most. He will have seen from our recently published documentation that our initial work in that area shows that more of that money is going to people who really need it in order to live independent lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 28th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

The hon. Lady will be aware that there have been no changes in the assessment or eligibility criteria, so I am not sure why there might be perceived changes in the case she raises. I am obviously happy, however, to pick up on any issues that she wants to raise with me separately.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

Here last month, the Minister with responsibility for disabled people said that she wanted to reflect on the Low review into personal mobility in state-funded residential care before announcing her final decisions. I am glad that the matter has received careful attention since then, but when might she be able to lift this cloud from over disabled care home residents and their families?

[Maria Miller]

I thank my hon. Friend for his assiduous attention to this issue. We are considering very carefully Lord Low’s extremely helpful report and will come forward soon with our final response.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

T7. In the Welfare Reform Bill Committee on 10 May the Minister with responsibility for disabilities, the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller), assured us that she would not remove mobility benefits from disabled people without additional support being in place. Would she care to update the House on progress in determining the level of support that will be available to disabled people, including care home residents, through personal independence payments?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to do that. As he is aware, we have been examining this issue more broadly and our research is well advanced. The independent review chaired by Lord Low has been examining some of the same issues, and it is sensible to reflect on the outcome of his important work in advance of our final decision. Lord Low is due to report on 3 November and I will announce our final decisions shortly after.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 18th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question—I think. The deficit does not go away, and I think she needs to remember that. We have to ensure that we have sufficient money to have a sustainable disability living allowance or personal independence payment into the future, and I look forward to working with her on ways of achieving that. With regard to the additional evidence that will be put forward as part of the Low review, I obviously welcome any additional information that will help us, along with the 5,500 submissions we have received as part of the DLA consultation. This is a really important issue and I am glad that the hon. Lady is getting involved in finding the right solution, because obviously that is important for us all.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

9. What plans he has to issue guidance to prospective applicants on the evidence required from them to receive employment and support allowance.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

ESA claims are normally made by phone. A statement is then sent to the claimant setting out any additional evidence necessary to support the claim. If claims are made using a clerical form, notes are provided about evidence that may be required. There are no current plans to issue further guidance, but this is constantly kept under review.

[Duncan Hames]

I thank the Minister for that answer and am pleased to know that this is under review. Answers to my written parliamentary questions show that in Chippenham nearly half of all unsuccessful applicants who appeal win their cases at tribunal, in some cases by presenting evidence that they did not know they were to produce when they first made their application. Does the Minister recognise that these successful appeals are a costly process that do not represent value for money for the taxpayer and cause unnecessary heartache and hardship for the people concerned?

[Chris Grayling]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend and want to see fewer cases going to appeal. This is one reason why we have stepped up the reconsideration process in Jobcentre Plus, so after the initial decision is made we actively seek out further evidence, if such evidence exists, and use it to reconsider our decision. I hope and expect to see the number of successful appeals reduce significantly as a result.

Pensions Bill [Lords]

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 20th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Dame Anne Begg]

So those women will still have to have the 30 years of credits, but in respect of the SERPS element they will be the winners. But for every winner in all these changes, there will inevitably be losers, and there will be those who have paid their SERPS all their working life, including women who have paid the big stamp but not the small stamp. They are the ones who often feel aggrieved. As the Minister knows, pensions policy is a minefield covered in all those booby traps. As soon as one presses down on one thing, another pops up, making it all very difficult.

It is the group of women who were born in 1953 and 1954 who are being expected, at very, very short notice—five years’ notice—somehow to change their whole financial planning for their retirement. As I pointed out to the Secretary of State in an intervention, when the equalisation came in the warning that people were given ranged from 15 to 25 years. The evidence that I received from Age UK showed that 20% of women still have not realised that they are not going to get the state pension at 60 but will have to wait until they are 64 or 65.

That proves not that we have been lax in trying to inform or educate women about what state pension they can expect, but that it takes a long time for such things to sink in and for people to make arrangements. In the case of the current proposal, the women who will be most affected have just over five years’ notice. That is unfair and I hope the Government will look again.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

In her intervention, the Chair of the Select Committee made the excellent point that some of the women we are talking about have already left the labour market, having taken early retirement. Does she agree that the Government have a special responsibility to those former Government employees who they persuaded to take early retirement instead of a redundancy option and who now find that they will not have access to a state pension as part of the plans that they would have made when deciding to leave their employment as civil servants?

[Dame Anne Begg]

I could not agree more. It is imperative that we get that sorted out now. I am sure that other local authorities will not be any different from my local authority, which knows that cuts are coming. My local authority managed to have a funding black hole of £25 million. Before there was any economic disaster in any other part of the world, it happened in Aberdeen. I will not talk about that being a Liberal Democrat council, but it was. That has resulted in large numbers of local authority employees—not only women, but predominantly women—being offered early retirement, which councils have been encouraging their employees to take because they do not want to go down the route of compulsory redundancies.

People have been signing up and are still signing up for early retirement without the full knowledge that what they are signing up for is a lower pension that will not be supplemented with the basic state pension when they reach the age of 63 or 64, as they thought it would be. In some cases, they may have to wait another two years. Their entire financial planning was based on the expectation that they would get whatever the basic state pension would be at that time. It is £105 now, so it will be more than that, and the flat rate pension may have come in. They were expecting at least another £100 a week in the income that they have worked out they will need to survive.

The short notice is the injustice. The Government must look at this again. They cannot leave out this group of women, who did not have the chance to build up their pension protection but who took on the burden of care in the community, saving the Government billions of pounds. The same group of women have had to fight many of the equality battles, yet it is being hardest hit, and it cannot be right that, because of the acceleration, the Government are making them pay the price not of deficit reduction—according to the coalition, the proposals will not apply until after the deficit is meant to have gone—but of the longevity of other groups.

I accept the Secretary of State’s point that the coalition Government discovered that their proposed acceleration was illegal. It would probably be illegal under European law because the Government had already said that they would equalise the pension age of men and women. That makes me wonder what else in the coalition document might be illegal. Has someone been through it with a fine-toothed comb? If that was such a glaring error, have others sneaked into the coalition agreement, or was it just this issue where someone failed to notice that signing up for the equalisation of the state pension age might not be fulfilled by the words of the coalition document?

I will vote against the Bill because it fails on the basic principle of fairness, and in pensions policy fairness is all. When those now sitting on the Government Benches were in opposition, fairness was all they talked about. The previous Labour Government went a long way in introducing fairness into the pensions system. Pension credit was certainly a revolutionary policy that lifted many pensioners out of poverty and transformed the incomes of many pensioners, who saw their incomes double when Labour was in power. Fairness must be at the heart of pensions policy, but the Bill does not pass the fairness criterion.

Welfare Reform Bill

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Curran]

I could not agree more. It was staggering how ill-informed the Prime Minister seemed to be about the impact that the Bill will have on cancer patients. I will make reference to further experiences that cancer victims will have as a result of these proposals. There is worse news for them, as we will find out.

Our amendments seek to put right the wrongs in the Bill. They would make the personal independence payment a fairer, more effective and more workable component of welfare reform. That is incredibly important given the scale of the reform, with 1.8 million working-age people being assessed in just three short years. Let me begin with one of the most controversial elements of the Government’s proposals and explain the key arguments behind our amendments to clause 83, which deals with the mobility component for those in residential care homes. That policy has attracted much attention and has been the subject of much debate inside and outside the House, yet the Government’s position remains, I am sorry to say, far from clear.

The blanket cut to those living in residential care was first announced by the Chancellor in the comprehensive spending review: it is there on page 12 of the documentation that I have here beside me. For the record, that position has not changed. The cut was in the first Budget document, and it remains in today’s Budget document. Granted, it has been delayed by six months, but it is still there. The proposal was met with an outcry from disabled people, disability organisations and the Opposition. Where was the Government’s much vaunted compassionate welfare reform? Why single out this particular group? Why select perhaps one of the most vulnerable sections of society? We have heard much talk of reviews and overlaps, but let there be no mistake—unless clause 83 is amended, people living in residential care homes can have their DLA mobility taken away from them.

Let me draw to the attention of Members who may be thinking about how they will vote a briefing submitted by several charitable organisations, which says that while the Government are no longer planning to remove DLA mobility from people living in residential care, they are planning to remove PIP mobility. Members should be careful to remember that if the Government say they are not removing DLA mobility, the Bill as it stands will remove PIP mobility.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

I accept the hon. Lady’s observations about the confusion over the Government’s intentions. I think she just said that the Bill will remove PIP mobility. Is it not the case that the Government could bring forward regulations to remove PIP mobility? What we have to determine this afternoon, and what I hope Ministers will give us assurances on, is whether that is the Government’s intention.

[Margaret Curran]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. I know that he takes a great interest in this matter. That is exactly the point I am about to address. Our purpose this afternoon is to prohibit the Government from ever taking away PIP mobility from those in residential care. I hope that I can win his support, because I know that he has a genuine interest in this matter. I hope he bears with me, and I will gladly allow him to intervene again.

--- Later in debate ---

[Maria Miller]

We are not doing that. We are reviewing the situation. As the hon. Lady will of course know, we need provisions in the Bill to take account of other areas of overlap within PIP—it was the same under the previous Administration—so that we do not pay certain elements of the benefit to people in various types of accommodation. Any change or refinement will be dealt with in regulations, which she will be able to view for herself.

[Duncan Hames]

I have heard very clearly the Minister’s assurances in her remarks so far, but I am at a loss as to why the Bill refers specifically to residence in a care home as a condition for clause 83(1)(b). I am encouraged by what she has said, but I do not understand why that provision remains in the Bill.

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend will know that we are looking at this matter in some detail, and at the evidence on the ground. If we do not feel that an overlap is in play, we will take the appropriate action. He can rest assured that any further action that we take in that regard will be defined in regulations and subject to further debate.

Amendment 73, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) spoke, would require the Secretary of State to produce a report on the impact of regulations made under clause 83 within a year of their being laid. In the light of the explanation that I have just given, considering whether to produce a report on the impact of regulations made under the clause could be premature. I therefore hope that she does not press the amendment to a Division.

Similarly, on amendment 74, on regulations, I repeat my assurances that we take extremely seriously the concerns expressed earlier about care homes, and we are committed to responding to them in the right way. The House would expect the Government to look at the facts of how a policy would be implemented before they move forward with it, which is exactly what we are doing. The amendment would make regulations applying to the payment of the mobility component of PIP subject to the affirmative resolution in the first instance. We spoke at length about that in Committee, and I do not want to debate again whether a resolution should be affirmative or negative. We are subject to the scrutiny of Parliament in this. I would like to return to the commitment that I gave the hon. Member for Glasgow East in Committee when I said that I would reflect on whether other regulations should be subject to the affirmative procedure. I am happy to reiterate that, but at the moment I do not think that we need to go further.

Oral Answers to Questions

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Gentleman will of course have heard the earlier exchanges in which I said that the Government are not removing the mobility component of DLA from care home residents from 2012. We will ensure that the needs of individuals in care homes are assessed in the same way as those of everyone else in receipt of DLA as part of the PIP reforms.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

What measures are the Government taking to ensure that assessments for PIP, the successor to DLA, are not as disastrous as those introduced under the previous Government for their work capability assessment?

[Maria Miller]

I can absolutely give an undertaking to my hon. Friend that we are learning a great deal from the development of the work capability assessment, although I would stress to him that it is a very different sort of assessment that looks at the barriers people face in living independent lives, rather than the barriers they face in getting into work.

Disability Living Allowance

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2011 Westminster Hall

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams) on securing this important and timely debate, and I thank the Minister for her attendance. The Government’s proposals on welfare reform are undeniably substantial, but reform is undeniably due. The best elements of the wider proposals have the potential to create a simpler, fairer and more efficient system than the current array of credits, benefits and allowances that developed under the previous Government. However, the proposals that caused the greatest consternation among my constituents—that consternation is clear from today’s attendance by colleagues from both sides of the House—are the proposed changes to the mobility component of disability living allowance. The issue presents a particularly difficult balancing act to reform a complex welfare system, but never to jeopardise the ability of disabled people to live full, independent and active lives. We have been right today to determine what is a modern, efficient and, most importantly, fair system to meet disabled people’s mobility needs.

I have actively expressed my opposition to the proposed withdrawal of the mobility component of disability living allowance for those living in residential care homes, and I am grateful for the time that the Minister has spent listening and talking to me about that on the Floor of the House and separately. Without the mobility component, many of the most vulnerable people in our society would be unable to meet the cost of living independent and fulfilling lives, and to engage in the social activities that most of us take for granted. As I politely suggested to the Prime Minister, parallels drawn between those in hospitals and residential care homes are crude and unfair. It is clear that the Minister in her investigation of the matter has reached much wider, and those of us who have had most reservations should recognise her efforts to obtain a clearer handle on the matter than those who considered it previously.

I associate myself with the comments of the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry), who demonstrated a clear understanding of some of the issues concerning care home funding. In the light of the responses to the proposals that the Government first tabled, and the representations from me and many others in the House, I warmly welcome the Minister’s decision to postpone the change until the nature of mobility funding for those in care homes is fully understood. It is absolutely essential that we do not rush into any of the changes, and it is good news that the Minister is listening and accepts that we must take a longer, clearer look at the issue.

Given the Minister’s intention to give due consideration to the mobility needs of those in residential care homes before moving forward with any changes, I ask her to consider two issues in particular as part of the development of wider changes to DLA: first, the process of medical assessment for personal independence payments; and secondly, how the support given to those in residential care homes can be most effectively personalised.

The Government have stated their intention medically to assess all those currently in receipt of DLA. Assessment can bring advantages and ensure that help goes to those who need it most. Potentially, it can make it easier for some disabled people to claim and allow the provision of more individualised support. However, there are also pitfalls and possible side effects to assessment such as the cost, both of contracting out the assessments and of financing the appeals that are bound to follow in the wake of any large-scale assessment programme. There is also the pain that face-to-face assessment may inflict on those suffering from autism and similar disabilities, and the danger that an assessment of the mobility needs of those with spectrum disorders, mental health issues and fluctuating conditions such as Parkinson’s, may be prone to error unless conducted by specialists. We have seen that problem in the conduct of work capability assessments for employment and support allowance.

[Nicky Morgan]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree—he may be about to cover this point—that there is a question mark over the need for repeated assessments of certain conditions? I speak as the vice-chair of the all-party group on eye health and visual impairment, and I think particularly of those who are blind. Some conditions, such as the loss of a limb, will never change and more costs may be incurred in reassessment than are necessary.

[Duncan Hames]

The hon. Lady makes an exceptionally good point. Certainly, it is written in my notes that there is the potential for certain conditions, such as blindness, to benefit from an automatic entitlement.

I suggest it is worth examining a tiered approach in which a paper-based assessment would be sufficient for those with the most obvious need, thus eliminating the requirement for a detailed and stressful face-to-face assessment. I support the emphasis on personalisation in many of the Government’s statements about the reforms. That could prove helpful in addressing the alleged duplication that has been mentioned with regard to funding for care home residents.

I have suggested to the Minister previously, and continue to believe, that if those funds currently allocated by local authorities to care homes for meeting the assessed needs of residents were transferred directly to residents as part of their personal independence payment, that would ensure that the freedom, choice and independence currently offered by the mobility component of DLA is maintained. It would also ensure that money given to care homes for use by their residents is used by those residents, and not lost in administration or meeting other costs. That is not what has been proposed to date, but it is in tune with the thrust of many Government changes, and I hope that it will be considered. The current confusion over where responsibility lies for the funding of mobility needs for those in residential care homes points to the need for reform. However, the fundamental reference point for that reform must be a guarantee that people who live with disabilities should be supported to live active and fulfilling lives.

I conclude by reiterating my welcome to the Minister’s decision to look again at the support given to those in local authority funded care homes, and by repeating my hope that she will investigate the suggestions I have made today, which are among several constructive suggestions raised during the debate.