Health and Social Care Update

Debate between Edward Leigh and Thérèse Coffey

Thursday 22nd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

No.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

It is not the fault of successive Conservative Secretaries of State that every time they come forward with a plan, the queues just get longer, the NHS asks for more resources, and more people have to be imported from abroad. The fault is with the system: the last example of collective planning and socialist central control, and ever more targets, like today. It simply does not work. Will the Secretary of State—the Conservative Secretary of State—have an open mind to looking at the social insurance systems of France, Germany and Italy—[Interruption.] Opposition Members can mock but, to be frank, the health outcomes in those countries are far superior to ours. People are fed up with paying all their life and being at the end of the queue. It should not just be the rich who can access private healthcare.

[Dr Coffey]

I understand why my right hon. Friend makes that point, recognising that many other countries in Europe take that approach. However, that is not the approach we are going to take under this Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Edward Leigh and Thérèse Coffey

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The hon. Lady refers to the fact that people without recourse to public funds are not eligible for benefits. When people arrive, I accept that they are not going to be eligible for child benefit. Any family in a state of difficulty can apply to the Home Office for a review of that status; it is for them to do so. At the same time, as I think we confirmed to the Select Committee when we discussed the matter at the hearing last week, it is for local councils to design the way they do the household support fund. It may be possible for people without recourse to public funds to apply to their local authority.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm that support for the welfare state depends on a kind of social contract where people realise that those who are pensioners or out of work should be helped because they have paid their taxes? How is support for the welfare state improved when 60,000 people a year are pouring across the channel, paying illegal smugglers—these are not the poorest of the poor—and being kept on social security, maybe for 10 years, without ever being deported? By the way, what does it cost?

[Dr Coffey]

I am conscious that through the help—the visa schemes—being put forward for Ukrainian citizens and for Afghan resettlement, there is access to public funds. My right hon. Friend will be aware that people who arrive in the country illegally are given a payment via the Home Office, I think, of a very small amount of money to pay for the day-to-day, but they are not eligible directly for benefits.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Edward Leigh and Thérèse Coffey

Monday 21st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The House has just recently voted through the uprating order, recognising the traditional way in which the inflation index is used. We will continue to strive to get more people working than ever before. We have seen that certainly on payrolls. I am conscious that the surveys on self-employment may differ in that regard. That is why we will keep working in different ways to try to make sure that we try to lift as many people out of poverty as we can, and we will do that the best way we know: through our work coaches.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

7. What steps her Department is taking to tackle deprivation through its benefits policy.