Oral Answers to Questions
Emma Lewell Excerpts(3 days, 10 hours ago)
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Sir Stephen Timms
There is an issue with compensation payments more widely, and the right hon. Gentleman gives an example of a current case. We are looking at how we can ensure that people who receive those payments are protected.
Emma Lewell (South Shields) (Lab)
South Shields will be the 15th most negatively impacted constituency if the Government’s proposed welfare changes go ahead, yet there are no in-person consultation events in the north-east at all. Can my right hon. Friend please rectify that?
Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation
Emma Lewell Excerpts(4 months ago)
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Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I need to say at the outset that my mam is a WASPI woman. Her generation entered into a contract with the state, which the state reneged on and then stole from them.
But this debate is about more than the injustice these women continue to suffer: it is about trust in politicians and our dwindling faith in democracy. I have continually pledged my support to the more than 5,000 women in South Shields who are affected by these changes. These women were as shocked as I was when the Government announced in December that there would be no compensation.
WASPI women do not disagree with compensation for the victims of the contaminated blood scandal, for LGBT veterans and for sub-postmasters, but they do not understand why they are being treated differently. An injustice is an injustice. The PHSO was clear that it is Parliament that needs to make the final decision, yet Parliament has not been allowed to.
I know that deciding on compensation will be complicated and costly, but that is not an excuse. It should not be beyond the realms of any Parliament or Government to figure this out. These women see, as we all do, how the very wealthy and companies profit from our country and do not reinvest in it. Those are the ones who should be paying the price for the economic mess the previous Government left behind, not those who spent their lives contributing. Their fight for fast and fair compensation continues to have my steadfast support, because my words and promises to them, and to the people who sent me to Parliament, matter to me. They put me here, and I will always put them first, because the day I do not, I no longer deserve to be their voice in this place.
Oral Answers to Questions
Emma Lewell Excerpts(6 months ago)
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Emma Reynolds
I refer the hon. Gentleman to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell): the deadline remains 21 December. Thanks to the Government’s steadfast commitment to the triple lock, more than 12 million pensioners will see their pension increase by more than 4% in April next years, up to £470. Over this Parliament, they will be better off by around £1,900, thanks to the triple lock. Low-income pensioners can also apply for the warm home discount scheme and, thanks to the extension of the household support fund, local authorities can target that support on low-income pensioners. In the longer term, the warm homes plan will transform homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run.
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)
The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)
As well as putting in place breakfast clubs that mean children are ready to learn, and as well as the fair payment rate—we have discussed that—which will stop families being tipped into destitution by debt, the ministerial taskforce, chaired by the Work and Pensions and Education Secretaries, will publish the child poverty strategy in spring 2025, using all available levers across government to bring about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this Parliament, as part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
We know that the previous Government presided over shameful levels of child poverty, including nearly 500,000 children who are eligible for free school meals but who are missing out. Will my hon. Friend, alongside the Education Secretary, urgently look at the proposal by Feeding Britain for auto-enrolment to free school meals as part of the single application process for families claiming UC?
Alison McGovern
One person who has never looked the other way when people were facing poverty in this country is my hon. Friend. Through her innovation, she has ensured that household food insecurity is measured properly, and I pay tribute to her efforts. I have listened to what she said about Feeding Britain, and I will take that as an input into the child poverty taskforce. I hope that she and Feeding Britain will meet me to discuss how we can take that forward.