Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Cathy Jamieson

Friday 22nd March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

rose—

[Cathy Jamieson]

I will be happy to give way if the Secretary of State can answer that point about unfairness.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Will the hon. Lady answer this question? If she is so against this, why is she in favour of people having spare rooms subsidised by the taxpayer? Why did her party’s Government refuse to allow the same thing in relation to private sector social tenancies?

[Cathy Jamieson]

Once again, the Secretary of State’s question shows just how out of touch this Government are. These are people’s homes, in which many of them have lived—[Interruption.] The Secretary of State can shout from the Front Bench, but he had his opportunity to speak earlier. It is important to reflect back to him the points made by hon. Members when he was not in his place, and that is what I am seeking to do. It is unfair that people who have lived in their homes for many years are now finding that there are no other homes for them to move to. Some people had been given homes under the homeless persons legislation, and some because the homes are suitably adapted for their needs. It is simply not fair to suggest that these people should not be able to continue to live in these homes.

Several hon. Members talked about unemployment and the need for more to be done. My hon. Friends the Members for Lewisham East, Walthamstow (Stella Creasy), for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) and for Blaenau Gwent (Nick Smith) highlighted the problems of many more people chasing vacancies in their areas than there are jobs available. The Government consistently say that there have been increasing numbers of people in employment. However, the harsh reality for many people in the constituencies represented by Labour Members who have spoken is that they are not seeing the benefit of that job creation and are finding that jobs are not available, that only part-time jobs are available, or that they are unable to work the number of hours they need to work.

On housing, various circumstances were relayed during the course of the debate. I note that we still have not had an answer from Ministers about the second home subsidy. Will the legislation be constructed in such a way that it will not be possible for people who already own homes to buy another home under this process? Yet again, no answer is forthcoming. Housing was discussed by my hon. Friends the Members for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter), for Croydon North (Steve Reed), for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), for Westminster North (Ms Buck), for North Durham (Mr Jones), for Eltham (Clive Efford) and for Hyndburn (Graham Jones). I list them all because that shows the great strength of feeling about how this Government have got it wrong on housing and have not done enough to bring forward, at an early stage, plans not only to get houses built but to give the construction sector the boost that it needs.

My hon. Friends the Members for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) and for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) referred to the Department for International Development’s welcome commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP, but made the important point that that money has to be spent on aid and should not be diverted anywhere else.

It was suggested that my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) should have a statue erected in his honour because of the amount of work that he has done in his area on energy and climate change issues. As a former sculptor, I would certainly be very keen to see a suitable monument erected somewhere in his constituency.

I want to return to the points raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill. He made a number of very important points about how this Government have not taken any responsibility for what they are doing under their own watch. He noted how the numbers have been manipulated or massaged—we can use whatever word we like—and how they want to pay this year’s bills next year to ensure that their sums add up. At the same time, borrowing is the same as last year and will be the same next year, too. They also broke their promise to get the deficit down by 2015.

My right hon. Friend highlighted a number of issues with regard to the jobcentre targets, which was also picked up by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow. Will the Exchequer Secretary address some of those issues when he winds up? As my right hon. Friend has pointed out, it has been said that staff were threatened if they did not get the figures down and that they were given a dictionary of certain phrases that they had to look out for whereby people were put on special measures or investigated further if they used those phrases in their job diaries or on their forms.

This is very serious and I have asked Ministers questions about it during previous debates. I received an assurance that there were no targets in the jobcentres, but we have heard evidence today that there seem to be not only targets, but league tables. I cannot imagine why jobcentre staff would say such things if pressure was not being put on them to work in that way. Ministers seem to be saying one thing in public while something else is going on in private behind the scenes. That suggests either that Ministers do not know what is going on, or that they do know but have not been able, for whatever reason, to get the information into the public domain. The Minister needs to answer those questions. For the same reason, it is important that we get the independent review on sanctions, which Ministers were clearly asked to consider in every case in which sanctions were used. We have heard about the many good people working in jobcentres. It has been suggested that they are good people trapped in bad systems, and it is the responsibility of Ministers to address that.

I want to end on a slightly more positive note. We welcome the employment allowance. We want to see the detail and ensure that it moves ahead as quickly as possible. It is something that we have advocated to give more help to small businesses.

Although we welcome some measures, I want to sound a cautionary note on the sickness and absence review in particular. Of course, we support the idea of people getting the help, assistance and medical treatment they need to deal with conditions and to enable them to get back to work if they have been off sick or have been injured. That access to treatment must not, however, be put at risk by further cuts to the NHS and it must not take a similar approach to the one we have already shown to be unfair whereby the Department for Work and Pensions, through organisations such as Atos, appears to be treating people in a way that disadvantages rather than assists them.

We have yet to see all the implications of the plan to introduce the single-tier pension. I have been contacted by many women who have already been hit by the change in retirement age and who are now very worried and confused about how the change to the state pension will affect them. They are now even more worried about the new proposals.

We have had a good debate, but the shadow Secretary of State raised a number of issues for which answers are still required and I hope that the Minister will provide them. I would particularly appreciate answers to the points about sanctions and jobcentres that were raised during the debate.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Cathy Jamieson

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

With respect, Mr Speaker, the hon. Gentleman’s noise covers a complete lack of intelligence. That is what I would say. Let me bring something forward—[Interruption.] No, monkeys can jump around, but the noise they make is not necessarily relevant. Let me tell the hon. Gentleman about his own area. In Dudley, which I think he might know, the National Housing Federation estimates that there are 2,000 households under-occupying—in other words, with spare rooms. It also estimates that there are 1,500 families in overcrowded accommodation. In other words, if property is properly managed, we might get those who are overcrowded into decent-size accommodation. When will the Opposition moan about that?

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the likely effects of the under-occupancy penalty on households that include a disabled person.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Cathy Jamieson

Monday 10th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I will follow through on that very good suggestion. We are already consulting. My hon. Friend might be aware that in July we had a series of consultations in the Committee Rooms with Members of the other place and of this House. We intend to continue that consultation and to set up demonstrations of how it works at the front end and of what they will need to do. We are determined to ensure that Members understand how to claim it—I hope that some of them may have to use it in due course.

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

T4. We were told that universal credit would ensure that every additional hour that people worked would pay. Is the Secretary of State aware of concerns of the Children’s Society and others that many thousands of families face a cliff edge at the point when eligibility for free school meals kicks in? What is he doing to ensure that families do not lose out or find themselves better off working fewer hours?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We are discussing that with the Department for Education and others, and consulting the relevant bodies and interest groups outside. We are looking for the best way of integrating the process to eradicate such problems and cliff edges in order to create a seamless process that allows people smoothly to engage and improve the quality of their lives, rather than having to negotiate at the edges of those difficulties.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Cathy Jamieson

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

What I said originally was that we believe that from the position we inherited, the implementation of the universal credit will have a net beneficial effect for the poorest people in this country who are trying to achieve work. So it is not just a case of people not being worse off; we believe that people will be far better off than they were when the hon. Lady’s Government left us.

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

14. Whether his Department plans to publish a gender impact assessment of the changes to be made to the benefits regime as a result of the comprehensive spending review.

Welfare Reform

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Cathy Jamieson

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that one of the best ways to make work pay is to ensure that it pays not simply a minimum wage, but a living wage? What does he intend to do about that? Can he also give me an assurance that there will be some joined-up thinking and that those who are genuinely seeking work, even if they are out of work for more than a year, will not have their housing benefit cut?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The policies on housing benefit stand as they are. On the hon. Lady’s point about a living wage, I genuinely believe that the reality is that what we are doing is the best way to ensure that households end up with a living wage. In the past, because the system was so difficult and complicated, the first person into work in a household would often not be able to earn enough money to support the household. Because it will pay more to be in work, the process that we are introducing will give the first person in a household who goes into work a greater opportunity to earn enough money to support the household, allowing the option for the second earner to be just that: an option, rather than an absolute must.