Amendment of the Law

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

It my solemn duty to inform the House that outside this Chamber the Prime Minister has informed the BBC that he will not seek a third term as Prime Minister. I think this is a constitutional first. It is the first time in our history that a Prime Minister who has yet to win a general election—let alone contest a second one—has ruled out serving a third term as Prime Minister. We are all grateful, Mr Speaker.

As the MP who represents England’s most remote and least accessible constituency from Westminster, I was disappointed but not surprised by the Budget. The job of any Government, particularly in the wake of the Scottish referendum, must now be to facilitate the ambitions of the English regions. A new constitutional settlement for Scotland also compels a new constitutional settlement for the other nations of the United Kingdom. Difficult? Yes, but inescapable, and the Budget ducked that challenge.

As a starting point, I will again look to Scotland. During the recent debate surrounding the future of the UK, Scottish nationalists sought deliberately to conflate the entire concept of England with Toryism. That is and was a knowingly false claim. The insinuation beneath the lie was that the English are content with London’s dominance of the national economy and with how Westminster functions, but nothing could be further from the truth. In cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds, dissatisfaction with how London runs the show and how Westminster functions is about to erupt. People are dissatisfied all over the country, so I will talk about regional growth policy for England.

Regional devolution is a necessity, but it is only the beginning of what England requires. Beyond our great cities, the nation building that England needs will be much more difficult, and the Government must begin to concentrate their efforts in the peripheral areas outside our major conurbations. England is beset by a toxic disconnection between the governed and the governors, and that problem is central to the proposition of regional economic growth in our country. Nowhere is that disconnection more keenly felt than in that forgotten England, largely ignored by the political mainstream and the national media—those places people have heard of but have never been to. In our rugby league towns and our lower-league football cities, a crisis is taking grip that the Budget did nothing to address. Right now, England’s peripheral economies are experiencing a collapse in their reserves of “social capital”.

Social capital can be defined as those people with “talent”: literate, numerate, ambitious, financially adept and engaged with civic society. Successful regional economies are built on that class, which oxygenates local economies and acts as the arteries of local and regional civic life, including in health care, local government and commerce. In short, the Government’s task in those areas should be to create nothing short of a vibrant, thriving, mercantile class. Whatever public investments those areas might receive, without the software of social capital, new hardware will be largely pointless. We have seen that in a blunt and unsophisticated way through our foreign policy efforts in “nation building”. It is now time for nation building in England.

In many places, driven by austerity, the community fabric is being destroyed and the pillars of local society and community are disappearing. Therefore, when the Chancellor presents a Budget in which the takeaway message is that “the worst is yet to come”, those areas understandably wince. Such communities are used to dealing with the consequences of factory closures, but a new challenge is on the horizon. What happens to these communities when the Government pull out? It is a vital question and it is left unanswered by the Budget. At the centre of attempts to drive regional economic growth is the essential question about the role of the state. What size should it be? Should it command more or less resource? Should those resources be spread more thinly, performing more functions, or should they be concentrated by performing less? Away from that debate, austerity is not just crucifying the public and private sectors in these peripheral areas; it is also causing the social capital to flee. Life outside the premier league is tough, as figures released today by the Industrial Communities Alliance demonstrate perfectly.

For my constituents, the Budget provided precious little in the way of encouragement for our ambitions—those ambitions are likely to be achieved despite, not because of, anything the Government are likely to do. After 10 years of work, Copeland and west Cumbria—Britain’s energy coast—is on the verge of a transformative era that will see billions of pounds of investment, tens of thousands of new jobs, and the emergence of our area as a world leader in high-skilled engineering, manufacturing and research and development.

We are about to witness investment on an Olympic scale, and the Government should have used the Budget to ensure that we have the tools we need to deliver on our ambitions after five years of savage cuts to our area, but that has not happened. We needed more investment in developing skills for local people and our young people, to ensure that we can truly benefit from the work we have put into developing Britain’s energy coast after the last 10 years. In west Cumbria our local secondary schools require significant investment after the Government withdrew the Building Schools for the Future money—almost £70 million—allocated by the previous Government. Along with local head teachers, businesses and Cumbria county council, I am developing a plan for secondary school investment in my constituency, but the Government must contribute to that. Their record so far has been shameful, and if they cannot or will not fund new secondary schools, they should at least help to enable and expedite such schemes.

I would have liked the Chancellor to support my call for improvements to the A595, and for more to have gone into our health service. I would have liked the money that was taken from hospitals in Millom, Maryport, Keswick and elsewhere immediately after the last general election to be addressed, but it was not. It is a matter of record and frankly weird that the Chancellor spoke about the battle of Agincourt more than he mentioned the NHS in his Budget statement, and he could have done a lot more to ensure that local government was given the type of settlement it needs.

William Cobbett, the radical Tory, left a chequered legacy that was in part contemptible. He also wrote “Rural Rides”, which was published in 1830 after touring England on horseback to discover for himself the condition of England. He famously wrote:

“I defy you to agitate a man on a full stomach”.

The Chancellor and the Prime Minister should saddle up, get around England and see for themselves in the 21st century the agitation in the country at large.

Welfare Reform (Cumbria)

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Dobbin, in this brief debate. The social cost of the current Government’s welfare reforms is extremely high and is being keenly felt in west Cumbria. The Welfare Reform Act received Royal Assent in March 2012 and has now been in force for more than a year. This debate, however brief, is crucial in assessing some of the devastating consequences of that Act on the people and communities of west Cumbria.

Before I begin, I would like to express my thanks to the Right Rev. James Newcome, the Bishop of Carlisle, to Willie Slavin, an incredible community champion in my constituency, and for the work of the Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission. The report that it has produced forensically details the impact of the Government’s reforms and informs much of what I wish to say. If the Minister has not had the opportunity to read that report, I hope that she will.

In the introduction to the commission’s report, the Bishop of Carlisle makes it clear that it is not a party political report. He states:

“We hope that our findings and recommendations will be of general use to politicians, civil servants, volunteers and benefit claimants alike. We also believe that, if implemented, those recommendations would ultimately help to save money rather than costing the Exchequer more.”

That is a crucial point in the entire debate.

I also thank the many people in west Cumbria and, indeed, throughout the country who do so much to help those in need. Staff in support roles and the many volunteers who do their best to ensure that those who need support get it deserve the highest praise. I dread to think how much worse the situation would be if we were left without their compassion and commitment.

The reforms seen in the past two years have been all-encompassing. There have been changes to support for in-work benefits and unemployed adults, changes to support for adults with disabilities, the introduction of the bedroom tax and more. The impact of these on individuals and families has been extremely tough, and I will touch on each of them in the debate. But that is not all; the impact on households resonates throughout the entire community and beyond.

The cumulative impact on individual families in a community can have major consequences for local esteem, pride, self-worth and, of course, the local economy. To understand fully the ramifications of what are ham-fisted reforms, we must examine not only the financial hardship that they are causing, but the damage done to communities such as mine and to the people who live in them. The harrowing testimonies of my constituents and the work done by the Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission are tangible evidence that families and communities in west Cumbria are feeling the painful brunt of the Government’s reforms.

The Opposition have consistently supported the principle of universal credit. That has the potential to simplify the working age benefits system and to make it much clearer to people how their financial position would change on moving from unemployment into work. That is right and proper, and we completely welcome it. However, that will be possible only if it is implemented properly and if there is a significant improvement in the relationship between the Department for Work and Pensions and claimants. The Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission highlighted serious concerns on how that has been done to date.

The Government’s welfare reforms will require enormous local capacity to ensure that changes are delivered with minimal disruption, but the Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission report details a truly worrying situation that will inevitably lead to many serious problems when universal credit is eventually rolled out in late 2014 or early next year. The commission states that locally

“Commissioners heard of significant capacity problems within DWP, and many current cases of delays in deciding claims. DWP have recently reduced staffing levels in Cumbria and Commissioners were told that while many back to work advisers genuinely wanted to help, claimants felt they were ‘overwhelmed’. One adviser said he had 400 cases per fortnight; one client said he had not seen an adviser in a year.”

The situation will only get worse. The success of any reforms will live or die by the ease—or, in this case, the difficulty—of getting access to services, advice and support. It is clear that before universal credit is even rolled out, the Government are failing my constituents.

One jobseeker’s allowance claimant told the commission that

“the system is in meltdown...I am no longer able to contact local jobcentre. There is a national helpline but it has long delays. I can’t afford to stay on the phone for hours”.

A young mother who had previously claimed JSA commented:

“I hate the way it’s”—

she was referring to the DWP—

“run…they don’t care…you phone the call centre and they say ‘it’s not our fault…the computer’s not working’...I hate being on benefits”.

A welfare adviser in Whitehaven slammed access to over-the-phone advice, saying:

“DWP call centre—it’s the most expensive way I know to listen to Vivaldi.”

The situation cannot be allowed to continue. The Minister must address these points in her response. I hope that if she cannot, she will commit to writing to me to detail the steps that she will take to improve the situation.

A breakdown in the relationship between claimants and clients and the DWP can have dire consequences. When people find themselves in times of hardship, additional stress and worry can cause significant additional distress. That brings me to an issue that has had an impact on many of my constituents: sanctions. The chief executive of Citizens Advice, Gillian Guy, when describing the current system of sanctions, said:

“The regime is not only self-defeating, it is also poorly administered.”

The evidence just does not exist to support the imposition of disproportionately heavy sanctions. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation international review shows the limited benefits of that, and the Cumbria commission found that research conducted in the United States that suggests some success from sanctions in getting people off benefits is down to claimants dropping out of the system altogether, rather than going into paid employment of any kind. Studies from Europe also show that the use of sanctions is likely to lead to worse employment outcomes, such as lower pay for benefit claimants when they do eventually get into work. The Cumbria commission argues:

“This is because the threat or use of sanctions makes people take lower-quality jobs than if they had been allowed to wait for a better opportunity.”

With regard to zero-hours contracts, the commission states:

“At present their wages plus benefits still leave many unable to pay the basics such as food and shelter. In particular there is a risk of a vicious circle whereby people on a zero hours contract can have their benefits cut if they can’t demonstrate that they can look for other work, but not only does uncertainty about hours required to work in these contracts make this availability difficult, but some employers use exclusivity clauses in their own contracts preventing employees from taking on other work in the rest of their time.”

That paints a desperate picture of the working poor.

In a damning indictment of Government policy, the Department told the Cumbria commission that sanctions

“make the vulnerable more vulnerable”.

How can the Minister allow that to continue? What will the Government do to address it? The Government definition of “vulnerable” is:

“An individual who is identified as having complex needs and/or requires additional support to enable them to access DWP benefits and use our services”.

That is too narrow a definition and will result in many people needing additional support falling through the cracks. The commission found that

“many people sanctioned in recent months have been sanctioned despite exhibiting vulnerability—indeed the sanctioning is often a result of such an expression.”

The impact of welfare reforms on Cumbria’s adults with disabilities is profound, too. Disabled people are twice as likely as non-disabled people to live in poverty; that is well understood and accepted across the House. Those unable to work are disproportionately dependent on benefit rates and therefore, obviously—QED—feel the changes to benefits more acutely than any other section of society. The Government have estimated that, through the introduction of the personal independence payment, the claimant count will fall by 23% compared with the number on disability living allowance. In Cumbria, there are 4,300 DLA claimants, so at least 1,000 individuals will lose their support.

The inquiry by Baroness Grey-Thompson found that severely disabled people living alone or with only a young carer will lose between £28 and £58 a week. One hundred thousand disabled children stand to lose £28 a week, and 116,000 disabled people who work will lose about £40 a week. Those are significant sums, and losing those amounts will have serious consequences on claimants and their families. They are outside this detached, self-obsessed, increasingly weird Westminster club. Let us not forget what is happening to people out there in the real world.

The commission reports:

“Where there are delays and stoppage of benefits, some families also face financial meltdown, leaning on family and friends for money and often becoming dependent on doorstep lenders.”

That has the potential to create a perfect storm of financial hardship, no support and mounting debt. It is a scenario that the Government’s reforms are actively facilitating.

That brings me to the impact of changes to housing benefit. The biggest reform in this field is clearly the Government’s bedroom tax, which affects approximately 4,750 households across Cumbria. It is simply an ill- thought-out policy. The unintended and far-reaching consequences of the bedroom tax are well known. The commission undertook to find out why people “under-occupy”. The vast majority of people do not under-occupy consciously; they do not choose to do it. They find themselves in that position usually as a result of family breakdown, children leaving home or the death of a family member. The Government should realise that after such events, most people would prefer to remain in their own homes close to neighbours, their family and the familiar support networks on which they rely.

Government figures show that two thirds of those who are affected are disabled. When the cumulative impact of the welfare reforms is assessed, it becomes crystal clear why so many of those people are facing serious financial hardship. For many, a spare room is not a luxury that they do not want to sacrifice, but an absolute necessity. I have heard reports of a recently separated father having to sleep on his sofa so that his children can have a bed to sleep in when they visit, and of returning university students who cannot remain in halls of residence outside term time but who cannot move back in with their parents because there is no longer a room for them. I have heard in my constituency offices about young soldiers returning home from conflicts in the middle east and having nowhere to stay.

The Government’s bedroom tax is a blunt and ineffective tool. Families who are forced to move out of social housing into the private rented sector will cost the taxpayer more in higher rents, and more will be lost as a result of arrears and evictions. The National Housing Federation states that two thirds of those who are hit by the bedroom tax cannot find the money to pay their rent, and one in seven are at risk of eviction. Consider that for a moment. That is the clear effect of Government policy. This has been said by many of my colleagues over recent years, but it is worth repeating: let there be no doubt that the next Labour Government will repeal the bedroom tax. As I have said, there is not only a financial cost to the families who are affected, but a cost to our local communities, as I see in my own community.

The report by the Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission highlights a deliberate policy to reduce child density in areas of concentrated social housing, to reduce and manage antisocial behaviour and to create more constructive living environments. The bedroom tax completely undermines those efforts. I am sure the Minister will claim that it is not a tax, but it is. What else could it be? People are forced to pay. They cannot move to a smaller property because there are no smaller properties. In Cumbria, for housing associations to house all under-occupying residents correctly and appropriately, it would be necessary to rebuild the equivalent of 7.5% of our total rented stock as one-bedroom properties.

The Department for Work and Pensions report “Evaluation of Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy”, which was published yesterday, shows that only 4.6% of claimants affected have moved to a smaller home in the social sector. The report contains some startling statistics. For example, 80% of affected claimants say that it is difficult to afford the amount of rent they pay. More than half of claimants report that they often run out of money before the end of the week or month. I sincerely hope the Minister can offer some meaningful advice to people who cannot afford the bedroom tax but cannot move because there is no other housing available.

The impact of the reforms can be seen clearly in my constituency and elsewhere across the communities of Cumbria. There are wards in Copeland in which almost a third of children live in poverty, and in Sandwith the rate is even higher. Food bank use continues to rise and shows no sign of slowing. In the last year, it was up by a third, and now almost 2,000 people rely on food banks. There is a clear correlation between the areas with the highest rates of child poverty and those with the highest prevalence of food bank usage. In Harbour ward almost 400 people, including more than 70 children, used the food bank in the last financial year. We used to believe that to be born British was to have won the lottery of life, but I am afraid those figures paint a very different picture. We repeatedly warned the Government that the effect of their policies would be most keenly felt by the most vulnerable in our society and by the most vulnerable peripheral economies, and so it has proven. Almost one in three referrals to a food bank has been the result of a delay in benefit payments, and a further 17% of referrals are the result of benefit changes. Together, they add up to almost half of all referrals.

The final verdict on any Government is based on how they treat the poorest and most vulnerable in society during the hardest times. The rise in the use of food banks, the reliance on payday lenders and the financial hardship faced by many, which have been brought on or at least significantly exacerbated by some of the Government’s most pernicious welfare reforms, are a damning indictment of their time in office. The Government’s legacy, the legacy of the Secretary of State, the legacy of Ministers and the Prime Minister is one of a growing class of working poor, of disabled people in hardship and of too many people living in turmoil and anguish caused by uncertainty, inflexibility and instability.

The Government should heed the advice of the Cumbria Welfare Reform Commission and the stakeholders who contributed to the report, and review their policies to secure successful implementation of universal credit, ensure that sanctions are not unfairly applied, reduce the complexity and delays in personal independence payments and work capability assessments, and stop pushing families into hardship as a result of their hated bedroom tax. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

[The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dobbin, and to reply to the hon. Member for Copeland (Mr Reed). I congratulate him on securing the debate. I have listened closely to all that he has said, so I will answer all the points he has raised.

It is important to put the situation into context. When the Government came into office, it was clear that the welfare system we inherited was in need of reform and was not working. For far too long, Governments had shied away from making any significant reform, and we had ended up with a complex system that had numerous add-ons. It was complicated for all concerned. The benefit system frequently locked people into benefits rather than liberating them and allowing them to get into work. We had to look at that and think about how we could best sort out a complex system that had grown exponentially under Labour.

If we look at the costs, Labour spent £170 billion on tax credits between 2003-04 and 2010, and contributed to a 60% rise in the welfare bill. Supporting that bill was costing every individual an extra £3,000 a year, and 1.4 million people spent most of the past decade trapped on out-of-work benefits. Around 2.8 million people spent at least five years on some sort of out-of-work benefit. Youth unemployment rose by 45% and long-term unemployment doubled under Labour. Those were the things we had to tackle. The explosion in those numbers came during what some might have called a boom period, between 1997 and 2005.

It is worth noting that at the 2010 election, when we took over, there were 600,000 more people in relative poverty than there are today. There were 300,000 more children and 200,000 more pensioners in relative poverty. There were 400,000 more workless households and 50,000 more households in which no member of the household had ever worked. The hon. Gentleman’s contribution to the debate did not relate to the reality of those facts and figures.

[Mr Reed]

I am grateful to the Minister for her response so far, but she has not yet touched on a single issue that I raised about my constituents and the county of Cumbria.

[Esther McVey]

I am putting the situation in context and showing how many of the figures that the hon. Gentleman cited were inaccurate. I am putting into context why and how we are doing things. Today, the most recent employment statistics have been published. The aim of all our benefit changes has been to liberate people and help them to get into work, and today we have seen a record rate of people getting into work—a rate matched only pre-recession, in 2005. That is nearly 1 million extra people in work this year, and nearly 1.8 million people in work since 2010.

[Mr Reed]

rose—

[Esther McVey]

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman if he will provide some facts rather than fantasy.

[Mr Reed]

Fantasy is the Minister’s exclusive preserve. We clearly disagree over the figures, so will she come to my constituency? Will she come and do a tour of Cumbria, meet people and speak to them about the realities of their lives and the effects of her policies? Yes or no?

[Esther McVey]

I was in Cumbria only a week or two ago, discussing those things. I get out regularly and speak to people right across the country, many of whom have told me how they had been abandoned on long-term unemployment, but not any more. Many of them have been on the Work programme and they have now got a job. About 5 million people have been through the Work programme and 300,000 have got sustained work.

Looking specifically at unemployment in Copeland, the hon. Gentleman will be delighted that unemployment has come down by 25%, long-term unemployment is down 30%, youth unemployment is down 36% and long-term youth unemployment is down 40%. That is specifically in his constituency, and those figures are not mine or the Government’s; they are the latest independent, verified figures. I would like the hon. Gentleman to apologise for what he said.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Reed]

Of course there is no apology to be offered, because none is deserved. Does the Minister recognise the phenomenon of in-work poverty?

[Esther McVey]

There have always been people in work who find things hard. The figures I read out have significantly reduced under this Government. The process, ideology and thought behind universal credit is to ensure that work pays and that every extra hour worked pays, rather than having cliff edges as we had under the old system with which the hon. Gentleman was happy to live. People did not know whether it was right to get a job. They could be locked into benefits because there was a cliff edge at 16 hours a week. We have sought to remove all those things.

Cumbria county council has set up a county welfare reform group to keep a keen eye on the delivery and administration of welfare reform. A Jobcentre Plus manager is part of that group, enabling us to ensure that all concerns and worries are heard and addressed. I understand there is a good, close working relationship, so if anyone has any specific issues or concerns, they can go through Jobcentre Plus, and that is reflected in the survey of what goes on in the area. All of that is key.

There are nearly 24,000 Jobcentre Plus staff across the country. Their main aim is to support people by helping them with the benefits they need when they come through the door and by helping them into work. The Government have ensured that that relationship is more personal than ever before. We have introduced a claimant commitment, so that when someone comes in they can say, “This is what I hope to do,” and we will say, “Okay. How do we get you on that journey?” There has been a significant shift in the approach and in what people do. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to visit his Jobcentre Plus and see that transformation in everything that happens.

[Mr Reed]

The Minister will appreciate that I have done that many times. The report makes it clear that there is an obvious competence deficit in the roll-out of these policies by the Department and Ministers. It is not only claimants who are saying that; people who work in jobcentres and non-party political figures such as the Bishop of Carlisle are saying it, too. Does the Minister regret the lack of competence in the entire policy platform?

[Esther McVey]

The chap obviously wants to write a press release—he wants to write something that is not true—to put in his local papers. Competence is not an issue. We have introduced some of the biggest ever welfare changes. We know they are working, because the things that the hon. Gentleman and his party talked about, such as double-dip and triple-dip recessions, never happened. They talked about an extra 1 million people being unemployed. It was wrong—it did not happen. He and his party put across terrible scare stories, but they did not happen. In fact, the total reverse happened. Nearly 2 million extra people are now in work, and they are predominantly full-time, permanent jobs. That is wonderful news. There are record rates of women in employment. Youth unemployment has fallen for 10 consecutive months, and it is now 127,000 lower than at the general election. Long-term youth unemployment is also lower than at the general election. I gave him the unemployment figures for his specific area, and they are all significantly down.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Reed]

I am uncertain whether the Minister is disputing the figures in the independent report. Will she be categorically clear about that? Does she accept the figures and the findings of the report? The Bishop of Carlisle and an independent group of people assessed the impact of welfare reform on Cumbria, not just my constituency. Are they wrong? Are their figures wrong? If they are, what is their motivation?

[Esther McVey]

Most people’s motivation is for the best and is to support people—

[Mr Reed]

Are the figures right or wrong?

[Esther McVey]

Hang on a second. People produce figures that have not been fully authorised, cleared or passed off. Our figures have to go through the National Audit Office and independent bodies such as the International Labour Organisation because their estimation of what has happened are much more thorough and valid. Estimates based on very small samples may be right, but they can be distorted by the smallness of the sample.

I will now make a little headway, as I believe I have been generous in giving way. The hon. Gentleman has made many points that, as I have pointed out, are not particularly accurate or are distorted by the prism through which he wants to see things.

[Mr Reed]

Will the Minister give way?

[Esther McVey]

No, I will not give way at the moment. We have talked about why the spare room subsidy was introduced—

[Mr Reed]

Bedroom tax.

[Esther McVey]

The hon. Gentleman wants to call it by another name. I am happy to call it by either name, but in statute it is the removal of the spare room subsidy. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman is smiling, so he obviously realises that his own party introduced it for the private rented sector in 2008. Indeed, his party was going to introduce it for the social rented sector, as we have read in Hansard. He is smiling and pretending that it is something that he might or might not do, but in reality it came from his party. Why did that come about? Because the housing bill had doubled in 10 years, reaching £26 billion, which we all know was a bill that we could not afford after the financial crash and after the biggest ever recession in peacetime since 1930.

[Mr Reed]

On a point of order, Mr Dobbin. The Minister is refusing to talk about the issue at hand. There is a blanket refusal to talk about the impact of welfare reform in Cumbria and west Cumbria in particular. How can that be in order?

[Jim Dobbin (in the Chair)]

I cannot take that decision. I am chairing this debate, that is all, so it is not a matter for me.

--- Later in debate ---

[Esther McVey]

I am in order. I have given the employment stats for what is going on in the constituency of the hon. Member for Copeland, and I have spoken clearly about what is happening in his jobcentres. We are now talking clearly about what is going on in his constituency with the spare room subsidy. I am saying why those decisions were taken, because I cannot give a specific answer unless people know the generality.

What happened with the spare room subsidy? We could not afford it. Labour had already introduced the measure. We have to consider the 2 million people on the housing waiting list and the 400,000 people in overcrowded accommodation. We have to ask how we will support the taxpayers paying for it, who might not have spare bedrooms themselves, as well as the people on waiting lists and the people in overcrowded accommodation. We took a decision, which had to be that people with a spare bedroom who are more than happy to stay would now have to pay for that spare bedroom. We also said that we would treble discretionary housing payments for affected areas to allow people to move if they wanted.

Discretionary housing payments were given to six different areas in Cumbria, but interestingly, although councils that needed more money for discretionary housing payments applied for money from a £20 million pot shared across the country, Cumbria did not do that. There was not one bid. There could have been—if Cumbria had thought that it needed more money to help more people in the area, there was an extra pot of £20 million. Unfortunately, only £13 million was deployed to the various places that made requests, and £7 million went back to central Government. Places such as Copeland did not ask for that money, so it must have been deduced that they did not need the money. If the local MP would have liked to have helped his local council and constituents by doing a bit more prep and homework—rather than arguing afterwards, once he had missed the money and once the money had been spent—he could have got some of that money and helped the constituents he is talking about. Unfortunately, he chose not to do that.

We were talking about how PIP is being introduced and why. DLA spending had increased considerably, and there is still an increase in expenditure. DLA has not been cut—it has been increased; it is just not growing as rapidly as in the past. What we had seen under DLA, which is why we are changing it, was that people did not have additional corroborating medical evidence. More than half of DLA claims do not have such evidence, so we are saying, “Under this Government, and in this Parliament, we will give out this money and we will support people as best we can, but we need to focus that money on those who need it the most. It is therefore vital that we have that corroborating medical evidence.” That is what we are doing.

[Mr Reed]

The Minister should be embarrassed by her response to this debate. She has refused to accept—

Housing Benefit

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Commons Chamber

15:16

Division 214

Ayes: 253

---

Labour: 234
Democratic Unionist Party: 7
Scottish National Party: 6
Social Democratic & Labour Party: 3
Plaid Cymru: 3
Independent: 1
Green Party: 1

Noes: 304

---

Conservative: 265
Liberal Democrat: 36
Independent: 2

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The details of a written ministerial statement regarding a decision made by the Secretary of State for Health on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was released to the media before that statement was laid before the House today. Will you tell us whether that grotesque discourtesy to the people of that area and to Members and colleagues in this House was in fact in order?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, Mr Speaker deprecates the premature release of press and Government statements due to be made in this House. The Vote Office received the text of the written ministerial statement at 1.34 today. It was made available to Members as soon as possible. You have made your point, and I am sure that Mr Speaker will look into it.

Food Banks

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

I regret to say that the laughter from some of those on the Government Benches during this debate says more than words ever could. I want to praise the work of those in my constituency who are doing so much to help those in need. The commitment of the volunteers in the food banks throughout Copeland and across west Cumbria in towns such as Whitehaven, Millom and Workington has been remarkable, and I should like to say thank you to them on behalf of my constituents. I also want to thank those who donate the vast amounts of food, without which the food banks simply could not operate.

The final verdict on any Government is based on how they treat the poorest in society during the hardest of times. The rise in the need for food banks is a horrifying indictment of this Government’s record, and it demands urgent action. The complacency of those on the Government Front Bench and of Ministers in the other place is as distasteful and unedifying as anything I have ever witnessed in Parliament. In July, Lord Freud seemed to suggest that the increase in the number of people using food banks was simply a result of the increased prevalence of the food banks. He claimed that he did not know which came first: supply or demand. He also claimed that there was an infinite demand for what he called “free goods”. In order to access the services of a food bank, a person or family needs to be referred by health services, local authorities or other groups that look after their welfare. I am not going to try to second-guess what was going on in the Minister’s mind, but he seemed to be implying that there was somehow an ambition to reach hardship, and a desire and aim for people to reach poverty in order to get a free basket of shopping to get them to the end of the week.

In order better to inform Members on the Government Benches how food banks actually operate, I shall give them a quick rundown. People who are forced to turn to food banks can receive help only a limited number of times. They go to the local food bank not to do their full weekly shop but because they need the bare essentials in order to get by. Many of those people will already have made extremely difficult decisions, such as whether to sit in a cold room rather than go hungry. There is no more harrowing example of that than the fact that one in five mothers in the UK regularly—not just once or twice a week—skip meals to feed their children.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Can we deal once and for all with one particular issue? It is partly right to say that food banks have been around for about 10 years, but the truth of the matter is that the Churches set them up to help refugees who were waiting for their asylum status to be confirmed.

[Mr Reed]

My hon. Friend makes a telling point.

The circumstances in which people have to seek assistance to feed themselves and their families are not usually simple. They often involve a combination of issues, which manifest themselves in a great deal of pain and pressure for those involved. For example, I have constituents who are cancer patients who are forced to use food banks as a result of various combinations of Government policies. I wish I could say that those were isolated cases, but they are not. I wish I could say the situation was improving, but it is not. There are no signs of things getting better.

[Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

In the past year and a half, more than 100,000 kg of food has been distributed in the small city of Stoke-on-Trent alone. My hon. Friend talks about the people who go to food banks. Has he seen, as I have, people who are absolutely on their last legs because they are so desperate? Many people who go to food banks are also embarrassed that they need such help.

[Mr Reed]

I have indeed seen that, and it suggests that we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the numbers of people who need the services of the food banks. Compared with last year, about 600 more people in my constituency are now using food banks to ensure that they can eat. That brings the total to 1,778, including almost 700 children. That is truly shocking, and it is the policies of the parties opposite that have led to this huge growth in the number of people needing help.

It is no coincidence that the wards in my constituency with the highest rise in the number of children being fed through food banks correlate with the wards with the highest rates of child poverty. For example, 41% of the children in the ward of Sandwith are now living in child poverty, and 234 of them rely on the generosity of those who donate to food banks. In Mirehouse, a third of the children are in poverty and more than 200 of them rely on food banks. Child poverty and the use of food banks are inextricably linked, yet the Government have no credible plan to tackle either.

We have repeatedly warned the Government that the legacy of their policies would be felt most keenly by the most vulnerable in our society. The very poorest are bearing the brunt of the cost of living pressures that the Government’s various regressive policies have created, and the consequences are there for all to see. There is a hidden country that is unseen by the Government and dismissed by the Prime Minister, and it shames them both. The working poor are emerging as the Prime Minister’s legacy, as millions of people live in quiet crisis. The explosion in the number of food banks should haunt him, shame him and move him to act, but I doubt that it will.

Housing Benefit (Under-occupancy Penalty)

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Wednesday 27th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

It is a genuine pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). It is clear from the testimonies of my hon. Friends that the consequences of this ill-thought-out tax on families will be enormous. I fear that the great number of letters that my hon. Friends and I have received from families up and down the country who are extremely worried about their futures as a result of these changes is just the tip of the iceberg—thousands of people who will be affected by the bedroom tax do not yet know it.

Analysis by the National Housing Federation shows that the bedroom tax will hit 2,000 families in my constituency—each to the tune of more than £500 a year—and every day I hear from constituents worried about how they will cope. The economy of my constituency is based on public spending. It needs to be rebalanced, and I have worked consistently to do that, but this latest blow will undoubtedly hit economic demand in my constituency even further, making that task even harder. The bedroom tax will have an effect on my local high street, businesses and other economic activities, and the same will be the case in constituencies and communities across the country.

We need to speak to housing officers from social housing providers about the bedroom tax. They know who the good and bad tenants are on their patches. I used to be one myself. [Laughter.] A housing officer, not a bad tenant, that is! We need to ask them how the bedroom tax will affect their tenants, and they will say that, for some, it will be crucifying. Not everyone can move to different properties, because they are not available, so instead some will be faced with paying a tax they simply cannot avoid. This tax demonstrates what we all know—that the Government come up with policies that are ill-thought-out, damaging and disproportionately targeted at the least well-off in our society.

Instead of spending their time cobbling together disjointed, contradictory and weak justifications for the shameful bedroom tax, the Government should do the right thing and drop it. I can think of few more embarrassing, cringe-worthy illustrations of a rotten defence of a rotten policy than that provided by the Minister in the Lords, Lord Freud, on BBC Radio 5 Live recently, when he told concerned social housing tenants that they should seek to take in lodgers in order to pay the tax. How delusional, how detached, how dangerous! Here we have a Minister telling people that to pay the Government’s punitive tax, they should break the terms of their tenancy agreements and so risk eviction. I would urge students of bad policy, bad communication, bad government and political incompetence to read a transcript of the noble Lord’s interview.

The Government claim that the bedroom tax will solve the issue of under-occupancy. Has it not occurred to them that the people affected will not be able to avoid it? All the policy will mean is that low-income families will be hit in the pocket. It is a tax on the poor. It means less money available for food, groceries, school trips and school uniforms, heating and transport. It is a policy of the madhouse that will push people closer to the poorhouse. Alongside the Tory NHS Bill, Liberal Democrat support for this marks the point at which they have become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Conservative party.

There simply are not the excess houses available for people to move into. The Secretary of State has offered no solution to the mismatch between families’ needs and the accommodation available. This mismatch is highlighted in his Department’s own policy assessment, so what are the Government going to do about it? What kind of dysfunctional Department is he running, when fundamental issues arising from such massive changes have not even been considered?

Like, I suspect, hon. Members on both sides of the House, I have many constituents who will be hit by the bedroom tax. Oblivious to the impact of his own policies, the Prime Minister said again today that he was happy to look at individual cases, and I will be sure to forward him the many that I have already received. Perhaps he will be able to explain to the divorced father in my constituency who has joint custody of his children where his children will stay when they are with him. Perhaps he will also be able to explain to the many disabled people in my constituency, who have already had their homes adapted to suit their needs, why they are being penalised. And perhaps he can explain to the parents in my constituency whose children are serving our country in our armed forces why their mandated time away from home will either hit their pockets or cost them their homes.

The actions of this Government have left many people with no option but to lower their living standards or lose their homes. It is no wonder that the Secretary of State is known as the quiet man—he has much to be quiet about. This bedroom tax is unacceptable, indefensible and increasingly typical. It will not be forgotten.