Oral Answers to Questions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Western (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

8. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of children in poverty.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of children in poverty.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

20. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of children in poverty.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mims Davies]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that report. I have looked at it, and it is important that we react to it. I point to our record of action. When it comes to further support for households with low incomes, we have heard in the Chamber—indeed, the Secretary of State mentioned this—about raising local housing allowance back to the 30th percentile, which will benefit 1.6 million low-income households by, on average, £800 a year in 2024-25. When that is added to the national living wage, the uprating of benefits and the availability of work, we are determined that those families will progress.

[Janet Daby]

According to End Child Poverty, 30% of children in Lewisham East were in poverty in 2021-22, while Lewisham food banks have seen a 42% increase compared to 2022. That comes after 13 years of this Conservative Government. To make matters worse, the reported cut to the national household support fund means that more than £13 million for households across Lewisham have been taken away. Is the Minister really serious about showing the leadership needed to stop families in my constituency from falling into destitution?

Autumn Statement Resolutions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who made a powerful speech about her constituency. I share her frustration about bank closures on high streets. Like many Members across the Chamber, I have experienced the disaster of bank closures and the way that affects constituents’ ability to access their banks. It should not be like that—our high streets need investment and should be invested in.

The autumn statement should improve our economy and, most importantly, tackle the cost of living crisis, but it simply does not do that. The Government seem unaware that growth has been downgraded for the next three years. This will be the biggest tax-raising Parliament on record and we have seen the biggest hit to living standards on record. Local authorities continue to be on their knees in public service provision. Although I welcome the announcements to honour the triple lock in the state pension and to raise benefits in line with September inflation figures, I have significant concerns about many areas of the statement.

I am concerned about aspects of Government policy around getting people back into work. Dr Roger Barker, director of policy at the Institute of Directors, states:

“We would like to have seen more substantive measures to address the problem of skills shortages, which continue to be a problem for our members.”

It seems as if the Government are ignoring skills shortages that prevent people from moving from one job to another, or into certain jobs altogether. Many people are asking what will happen to those people who are penalised and whether people with disabilities will be disproportionately affected, as that is not clear.

Because of time constraints, I will focus on NHS waiting lists. Surely it makes sense to invest in getting people well and back to work, so they can be free from pain, able to function and do their desired job. There are a shocking 7.8 million people on NHS waiting lists and 2.6 million people are out of work because of long-term sickness, so surely it makes sense to focus on investing in the NHS—that cannot be said enough.

If the Government are serious about getting people into work, I ask them, as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on sickle cell and thalassemia, to focus on sickle cell. It is the UK’s most common and fastest growing genetic disorder, yet one of the least researched. I encourage the Government to invest in research into sickle cell, which historically has had less investment compared with many other conditions. I ask the Government to call for dedicated sickle cell research by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and other UK research institutes.

Constituents who are in work often email me to say that once they have paid their rent and their energy bills, they do not have enough to meet their basic needs. Before coming to this place, I set up the Whitefoot and Downham Community Food Plus Project, which tackles food poverty. Although it is a success, foodbanks should not be a norm in our society. However, I feel they have become an acceptable norm to the Government, although not to Members on the Opposition Benches. We demand that people have the right to food. People need to be able to choose and buy food, but they also need to pay for fuel, rent and mortgages. These are the priorities of many of my residents.

Labour has a plan to cut household bills by up to £3,000 a year over the next decade. Labour is the party to take people out of poverty and to ensure everyone is better off. It is time for a general election.

Income Tax (Charge)

Janet Daby Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab) [V]]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the second day of this debate.

Our country had high hopes for this Budget at a time when we need it most; not only are we experiencing a pandemic crisis but we are still in a climate crisis, and the Government seem to have forgotten this. After a year of economic devastation, the gap between richest and poorest in our society has become wider. We needed long-term investment in our public services and our communities, but the Government were silent on the matter.

Yesterday’s Budget statement will provide relief to some, but it is a grave disappointment to others. The Budget promised no emergency funding for the NHS to clear backlogs and reduce waiting times. There was no mention of mental ill health support post-pandemic, no support for social care after the sector has faced severe challenges during the pandemic in both children’s and adult services, no mention of green home grants, and only a £20 million spend on floating offshore wind technology, when Labour has called for £30 billion of capital spend to be brought forward to power a green recovery and support over 400,000 jobs. There was no help for our teachers and no additional investment to help children and young people catch up on the lost months of education; and no rise in statutory sick pay, which is so low that people are falling into severe debt and some are considering working because they cannot afford not to.

I wonder if the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Chancellor and their offices communicate and work together, because on 12 February the Housing Secretary announced £3.5 billion to fully fund the cost of addressing unsafe cladding in the tallest buildings. Details were promised in the Budget. What happened to this information? Did the Chancellor miss out reading a page of his notes? I was hoping to see a fairer approach from the Government, to protect leaseholders living in buildings under 11 metres in height with fire defects and unsafe cladding, to protect them from costs when the problems are no fault of their own. Instead, there was no such information. I ask the Chancellor again to consider this and to be fair to leaseholders and their families, as no one wishes to live in a home with negative equity.

The success of the Government, or indeed any Government, will be achieved when the need for food banks decreases, but under this Government it seems that they are here to stay.

This Budget also lets down our local authorities, and through them all our communities. My borough of Lewisham is having to make a further £28 million in cuts; hard-working and caring Labour councillors will receive the blame for cutting services, but their hand has been forced by a 63% reduction in Government funding since 2010. The whole country needs rebuilding, but for this to happen we need to build our local councils.

Universal Credit: Delayed Roll-Out

Janet Daby Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince]

I thank my hon. Friend for his very helpful question and for his support of universal credit and his local jobcentre. I am full of praise for those staff working in the jobcentre at Harrogate and the work that they are doing on the pilot. That is hugely important work, because it sets the scene and gives us the all important data and learnings we need to move out universal credit at scale and pace.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

In the last 18 months, a food bank in my constituency has seen an increase of two thirds in people using it. Will the Government accept that more people in the UK—including those in employment—are using food banks than ever before, as a direct result of policies such as universal credit, the five-week wait and the two-child limit?

[Will Quince]

I do not want anyone in our country to have no choice but to use or visit a food bank. I visit food banks regularly, and I want to get a clear understanding of food insecurity in our country. That is why we have commissioned questions for the Family Resources Survey, which started in April last year. I am also working with food banks and other organisations that tackle food insecurity to better understand the issue. If we better understand the issue, we will know how to tackle it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince]

SNP Members were certainly notified that I was coming.

If I get the opportunity, I would very much like to visit the hon. Lady’s constituency. It is important to say that, once fully rolled out, universal credit will give claimants an additional £2.1 billion a year. It is a more generous system and I would be happy to work with her and her jobcentre to see how it is working with her constituents.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

In 2013, I set up a food bank with various community leaders, not only because of the poverty and deprivation that existed, but because, at that time, there was the impending prospect of universal credit. Do the Government see food banks as a long-lasting feature for those of our population who happen to be dependent on universal credit?

[Will Quince]

I do not want anyone to feel that they have no choice but to visit a food bank. What is really important for me is understanding the drivers of food bank use. I work very closely with the Trussell Trust and independent food bank providers. Representatives of the Trussell Trust, whom I regularly meet, tell me some of the issues involved, and we are looking at addressing them. Also important for me is understanding food insecurity, as it is the key to tackling the root causes of the problem. We have also put a question on the family resource survey, which launched in April.

Universal Credit Fraud

Janet Daby Excerpts

Wednesday 10th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Justin Tomlinson]

I cannot at this stage, but we are looking at this as we work through the cases referred. Regardless of the amounts, for each and every victim it is incredibly serious, which is why I reiterate our commitment to do everything in our power to use the full force of the law to target the criminal gangs targeting some of the most vulnerable people in society.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I recently spoke to somebody who works for Jobcentre Plus, who said they felt that universal credit was not designed to support people and that the five-week delay was an example of that. She said that people were turning instead to prostitution and crime to top up their money. In the light of this recent fraud, it is time the Government abolished the five-week wait.

[Justin Tomlinson]

When we talk to work coaches up and down the country, they tell us that for the first time in generations they feel empowered to deliver a personalised and tailored level of support that treats everybody as an individual. It is an integral part of how we are delivering record employment and doing everything possible to reduce the amount of unclaimed benefits. Under legacy benefits, £2.4 billion a year was being left unclaimed, which for 700,000 of the most vulnerable—[Interruption.] Some hon. Members are laughing, but this £2.4 billion amounts to £280 per month on average for some of the most vulnerable in society. By delivering through universal credit we can get support to the people who need it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very good point—it concerns me too. We have agreed to work collaboratively with the Social Security Advisory Committee to consider how current practices could be enhanced, and to publish a report on our joint conclusions.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

A constituent of mine, Claudette, lives with her son, who is disabled, in private rented accommodation. She is in receipt of universal credit, but she did not receive her April rent payment, and the Department is refusing to investigate. Prior to that and ever since, universal credit has covered her rent. Will the Minister meet me to review this case, as my constituent fears eviction?

[Will Quince]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising that individual issue. I would like her to raise Claudette’s case with me. My door is always open, as I know are those of other Ministers in the Department, and of course I would be delighted to meet her.

Oral Answers to Questions

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

I would just point out to the hon. Lady that, under the legacy benefits system, there are £2.4 billion of unclaimed benefits. That is changing and being fixed under universal credit. If she has specific cases, she will know that this ministerial team is always happy to talk to Members of Parliament to try to resolve issues. If she wants to talk about specific cases, I would be happy to do so after this session.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Visits to one of the food banks in my constituency have increased by 20% since the roll-out of universal credit. Trussell Trust referrals have risen by 52% since the roll-out of universal credit. Everything suggests that universal credit is not lifting people out of poverty, but pushing them further into it. Was that the Government’s intention with the roll-out of universal credit, because that is what is happening?

[Amber Rudd]

Universal credit is a vast improvement on the legacy benefits. There were six different benefits and three different places; the system was incredibly difficult to navigate, and there were vast numbers of complaints and problems with it. This new system is easier for people to navigate. Overall, it will be more generous, when it is fully rolled out, than the last system. I believe it is absolutely the right approach in making sure that we support all our constituents.

Department for Education

Janet Daby Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this very important estimates debate.

I would like to start where the Chair of the Education Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), who made an excellent speech, finished. Every child in this country deserves a fair chance to get on the ladder of opportunity to the best of his or her abilities. While I warmly welcome the record funding that is going into education in this country at the moment, the problem is that, in some areas on the ground in our constituencies, it does not feel like that. I want to concentrate on those areas, particularly the funding of schools and further education colleges.

I welcome this debate and the increase in the departmental expenditure limit, up from £66.4 billion to £77.9 billion, although most of the increase is to cover the write-off of student loans. I also welcome the introduction of the new funding formula’s money for schools in April 2018, which should provide £4,800 per secondary pupil and £3,500 per primary pupil. The problem, as my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Front Bench know, is that the local authority distributes this money, which means that quite a number of schools in my constituency do not even receive that amount.

I am grateful to follow my friend the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier), who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, on which I serve as deputy Chair. Secondary schools in her constituency—I do not mean this in any personal or political way; her constituency just happens to be at the top of the league—receive on average £7,840 per pupil, which is a 64% increase on schools in my constituency. I ask my colleagues on the Front Bench whether that is really fair. In addition to that 64% increase, quite a lot of the schools in her constituency get the pupil premium money. One wonders, given the funding streams in this country, whether there is an element of double counting.

Of course school costs will be higher in a central London constituency, but even in Gloucestershire, costs such as the national teachers’ pay award increase in 2018, the apprenticeship levy imposition, additional HR costs, increased pension costs, higher levels of special needs and higher rural bus costs, all of which are imposed by Government, amount to about 6%. Therefore, if the Government increase their cash amount this year by 1%, it is effectively a 5% budget cut, which has to be met by efficiencies. Things have been pared down over a number of years.

Mr Will Morgan, the excellent headteacher of the excellent Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water, recently wrote to me to say:

“Over recent years we have made many savings—class sizes, teacher contact time, TA support, service costs, reducing leadership, etc. Despite this, if finances continue as they are and we do nothing, we will be in deficit as a school at some point in the 2021-22 academic year.

One of our strategies to try to alleviate this ‘cliff edge’ is to ask parents to donate—for many, including myself, this goes against what we should be doing”.

That is what is happening on the ground. We need to fund our schools at a level at which they can operate properly.

When I have discussed this with various Schools Ministers in recent years, they have always told me that their Department was going to do some work on what it really costs to run a secondary school and a primary school. There are certainly inescapable costs: the teachers have to be paid, the buildings have to be maintained and kept warm, and there has to be an administration function. Let us find out what it really costs and ensure that no school anywhere in the country goes below that level. As others have said before, if we go below that level, schools have to make cuts, either in teachers or in curriculum subjects.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his significant speech, and I concur with the point he has just made. In the London Borough of Lewisham, 71 of 73 schools are facing cuts, and are losing £8.8 million between 2015 and 2020.

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that intervention. Nobody wants to see any schools having to make cuts; they want to see every school trying to attain outstanding Ofsted reports, to be able to educate all their children and pupils to the best possible standard according to their abilities.

I say to my colleagues on the Front Bench that I believe the maxim should be that similar schools with similar demographics, wherever they are in the UK, should receive similar funding. Unfortunately, I was unable to find an example in the time available. I ask my hon. Friends on the Treasury Bench how they intend to address that problem, and bring to their attention two other problems in the primary and secondary sectors. Gloucestershire is a well-run local authority. At the moment, it does not run a deficit in its education funding, but a number of local education authorities do. However, we have two serious emerging problems in Gloucestershire, which I hope my hon. Friends on the Front Bench will listen to seriously.

The first relates to the higher needs block. In Gloucestershire, the higher needs block has increased by 40% over three years. We were incredibly grateful when the Minister announced an extra £1.3 million over two years. That will be helpful over the next two or three years, but we have to address the structural problem. We have to work out why it is that in Gloucestershire schools—I believe Gloucestershire is not alone—there is a very large increase in special needs. I am sure it is all to do with the education and healthcare plans. How they are granted and funded, in particular for out-of-county placements, place a very high burden on the budget.

The second point I would like to bring to the attention of my hon. Friends is the significant increase in the number of exclusions in some schools, so that they do not have to bear the costs and difficulty of dealing with difficult pupils. It does seem—I ask my hon. Friends to do some work on this—that certain schools have consistently higher exclusions than others. That must be to do with a school’s policy, rather than a policy that suits the individual pupil. That cannot be right. I would like to know what happens to those excluded pupils. Some return to school and that is good. Some are withdrawn from the register entirely and may be home educated, where they receive pretty scant attention from the state. Some will be educated excellently at home, but I suspect some will receive little education at home. Some will be looked after by social services. Sadly, some will end up in the criminal justice system. That cannot be right.

Finally, in the last minute available to me, I would like to talk about further education. The principal of Cirencester College, the only college to trial T-levels in Gloucestershire at the moment, contacted me the other day to say that rather than the £4,800 per pupil it would get in the national funding formula, he is receiving between £3,600 and £4,000 per pupil. That amount has been constant for five years, despite increased costs. He says he has had to reduce subjects, teachers and mental health services, and that the funding is half of what a university student receives. He says his funding for doing the same job should, in all fairness, be the same as if his pupils were receiving A-level education in sixth form. He has higher costs in a rural area and says rurality should be one of the factors in the formula. That would help schools in rural areas like his.

Pensions Dashboard

Janet Daby Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2019 Westminster Hall

[Dr Offord]

Once again, my hon. Friend has anticipated my speech. He is absolutely right; we need to get this right and ensure that people have confidence in the system, so that our constituents are not only keen to invest their money but reassured, after recent financial problems, that their concerns will be addressed. We will do that as part of the process.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing such a significant debate. Does he agree that the Government must lead the implementation of the pensions dashboard, if they are to compel all pension providers to take part and if the dashboard is to be a truly useful tool for many retired people aged 55 and over who do not know the size of their savings?

[Dr Offord]

I hope that the dashboard provides for those people. I was about to come to a statistic that indicates that many people do not know the size of their pension pot. That has repercussions, particularly when people retire and they suddenly realise that they will not have the level of income or the kind of lifestyle that they had expected or previously experienced. Some 25% of people over the age of 55, including those who are retired, say that they do not know the size of their pension pot. The dashboard will address that. It will offer those people and others the ability to access information about their financial contributions from multiple pensions, any time they want to, on their smartphone, iPad or computer. Effectively, it will bring our pensions into the 21st century.