Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Churchill Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to help fill job vacancies in St Austell and Newquay constituency.

[The Minister for Employment (Jo Churchill)]

I know that my hon. Friend knows what a fantastic job his jobcentres do. This month, St Austell is running a sector-based placement with Crown Rail, offering guaranteed interviews to those who complete the training. Newquay jobcentre has worked brilliantly to bring in 20 new employers, who are using the jobcentre regularly to help fill their vacancies.

[Steve Double]

I thank the Minister for that answer and join her in thanking the excellent Department for Work and Pensions staff at both Newquay and St Austell jobcentres. Through their hard work and under the leadership and policies of the Government, we have achieved an 80.2% employment rate locally, which is well above the national average. We also have some great opportunities for the jobs of the future coming through in renewable energy, lithium extraction and the space sector. What more are the Government doing to ensure that local people in Cornwall can grasp those opportunities?

[Jo Churchill]

My hon. Friend is a formidable champion for his area. As we speak, our partnership team is working with local employers such as Naked Solar to design sector-based work programmes and fill potential vacancies. I am keen to work with him and his neighbours, because the areas that he named are all good for the high-wage jobs that his constituents deserve.

[Sir Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

One helpful change would be to extend access to employment support to economically inactive people in St Austell and Newquay who are not claiming benefits and do not have access to that support. Will the Minister consider that as a step towards increasing the prospects of filling the current job vacancies?

[Jo Churchill]

We have extended the restart scheme for another couple of years, making sure that everybody who walks through the doors of our jobcentres is met by a work coach. What we need to do is ensure that they have the time to look at that bespoke support.

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

3. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in securing funds from paying parents.

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[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

4. What steps his Department is taking to increase the support available in jobcentres in South East Cornwall constituency.

[The Minister for Employment (Jo Churchill)]

My hon. Friend will know that her local jobcentres are doing a good job of helping people find and progress in work in her area, driving the recruitment of seasonal workers and creating exciting partnerships with employers such as Morrisons.

[Mrs Murray]

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to put on record my condolences to the family and many friends of my immediate predecessor Colin Breed, who sadly passed away last Thursday.

Under the Conservatives, we have near record levels of payrolled employment and I regularly hear from employers that they cannot get the staff needed. Last month’s House of Commons Library paper on people claiming unemployment benefits stated that 1,405 people were doing so in my constituency. What more can the Department do to make sure that the unemployed are ready to fit into vacancies as they arise by looking at what local businesses need?

[Jo Churchill]

I am sure I speak for the whole House when I join my hon. Friend in sending our condolences to the family and friends of her predecessor.

Our employment relation teams are working hard with local employers to match customers to the vacancies in my hon. Friend’s businesses. We are building skills, working with sector-based work academy programmes and boot camps, supporting people with a generous increased childcare offer of up to £1,000 for one child and £1,700 for two, and helping people with access to travel. For those on the health journey, later this year we will roll out our WorkWell programme across England, including in areas in the south-west.

[Ronnie Cowan (Inverclyde) (SNP)]

On specific days, jobcentres have been closed due to ongoing industrial action. Can the Minister assure me that anybody who misses an appointment due to that action will not be sanctioned?

[Jo Churchill]

We will always take a reasonable view and make sure that unavoidable circumstances such as those the hon. Gentleman speaks of will be taken into account when talking to customers.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

5. What plans he has to increase levels of employment.

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[Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con)]

10. What steps he is taking to help fill job vacancies in Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency.

[The Minister for Employment (Jo Churchill)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Fantastically, as the timing would have it, the team in his constituency are today holding a jobs fair at Swale leisure centre, with the support of 48 local employers. The local radio station is broadcasting live from the event to promote opportunities, and the DWP is working hard day in, day out to get people into work.

[Gordon Henderson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply, but does she agree that it is also important to ensure that people who are unemployed have the education and skills training needed to take the jobs on offer? Much of the unemployment in my constituency is on the Isle of Sheppey. With that in mind, will she join me in welcoming the radical shake-up of secondary education now taking place on the island, and in addition the extension of Sheppey College to provide additional post-16 skill training courses, which is being part-funded by the Government’s levelling-up fund?

[Jo Churchill]

I join my hon. Friend in that, because any way we can help lift skills across the piece, such as through boot camps and workplace academy programmes, to help people into high-skill, well-paid jobs, particularly in areas where perhaps that has not been the norm, is to be welcomed and congratulated.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

rose—

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[Stephen Morgan (Portsmouth South) (Lab)]

T4. A recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation revealed, shockingly, that 1 million children experienced destitution in the UK last year. Is it not the case that the Government have completely failed the most vulnerable children in our society?

[The Minister for Employment (Jo Churchill)]

No, not at all. We are providing significant support through the welfare system and expect to spend about £306 billion in the current financial year, including £138 billion on children and those of working age. We are focused on targeting cost of living support to the most vulnerable families. The local housing allowance, for instance, helped 1.6 million families in that bracket.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

T6. Let me begin by praising my local jobcentre in Bexleyheath for the tremendous work it is doing to get people into employment. I visited it on Friday and was very impressed. Our welfare system should always be there to protect the most vulnerable in our society, but new challenges are threatening its sustainability and preventing it from working as intended. I therefore welcome my right hon. Friend’s plans to target the system better towards those who need it most, by controlling spiralling costs and ensuring that it is fair to the taxpayer.

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[Mr Speaker]

And it is his birthday as well.

[Jo Churchill]

Happy birthday! I am sure my hon. Friend’s family and small children will be wishing him well from Stoke.

As has been outlined, there is great work going on. I met the Skills Minister only last week to discuss the better join-up that is happening, and we are really focused on allowing people to progress in work. Allowing them to move up and move on, and to stay and succeed in work, is just as important as getting that first job.

[Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP)]

On 14 September 2023, I led a Backbench Business debate in this House, supported by the hon. Members for Moray (Douglas Ross) and for Easington (Grahame Morris). We asked the Government to take action on footballers with brain-related injuries. The Minister who responded spoke warmly, and the then Minister at DWP, the hon. Member for Corby (Tom Pursglove), indicated that there would be a meeting for the three of us, on a cross-party basis, with the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. I wrote to the Minister on 18 January and 13 March, and there was a Westminster Hall debate on 24 April, but nothing has yet happened. Can we get that meeting with the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council to make sure that we get footballers with brain injuries the support they need?

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[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

New statistics show that there are 4.3 million children living in relative poverty in the UK, with, as we have heard, 1 million children experiencing destitution, including in Manchester, which has the second highest levels of destitution in the country. What impact does the Minister think the Government crashing the economy and unleashing a cost of living crisis has had on those figures?

[Jo Churchill]

I laid that out in replying to a previous question. Our economy is going gangbusters, and inflation is down to 3.2%. I gently point the hon. Gentleman to the additional support delivered through the household support fund, which we have extended for another six months. I might gently ask him to press the Mayor of Greater Manchester on where the £32.3 million for his area has gone.

[Suella Braverman (Fareham) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Government’s reforms to welfare and put on record my thanks to the great team at the Fareham jobcentre, with whom I have worked to organise jobs, apprenticeships and skills fairs. A child growing up in poverty is more likely to have worse literacy, numeracy, health and job outcomes, and a shorter life expectancy than the national average. Is it not right that the single biggest and most effective thing the Government could do now would be to scrap the two-child benefit cap?

[Jo Churchill]

I gently say to my right hon. and learned Friend that I am sure she would agree that any system has to be balanced and fair for the taxpayer, but also for those who need it most. Many working families do not see their incomes rise when they have to make choices, and we have to make the system fair. I would be more than happy to sit down with her and explain how we do that.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Maternity allowance, contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance, contribution-based employment and support allowance, bereavement benefits, basic state pension and the new state pension: these are all calculated using our contributions to national insurance. Given the Chancellor’s announcement of his desire to abolish national insurance, costing £46 billion, what discussions has the Secretary of State’s Department had with the Treasury about how he is going to fund it?