Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jonathan Ashworth and Steve Webb

Monday 13th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

As my hon. Friend knows, the Government are reforming bereavement benefits. The intention, having talked with bereaved families, is to focus the funding on the point of bereavement and the immediate year thereafter, but obviously ongoing support for bereaved families will be available through universal credit. I will be happy to discuss the matter with him further.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

A few moments ago the Secretary of State quoted the Minister for the Cabinet Office on universal credit, but he forgot to mention the part where the Minister called its implementation “lamentable” and said that a lot of money has been wasted. We also learned last week that the Cabinet Office withdrew the Government Digital Service from universal credit, a decision described as “disappointing” by the lead official. Why did the official describe it in such terms?

Benefits Uprating (2013-14)

Debate between Jonathan Ashworth and Steve Webb

Thursday 6th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

All councillors have to have regard to the impact of council tax increases on those, such as pensioners, on a fixed income. It is incumbent on local government as much as it is on central Government to ensure that any unnecessary costs are stripped out so that council tax rises can be kept to a minimum.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Will the Minister confirm, despite the Chancellor’s rhetoric yesterday about those who go to work and those who stay in bed, that of those affected by the 1% uprating, 60% are in working households? The increase in personal allowance will be outweighed by the losses to their tax credits and benefits. Is that correct? Yes or no.

[Steve Webb]

No, it is not correct. The personal tax allowance will rise by just more than £1,300 in April. At a standard rate of 20%, that is approximately £260 a year, or £5 a week, which is more than the impact for the vast majority of households. The hon. Gentleman makes the mistake of taking measures in isolation. It is crucial to look at our measures as a whole, including tax allowance rises and cuts in petrol duty compared with previous plans, which benefit the working households he is most concerned about.

Benefits Uprating

Debate between Jonathan Ashworth and Steve Webb

Tuesday 6th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

I have no doubt that the vast majority of people who are unemployed are actively looking for jobs. Indeed, that is a condition of payment of jobseeker’s allowance. We would not pay people if they were not actively seeking work. The very fact that there are many unemployed people in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency—I grew up near Walsall, so I know the area well—is why we have to get the nation’s public finances on an even keel. We have seen what happens to countries that do not do so.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Further to his answers to my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr Love) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field), who is no longer in his place, does the Minister accept that the changes to working tax credits act as a disincentive to work? Does that explain why, according to newspaper reports, the Secretary of State is so angry about that change and baffled that the Liberal Democrats pushed for it?

[Steve Webb]

There is a danger of missing the central points here, which are that people are better off in work, and we want to go further; that the tax credits are part of a package of measures, and I have listed repeatedly the many things that make work pay; and that our increases in personal tax allowances, for example, will make work pay far more than in the past. The coalition is united on that.