Oral Answers to Questions

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 28th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

We are gravely concerned about these proposals. The UK Government do not accept the need for new solvency arrangements for defined benefit schemes based on solvency II, which would have potentially serious effects for UK defined-benefit pension schemes. We are especially concerned about any proposals that would increase costs for employers at a time when we are looking to keep costs down, or that might affect the vital role pension funds play as investors in the UK. We will oppose these proposals.

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

T4. Has the Minister revised his previous estimate that, by 2012, 25,000 single parents will be in work when their income support ends when their youngest child is five years old? Does he not accept that unemployment in my area, Hull, is at a record high, thanks to his Government’s policies?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I am always astonished by the Opposition’s defeatist idea that trying to get single parents back into work to support their children is somehow a bad thing. The reality is that the hon. Gentleman’s Government left this country bust, and without any money to do any of the things that he wants to do. They keep spending the same money again and again in their proposals. It is time that they grew up and got on with the real opposition that we expect.

Youth Unemployment

Karl Turner Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

In researching for this debate, I found an Office for National Statistics summary of labour market statistics. In one of the columns dealing with youth unemployment figures, under the heading “Last time higher”, I found, in bold writing, the word “Never”. That figure has never been higher.

[Chris Grayling]

When we exclude full-time students in colleges of higher and further education, the level of youth unemployment today is not the highest on record. I reiterate, however, that I regard any level of youth unemployment as unacceptable. It is a challenge and a priority for the Government. We have to remember that the problem goes back a decade. Youth unemployment started to rise in 2003-04, and it has been rising steadily since. Even in good years, the previous Government’s policies failed to deliver solutions. Eighteen months ago, we inherited a series of failed programmes that had failed to deliver real solutions for young people, and we are trying to turn that round.

Youth Unemployment

Karl Turner Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd June 2011 Westminster Hall

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Caton. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) on securing this important debate. For me, it is crucial. Since the peak of the economic crisis, youth unemployment in my constituency was definitely falling steadily. It took a Tory-led Government to reverse that trend. The latest figures show that 1,450 16 to 24-year-olds in my constituency are collecting jobseeker’s allowance, which is one third of the overall claimant count, and 36 people chase each job vacancy. I am told that a year ago, 10 people chased each vacancy. Clearly, there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

It is crucial that Connexions is not allowed to close. The new Labour city council in Hull has overturned the Lib Dem council’s policy of withdrawing funding for Connexions, so we are lucky to an extent. But that raises the issue of what the Government’s agenda is, and that was made clear to me at my last surgery when a young, 18-year-old constituent, Michaela Droullos, came to my office. She is about to go off to do a degree in nursing at Leeds university. She said, “What have the Government got against young people?” I said, “How do you mean?” She said, “They are scrapping the future jobs fund, abolishing Building Schools for the Future, scrapping the education maintenance allowance, and trebling tuition fees.” The Minister is turning his back to me, but my constituent came to me highlighting how she perceives the Government’s agenda of the past 12 months. That is serious, and I respectfully ask the Minister to take notice of what my constituent thinks of his Government. They gutted funding for creative partnerships, and then attacked Connexions.

I intend to be brief, Mr Caton, but I want to ask the Minister some questions. I am concerned about the care to learn programme in my constituency. It is an initiative that concentrates on youth parents under 20, and I wonder whether it will continue after the 2011-12 academic year. I also wonder whether the Government have acknowledged the fact that by scrapping EMA young people will become estranged from their parents and will claim income support. What assessment has been made about the financial implications of that?

Face-to-face careers advice is crucial, certainly in my constituency. Young people should have an opportunity to sit with an expert careers adviser and receive face-to-face advice. What are the Government doing about that, and what is likely to happen to the statutory obligations on special educational needs?

This is important in my constituency. As I said at the outset, 36 people chase every job, and it is not a coincidence that that has increased by a massive amount in the past 12 months.

Oral Answers to Questions

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 18th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. That is why I have said to leading mental health charities that I actively seek their input on how we can improve, in particular, the wording of the different elements of the assessment. Equally, however, I stand by my view that, where we can, it is better to help people with mental health challenges into work than to leave them on benefits long term, doing nothing.

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

I draw the House’s attention to the fact that today, as I referenced earlier, the Department for Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs published a joint strategy to tackle fraud and error in the benefits system, which we believe should save £5 billion each year. The proposals in the fraud and error strategy, which together represent an additional £425 million of funding over the next four years, will, we believe, deliver a £1.4 billion reduction in fraud and error by 2014-15.

[Karl Turner]

Can the Secretary of State explain to a large number of my constituents why he reduced the support for mortgage interest payments before his Department ensured that mortgage lenders would average out rates? Why did he communicate this only a few days before it was reduced, and is it not true that lenders are fighting this reform tooth and nail?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was listening to the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), when he pointed out that the last Government left plans to slash that support. It is we who have actually brought it to the average, which means that people will do better under us than they ever would have done under the last Government—so an apology would do very nicely thank you.

Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 28th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Binley]

I welcome the Government’s pledge to ensure that child poverty does not increase in the next two years in these difficult times, but I was dismayed by the previous Government’s record, which left so many young people out of employment, education and training. That was terribly sad.

I regret that the previous Government thought that they had only to create a project and throw money at it to solve a problem. I come from industry, and I can tell Labour Members that in truth, how projects are managed determines their success or otherwise. Perhaps they can take that lesson on board.

I congratulate the Chancellor on his courage in the face of what he had to deal with. I think he produced a fair and balanced Budget, as do many of my electorate in Northampton. To fire a warning shot across the bows of Labour Members, I can tell them that a number of those who told me that this weekend were in fact Labour voters. Labour Members might need to temper their comments in the light of that information.

The success of the Budget is not assured. It depends on achieving the projected growth figures, which means being competitive. How sad that on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index, the UK fell from seventh to 13th in the rankings between 1997 and 2010. Sadly, that is another Labour failure.

As I said, the Chancellor did a great job in trying to be fair and balanced, not only for this generation, but for our children and grandchildren. Had we not taken that action and set out on that course, they would be left with the burden.

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

rose—