Oral Answers to Questions

Kate Green Excerpts

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Guy Opperman]

My hon. Friend is correct. The new state pension is much more generous for the many women who were historically worse off under the old system. More than 3 million women stand to gain an average of £550 extra per year by 2030 as a result of these changes.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

4. What progress has been made on increasing the employment rate for disabled people.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

The employment rate among disabled people has increased to 49%, and the Government are committed to getting 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years.

[Kate Green]

In 2015, the Minister said the Government’s aim was to halve the disability employment gap by 2020, and in 2016 the Social Market Foundation said that that meant an extra 1.2 million disabled people in employment, but now the Minister tells us that the ambition is for an extra 1 million disabled people in work within 10 years. Why are Ministers becoming less ambitious for disability employment?

[Penny Mordaunt]

When Labour was in office, it did very well in closing the disability employment gap—by raising the unemployment level among the general population. We will take a different approach. As I have said in this place before, we will look in great detail at the local numbers—for example, the numbers of people with a learning disability coming out of education; that is what we need to get people focused on.