Welfare Reform
Kirsteen Sullivan Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
Order. I think I will get everybody in at this rate, thank you.
Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)
I recently held a child poverty roundtable in my constituency, and one of the issues raised repeatedly was that many people who want to work find themselves worse off when they lose benefits and find themselves pushed into hardship. What assurances can my right hon. Friend provide for my constituents that under these changes they will be better off in work and will no longer be penalised for wanting to improve their life’s circumstances and those of their families?
Liz Kendall
My hon. Friend raises a really important point, and it would be really good if she talked to my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability, who is reviewing universal credit, as we promised in our manifesto, to tackle poverty and make work pay. We have to make that a reality for everybody in this country, and I am sure that, if she talks to him, he will speak more about what we are doing in this regard.
Food Banks
Kirsteen Sullivan Excerpts(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for introducing this critical debate.
I have no doubt that everyone in the Chamber agrees that it is scandalous that people are forced to go to food banks to ensure they do not go hungry. Two decades ago, it was almost unthinkable that we would see soaring levels of food insecurity and food poverty in our communities. However, as we have just heard, 14 years of austerity and economic chaos have pushed more people into hardship. In my constituency of Bathgate and Linlithgow, we have seen a 77% increase in reliance on food banks over the past five years. That means that stomachs rumble through school lessons and that children have increased vulnerability to illness and fatigue, coupled with inescapable stress about where the next meal is coming from. My thanks to West Lothian and Falkirk food banks and to West Lothian food network for the sterling work they do in providing empathetic and compassionate support to those in need.
Eliminating the need for food banks is about more than charity or words. It is about choices, decisions and actions—having the political will to tackle the drivers of inequality. The Labour Government have already got to work, with wage rises to ensure that the cost of living is incorporated into the lowest pay and the start of free breakfast clubs in England and Wales next year. I hope the First Minister will keep to that commitment in Scotland, so that children are ready to learn, free from the pangs of hunger.
It is a good start, but more has to be done and the Scottish Government have a key role to play. They have received £41 million as a result of the Labour Government’s additional funding to the household support fund, and as yet, that has not been allocated to support those households most in need. Demand for the Scottish welfare fund has soared in recent years without any uplift to meet the increased need. The provision of free school meals for P6s and P7s has been kicked into the long grass again, although that would enable parents to have more money in their pockets. There is much more that has to be done: all Governments must work together and strive for a society in which people can live with dignity and free from the scourge of hunger, which should have no place in our society today.