Manufacturing Skills

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. Doncaster has an incredible history of manufacturing, particularly in transport. Everyone will know of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, both of which were built in Doncaster, and Nigel Gresley still has a strong legacy in our local culture. However, right now, all eyes in Doncaster are on another form of transport. Yesterday, we received the fantastic news that my long-standing commitment to reopen Doncaster Sheffield airport has been supercharged by an agreement to bring the airport back into public ownership. That incredible achievement comes after a huge amount of work from all involved.

The DSA project is not just about the airport: the deal also covers the adjacent innovation quarter, which has the potential to become a centre for advanced manufacturing, innovation and, ultimately, re-industrialisation for our area. The Prime Minister has put public control, re-industrialisation and localism at the heart of his mission for this country, and Doncaster could not be a better case study for all three, both for how badly they are needed and for the enormous scope for opportunity. When the pits closed, huge parts of my constituency were left behind. De-industrialisation changed the faces of Rossington, Hatfield, Thorne and Moorends, and nothing has ever filled that gap—that is, until now.

All the pieces are in place for Doncaster to become a centre for manufacturing and industry once again. We have excellent logistical connections through road and rail, proximity to the Humber ports, and soon, once it is reopened, the airport. We have major distribution and logistics hubs, including the iPort and the Unity development. Our two Labour mayors and our proactive chamber of commerce work tirelessly to bring jobs and growth to every postcode. We also have educational infrastructure in place, with one existing university technical college and a second one having been approved, as well as other wonderful FE colleges including John Leggott, New College and North Lindsey, to name but a few.

All we need to do now is make sure we develop the skills and the workforce to match the opportunities that lie ahead. We cannot wait until factories are built and businesses recruiting before we begin training the people they will need. I welcome the Government’s commitment to advanced manufacturing through our industrial strategy and the reforms to the growth and skills levy, including new foundation apprenticeships in engineering and manufacturing, but we need to make sure that the skills we teach match the skills and needs of the industries we are trying to attract, and that we provide opportunities for existing workers to retrain and develop new skills as well. That means bringing together Government, local authorities, businesses and education providers to plan for the industries and jobs of the future.

Will the Minister outline how the Government are working to ensure that investment in manufacturing skills is aligned with major regional development projects, such as South Yorkshire airport city? In Doncaster, we have seen what happens when industry disappears and nothing comes along to replace it. We know all too well the impact on our economy, on the community and on people and their families. But we have a chance now to regain lost pride and purpose, a chance for the places blighted by deprivation to flourish and prosper once again, and a chance to rebuild our industrial economy. We must make sure that the people of Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme have the skills to take advantage of it.

Benefit Entitlements: War Pension and Armed Forces Compensation

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Josh Babarinde]

I absolutely congratulate my hon. Friend’s local veterans and commend them for their service. When I speak at his annual dinner in a couple of weeks’ time, I will pass on the message personally, if any of those veterans are local members.

Of the folks I mentioned earlier, an estimated 146,000 are eligible for pension credit. Only around one in five receive an occupational pension for their time in service, so many of them live on low incomes. The most important number when assessing the viability of the disregard in question, though, is 4,120. That is the number of veterans and bereaved spouses who currently receive military compensation and would be claiming pension credit. These are the people I prioritise in pushing for this reform. If someone is ruled ineligible for pension credit, they do not just lose pension credit; they lose the passported help that comes with it. There is a ripple effect across the forms of support that folks can receive. On average, they can be denied around £5,900 a year in direct and passported support. For our poorest veterans, that is the difference between getting by and going without.

I know the argument that the Department has made before. It is the argument against so-called double tapping—the principle that someone should not receive two separate payments from the state that meet the same need. I do not dispute that principle, which is a very long-held one within the Treasury, but it simply does not apply here. Double tapping assumes that both payments meet the same need; these payments do not. Pension credit exists to provide a minimum income for ordinary living costs; military compensation exists to recognise injury, loss or bereavement caused by service. They are different payments for different purposes meeting different needs, so the double tapping excuse will not fly.

Counting compensation against pension credit simply uses the benefits system to claw back part of an award that was made for an entirely separate purpose, and the Government’s own policy already proves the point. Universal credit fully disregards war pension scheme and armed forces compensation scheme payments. The Government have themselves stated that this is in line with the treatment of civil compensation for personal injury, which does not impact pension credit calculations, so if military compensation is not double funding under universal credit, it cannot be double funding under pension credit. The Department cannot accept the principle for working-age veterans but reject it for older veterans.

There is a further inconsistency within pension credit itself. Only the first £10 a week of military compensation is disregarded. The Minister has told me in correspondence that this partial disregard exists in recognition of veterans’ service. The Government already accept that service deserves to be treated differently, but everything above that £10 is treated as income for everyday living costs. I am yet to hear a clear rationale as to why £10 is the right figure. It seems arbitrary to me. If the Department believes that £10 of compensation serves a separate purpose, why not the rest?

Meanwhile, under pension credit, a civilian with a personal injury compensation award, trust or structured settlement may have that compensation wholly disregarded. Pension credit therefore currently gives greater protection to compensation for an injury suffered at work or on the road than to compensation for an injury suffered in service of our country, one of the most valiant forms of work. The armed forces covenant promises that members of the armed forces community should face no disadvantage as a result of their service.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

The hon. Member has mentioned inconsistency quite a bit, and I hope he will not mind me echoing what other Members have already said tonight. Alongside the issue he has raised is the related issue of how local authorities treat compensation. The Royal British Legion’s “Credit their Service” campaign highlights significant inconsistencies with local authorities’ policies in determining how military compensation is treated under different circumstances. Does he agree that there should not be a postcode lottery? It should not be about where someone lives; everybody should be treated fairly and equitably across the country.

[Josh Babarinde]

The Royal British Legion’s “Credit their Service” campaign is one reason I am here. I pay particular tribute to Elliot, Jo, Claire, Hannah and Hermine, who were in Parliament today running an event to help promote the campaign. While I am here, I pay tribute not only to Sam McManus from my team, but to Euan Morrison. He started out as a case worker, picked up Pauline’s case and fought and fought.

Through the Armed Forces Act, the covenant of duty is being extended to central Government, to welfare benefits and to service-related compensation. When it comes into force early next year, the Department for Work and Pensions will be legally required to pay due regard to those principles. Treating military compensation as income for pension credit fails both tests, in my view. It disadvantages veterans as compared with civilians who receive compensation.

I am ultimately asking the Government to act with a few key asks. First, will the Minister commit to amending the pension credit regulations so that military compensation is fully disregarded, bringing it into line with pension credit? Secondly, if he is not ready to go that far tonight, will he at least set out a commitment to review how much that would cost? Currently, the DWP has said that it has not done that piece of work. Thirdly, will he meet me, the Royal British Legion and the veterans affected so that we can find a way forward?

Members across this House—from the Labour party, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green party, Alliance, the Ulster Unionist party, the Democratic Unionist party and more—have signed my amendment on this issue in the past and have signed my cross-party letter. We are determined for change, because people like Pauline deserved better, our veterans deserve better and this House must do better.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

T6. I still have parents in my constituency coming to me because they are not getting the money their children need. One constituent reports her ex repeatedly self-declaring employment until the Child Maintenance Service catches up with them, switching on to benefits for a few months, dropping to £7 a week and then returning to self-employment to restart that cycle. Online forums openly trade tips about how to avoid child maintenance. What will the Minister do to close these loopholes and ensure that every child gets the support they need?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The Government plan to consult on changes to the calculation that will automatically capture more income types within that calculation. Where parents wilfully avoid their financial obligations, the CMS financial investigation unit does have the powers to act and will investigate. Child maintenance is key to keeping children out of poverty, and we will use these powers wherever necessary.

Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Torsten Bell]

I always thank my hon. Friend for her contributions. She makes a powerful case. I will come on to the reasons why we do not agree with that case, but I understand her point.

This is a cohort of women who have too often faced discrimination in the world of work, with lasting effects on the value of their workplace pensions. They have borne the brunt of unequal caring responsibilities, and as my hon. Friend the Member for Salford set out, historically the genders have had very unequal state pensions. That, at least, has been addressed, but the workplace pension divide remains as big as ever.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I should declare that my mum is a WASPI woman. She would be disappointed if I was not here today, and there is nothing worse than your mum being disappointed in you. I also represent 6,030 other WASPI women in my constituency. I just wonder if the Minister really understands the discrimination faced by 1950s women, including sexism and a lot of discrimination in the workplace. They just feel let down. Does the Minister realise that, and that they absolutely deserve justice?

[Torsten Bell]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I know, without having met her, that his mum will not be disappointed in him. Obviously, the point he makes is absolutely right; it is the point that I was just making. I think we are all aware of the experiences that this generation of women have had to face, not just in the labour market but much more broadly. He makes a powerful case, as always.

Now, there is broad political consensus that it is right to equalise the state pension age for men and women, but the acceleration of the state pension age increases by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition was more politically controversial. I was not going to mention it, but I will gently remind Liberal Democrat Members who have spoken today—the hon. Members for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis) and for Lewes (James MacCleary) used particularly strong language on this point—that it was the choice made by their party. Not to mention that acceleration at all—[Interruption.] If Members are going to use strong language about difficult choices, then they need to reflect on the choices that led to that point. My party opposed those choices at the time.

However, neither the acceleration nor the longer planned increases to the SPA legislated for since 1995 were matters the ombudsman investigated. This matters, given that it is the desirability of the original policy decisions made by previous Governments that is most frequently referred to by campaigners and by hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) today, who focus on the increases to the state pension age. In contrast, the ombudsman’s focus was on how those changes were communicated by the Department for Work and Pensions, as the hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire very clearly pointed out.

As all hon. Members know, we carefully considered the ombudsman’s findings. We always will, given its important role, which was set out by the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) today and in several debates that I have taken part in with him in recent months.

Pension Funds

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Manuela Perteghella (Stratford-on-Avon) (LD)]

Pension funds hold not just financial value but moral weight. How we treat our pensioners, and how we invest in the future of the hard-working people of this country, says everything about the kind of society we are. I want to bring to the House’s attention one of the most concerning injustices faced by thousands of former HSBC employees, particularly women: the use of an outdated, punitive policy known as pension clawback.

I support the Midland Clawback Campaign, which seeks justice for the 51,000 affected members of the Midland bank pension scheme, now administered by HSBC, who were misled about the nature of their retirement income and are being short-changed as a result. Unlike most other institutions, which phased out clawback in the 1980s, HSBC continues to enforce it in its most punitive form. Clawback was originally introduced in 1948 to offset national insurance costs when the state pension was created. Midland bank introduced clawback to its pension scheme in 1975 as a cost-saving measure.

Former employees were told that they would receive a defined-benefit pension at two thirds of their final salary, in addition to their state pension. Instead, when they reached state pension age, HSBC began deducting a portion of their occupational pension, calling it a “state deduction”.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I have a constituent who has worked for 44 years at Midland bank and HSBC. They were promised a pension of two thirds of their final salary, but they now face a 16% cut—that is over £1,700 per annum—because of the so-called state deduction. They were never told that the scheme was integrated, and even private pension reviews failed to explain it. Does the hon. Member agree that that lack of transparency is unacceptable and that workers like my constituent deserve answers?

[Manuela Perteghella]

I fully agree. The term itself is misleading. The money is not being taken by the state; it actually goes back to HSBC. Had it been labelled properly, as an integrated pension deduction, many people would have asked questions much earlier.

Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.

I thank all those who signed the e-petition that led to this important debate. I have long supported the WASPI campaign and will continue to offer my support. The WASPI women have been repeatedly let down by decisions made under Conservative Governments, so I welcome the Government’s apology for the maladministration that led to the delay in notifying 1950s-born women about the increase in the state pension age. Accountability and redress for those failings is essential.

A near-six-year investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found an urgent need for a remedy and took the rare but necessary step of laying its report before Parliament. It is in our hands. I recognise that this is a difficult issue for a Government who inherited a country in deep distress, with public services and the economy in dire straits, so I have sympathy with the Government’s argument that a flat-rate compensation scheme may not be justified. But I firmly believe there should be more effort to explore alternative remedies.

One of my constituents wrote:

“Acknowledgment and apology are of no use to us, and even less to the thousands of women who died during this process.”

After her pension age was moved once, she assumed that was the end, but in 2011 David Cameron moved it again, a year after she had planned to retire, and after she had already left work. The impact on her life has been significant, but WASPI women understand that any compensation would be for maladministration, not lost pensions.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

One of my constituents fully believed that justice would be done, to the extent that she planned to put the compensation money aside for her own funeral. Of course, compensation has not been given. I have more than 6,000 WASPI women in my constituency, and they all rely on me to speak up for them. I will continue to support them, look out for them and raise their stories in this place so that their voices are heard. Do you agree that we need to find a way to seek justice for these women?

[Graham Stringer (in the Chair)]

Order. It is not up to me, in the Chair, to agree with you or not.

[Lee Pitcher]

My apologies, Mr Stringer.

[Mohammad Yasin]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend’s views.

The WASPI women support pension equity, but not the disruption of their retirement plans by Government maladministration. There is a strong case for offering compensation to the worst-affected women, given the severe hardship many have endured as a result of this failure. The pension triple lock does not address the losses faced by many 1950s-born women, who, due to familial responsibilities, often do not receive the full state pension, and thus benefit less than men.

An injustice has occurred, and it is now a matter of principle to uphold the remedy recommendations in the PHSO report. There is room for debate about what a compensation remedy would look like, and the women in my constituency, who I have supported on this issue for years, are open to alternative solutions. For instance, some would accept compensation payments over time through a scheduling agreement.

The WASPI women have been respectful, resolute and very patient, even when they are at the stage in life where there is more time behind them than ahead. For many, it is too late. Let us revisit this issue and find a remedy by focusing on what we can do, not on what we cannot.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Deirdre Costigan (Ealing Southall) (Lab)]

1. What assessment she has made of the impact of jobcentres on economic growth.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

12. What assessment she has made of the impact of jobcentres on economic growth.

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

Increasing employment and helping people into good work is essential to growing our economy, which is why our “Get Britain Working” plan sets out our vision to reform jobcentres and build a new jobs and careers service that will meet the different needs of local labour markets, people and businesses.

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for meeting with Department for Work and Pensions colleagues in west Ealing and, through her, thank them for all the work they are doing. I know she will have been impressed by them, as I always am.

Disabled people have a right to work like everyone else, and it is our job to see that right realised. Doing so will benefit everyone, as we all win when people’s talents and potential are maximised. It is good for business and strengthens our economy. We are doing great things to bring forward our plan for a new jobs and careers service, which will put disabled people at its heart.

[Lee Pitcher]

I recently visited two jobcentres in my area, Thorne and Scunthorpe, and saw the great work being done by the staff there. Our jobcentres should be places where everyone can go for help to get them back into work. However, many blind and visually impaired people need technology such as screen readers to use computers, while others might need specialist screen magnification software. Research by Sense has found that no jobcentres have this specialist assistive technology, meaning that some disabled jobseekers cannot use the computers on site to look for work. How will the Government ensure that jobcentres are equipped with essential pieces of assistive technology in the future, enabling more disabled people to look for work?

[Alison McGovern]

I apologise to my hon. Friend; I could not quite hear which jobcentres he has visited. However, I thank him for doing so and for connecting with DWP colleagues in that way; it is really valuable. I ask him to take all our thanks back to them.

As part of the new jobs and careers service, we will radically enhance our use of technology so that people can access support through the channels that best meet their needs. Assistive technology can aid the accessibility and inclusiveness of the new service that we are building, so we are listening to those who already use it.

On 22 January, the Minister for disabled people, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Sir Stephen Timms), and I met colleagues from across Parliament on the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment, where we had a great opportunity to listen to experts in this field.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

T9. What assessment has the Minister made of recent trends in the level of fraud in the welfare system, because every £1 lost to fraud is £1 that should have gone to our schools, to our hospitals or on the future of our residents?

[Andrew Western]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The assessment I have made is of a trend that is up, up, up after 14 years of the Conservative party failing to act. We lost £9.7 billion in fraud and error in the Department for Work and Pensions last year, and we have lost £35 billion since the pandemic. That is too much, which is why I hope colleagues will support the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill on Second Reading later.

Blind and Partially Sighted People: Employment Support

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

It is great to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) on securing this hugely important debate.

I speak today from personal experience. My lovely wife has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that has no cure or treatment. Julie has reached the stage where she uses a white cane and eventually, like her mum and uncle, she will probably need a guide dog to assist her. Those who watch “Strictly” may know that retinitis pigmentosa is the condition that comedian Chris McCausland has. Like Chris, Julie is an inspiration, not a gimmick, having recently learned to ski blind.

Julie has never let her disability define her; instead, she excels with the abilities that she does have. What we have learned together over 30 years, as our careers have progressed, is how those abilities can allow her to thrive, and I have to say that her workplaces have been enormously supportive of her.

I will focus on the use of technology and the importance of awareness, because the use of artificial intelligence is a game changer. Apps such as Seeing AI can narrate the world around the user. It harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world, and describes nearby people, texts and objects. In the world of work, it supports people to identify colleagues and helps to facilitate a team culture. As long as those colleagues do not take offence at being taken for a 55-year-old man, as happened to me when the camera was held up to my face—I am in my mid-40s—it is an absolute gem of a research project.

Maximising the use of existing functionality is also important and remarkably useful. Adobe will read out pages of text, and people can ask ChatGPT to find those texts with a simple verbal instruction. My one ask is that when people use hashtags, they should use a capital letter for each new word because that ensures that the hashtag makes sense when read out.

The ability to work from home has opened up a world of opportunity, as meetings and conferences can be accessed from an environment that does not require travel. Although I often witness the kindness of the majority of people when Julie travels on buses or the underground to visit me or work in London, I also witness people who just barge into her as she gets on to an escalator slowly, or who tut because they cannot get past her. I get upset by that. Julie takes no notice because it has become her norm.

There is a broader need in society for people to better understand disabilities, and that starts with education and awareness in school. Will the Minister speak to the relevant Education Minister about how that can be raised as part of the curriculum review?

Future transport technology is also exciting. It may be that when we travel in future, we will jump into our own driverless vehicles and travel to our destinations. When Julie and I visited San Francisco, we saw a driverless taxi for the first time. At the moment, that can be a scary thought, culturally, but it offers a different kind of hope for travel independence in the future, and we should start to embrace what is out there across the globe.

It is great to have all those technologies and the ability to work from anywhere in any part of the world. It is also great to hear that the world is changing.

[Marsha De Cordova]

My hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech, and I am pleased that he is talking about technology. Does he agree that many technology companies have cottoned on to the fact that if they make their products inclusive, it is better business for them? Companies such as Apple, Microsoft and others are leading the way by ensuring that their apps and devices such as iPads are accessible, which will help not just blind and partially sighted people, but disabled people in general into work.

[Lee Pitcher]

I could not agree more. There is a whole world of innovation out there, involving companies such as Apple and Microsoft, and we need to embrace that and find a way to channel it into everyday society and use.

As I was saying, it is great to have those technologies, but having them out there is not enough. We need to find a way for people to know about them and use them. The amazing work of organisations such as the RNIB, Guide Dogs, and the Partially Sighted Society in my area of Doncaster is just incredible. They make us aware of what can be done at home and at work through the use of technology.

The challenge for us, and for the 2 million Julies out there in the UK, is how to amplify the work of those organisations to improve employment support for blind and partially sighted people even more, to help employers to understand the technologies and processes that give opportunities for all and allow everyone to thrive. I ask the Minister how he might raise awareness of AI use in the workplace to support adjustments to maximise those opportunities.

I finish with this: I ask you, Dr Huq, to imagine Julie on that slope for the first time, carefully traversing the snow, the ice and the undulations with her white cane, then ditching that cane for ski poles, and hurtling down the mountainside with skill, talent and ability. The “Wow!” that you see on our children’s faces says it all. She is a role model and an inspiration. Anything is achievable with determination and the right support and resources. Let us make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to apply those abilities at home, when travelling to and from work, and at work. I want to see a world where that “Wow!” is visible every day in the workplace.

Food Banks

Lee Pitcher Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Danny Kruger (East Wiltshire) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) on bringing this debate forward. I am grateful for hon. Members’ helpful contributions, and I am happy to take interventions from hon. Members who were not able to speak if there is time.

Let me first acknowledge that I agree with hon. Members who have pointed out that the existence and extent of poverty in our country is shameful. It is a source of deep shame to our country that so many people are reliant on the charity of others for essentials. Briefly, I pay tribute to the food banks in my constituency and in my former constituency of Devizes, which do such good work. I also previously worked with the Hammersmith and Fulham food bank. I echo the points made by hon. Members about the valuable work of such organisations.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I have seen extraordinary work and inspiring volunteers at the DN7 food bank, the Isle of Axholme Foodshare Project, Hatfield’s Pre-loved Uniform Bank and the Hygiene Bank Doncaster. Does the hon. Member agree that although their work is amazing, we do not want to see those banks grow on our high streets or even exist in the first place?

[Danny Kruger]

I am grateful for the intervention. I recognise those points and pay tribute to the hon. Member’s food banks too.

Hon. Members have cited some of the facts. It is a fact that the number of parcels handed out by the Trussell Trust doubled in the last Parliament in the light of the covid crisis and the cost of living crisis, but I emphasise that we should not take food bank use as a perfect proxy for poverty, because that data is patchy and affected by the supply of food banks. There is also an important displacement effect. It is not necessarily the case that all the need identified by food banks is new need; that need might formerly have been met by other sources, such as family and friends or other community organisations.

Nevertheless, the profile of food bank use tracks the state of the economy and the level of poverty in our country. We saw it spike during lockdowns, then decline and then spike again with the cost of living crisis. I am afraid that it has not really declined since: 1.4% of households have used a food bank in the last month and 3% in the last year, which are significant numbers.

So what is going on? I echo the point of my right hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen) about the complexity of the causes of food bank use, but we recognise the obvious point that it is ultimately down to household income. The “Hunger in the UK” report points out that the main reasons for people having problems with their household income are difficulties with benefits, as many hon. Members have mentioned; the existence of in-work poverty; and the difficulty of gaining well-paid work, particularly for disabled people and carers.