“Get Britain Working” White Paper

Debate between Liz Kendall and Paul Waugh

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

Businesses in Rugby and across the country always say that they are desperate to recruit people with the right skills. If they do not have the right people, they will not be able to expand and thrive. This is a pro-business strategy to get Britain working again, so that we get Britain growing again. My hon. Friend the Minister for Employment says that we are the human resources department of the growth mission. I hope businesses in Rugby will see that and work with us to make sure we get it right.

[Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)]

I warmly congratulate the Secretary of State on all her hard work to deliver this White Paper, which proves not only that hers is a Department for work but that Labour is the party of work. Whereas, judging from the sea of green opposite, the Tories are a party of slackers.

I warmly welcome the fact that Greater Manchester is one of the trailblazer areas. What is the Secretary of State most excited about in Andy Burnham’s plan to help tackle this massive problem in Greater Manchester?

[Liz Kendall]

Under Andy Burnham’s leadership, Greater Manchester is pioneering some of the changes that we want to see by fundamentally joining up work, health and skills support, by commissioning new talking therapy services for people seeking work, and by creating a new service to broker connections between jobseekers and employers. This will make sure that employers get the staff they need while also making the necessary adjustments.

We want to build on that and expand it, because we are indeed the party of work. We believe that work brings self-respect, dignity, control and improved living standards. I am very proud of that, and I hope and believe that these reforms will deliver in every corner of this great nation, so that we invest not just in Great Britain but in great Britons—this country’s greatest asset.

Social Security

Debate between Liz Kendall and Paul Waugh

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I will come on to extra help for those just above the threshold in a moment, but I want to spell out what we are doing on pension credit.

We have done more to increase pension credit uptake in the last two months than Conservative Members did in 14 years. We have written to all local authorities to ask them to identify eligible pensioners, including by sharing data. We are joining forces with Age UK and Citizens Advice to ensure pensioners check and apply. We launched a major awareness campaign, to continue right up to the deadline to apply on 21 December—and yes, pension credit will be backdated by three months—backed by 450 extra staff to ensure claims are processed as quickly as possible.

The Deputy Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), is working with housing associations and supported accommodation providers so that their residents know what they are entitled to. I am working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), to ensure that frontline NHS staff can signpost older patients who may be housebound because of disabilities and chronic conditions. For the very first time, we are writing to all pensioners on housing benefit who are potentially eligible to encourage them to claim, something the Conservatives never did. In the longer term, because the only way to guarantee uptake is to make the whole process more automated, we will bring forward the merger of housing benefit and pension credit, which Conservative Members never did.

That is the extra help for the poorest that we are determined to deliver, but it is built on a bedrock of support for all pensioners through our commitment to the pension triple lock, which has seen the new state pension increase by £900 this year and £970 the year before. Our continued commitment to the triple lock means that the new state pension is forecast to increase by a further £1,700 over the course of this Parliament, including, if today’s Office for National Statistics figures are confirmed next month, an extra £460 from next April.

[Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)]

When Gordon Brown introduced pension credit and lifted 1 million pensioners out of poverty, in the teeth of the opposition of the Conservative party—let us remind them Conservative Members opposed pension credit—he also introduced savings credit. Savings credit was specifically targeted at pensioners who saved for old age with a small savings pot and a second pension. What happened in 2016? The Conservative party scrapped it. Does my right hon. Friend not agree with me that we should not listen to the crocodile tears of those in the Conservative party?

[Liz Kendall]

I could not have put it better myself: there is faux outrage from Conservative Members about those just above the pension credit threshold, when it was their former Tory Chancellor, George Osborne, who took a red pen to it, meaning its value decreased, creating some of the problems we are now having to deal with.

There is much more we are doing to help low-income pensioners, including those just above pension credit: the £150 warm home discount; the household support fund, which we have just extended, with £500 million of additional funding that councils can use to help low-income pensioners; our warm homes plan to tackle the root causes of fuel poverty; and the fact that, because the only way to really control energy bills is through cheap home-grown energy, we have already legislated for Great British Energy. That is the difference a Labour Government make: fixing the foundations, taking the long-term decisions our country needs, prioritising help for those who need it most, helping all pensioners with the pension triple lock, and providing more help for low-income pensioners too.

We will not shy away from our responsibilities, as Members now on the Opposition Benches did. We were elected on a platform to deliver economic stability, rebuild the country and make the changes that our country needs; making it better and giving it its future back. Pensioners deserve better than the faux outrage of Opposition Members.

Question put.