Oral Answers to Questions

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

The Government are committed to building an economy that works for everybody, which is why we have committed to raising the national living wage—we are talking about an increase of 33p. This will be equivalent to a 9% increase in the national living wage since its introduction in 2016. It represents an increase to a full-time minimum wage worker’s annual earnings of more than £600.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

On behalf of Labour Members, I would like to express our condolences to Mr Deputy Speaker. Our thoughts are with him and his family.

Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people because of the extra costs they face. The Equality and Human Rights Commission recently estimated the cumulative effect of Government cuts since 2010 at £2,500 a year for a disabled adult, but when the Government discovered that they had underpaid approximately 75,000 disabled people who transferred on to ESA support between 2011 and 2014, they announced in last Thursday’s written statement that they would only be repaying claimants from October 2014. How many of the 75,000 disabled people will receive an arrears payment? Given that attempted suicide rates among ESA claimants doubled between 2007 and 2014, what estimates have been undertaken on the impacts on claimants’ mental health as a result of this Department for Work and Pensions error?

[Caroline Dinenage]

I am sure that I can write to the hon. Lady with the details on that. As well as being very mindful of the impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing, we must apply the law. We have to value disabled people in our workplace, which is why the Government are making sure that many, many more disabled people are able to access work and get into work.

[Margaret Greenwood]

Recent data shows that 8 million working families are living in poverty. Despite Government rhetoric, work is not the route out of poverty.; four out of five people who are in low-paid work now are likely to be in low-paid work in 10 years’ time. But in his interview on yesterday’s “The Andrew Marr Show”, the Secretary of State failed to mention that, under universal credit, sanctions have escalated and are being applied to people who are actually in work. The Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office have both raised concerns about the impact of sanctions on debt, rent arrears and homelessness. So why is the Secretary of State intent on punishing people in low-paid work by sanctioning them?

[Caroline Dinenage]

Sanctions are applied only as a very last resort and there are mitigations in place to support people when this is done. The hon. Lady is wrong to say that people in work are more likely to be in poverty; a key driver of in-work poverty is the part-time work that people were trapped in when her party was in government—people were trapped working fewer than 16 hours a week. The Labour Government were literally paying them to stay poor, whereas our reforms are about supporting people to progress in work and keep more of the extra money that they earn.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gauke]

We should be clear: if people need cash before Christmas, they are able to get it under the universal credit system, which is designed so that they can do that. People trying to discourage claimants from taking an advance, which I am afraid is the tone that we hear too often from the Labour party, are causing unnecessary anxiety for claimants.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

The chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority has recently warned about high levels of debt among young people incurred just by their covering basic household bills such as rent. Young people aged 18 to 21 are not entitled to housing support under universal credit. Why did the Government ignore a Social Security Advisory Committee recommendation that young people on the edge of care should be exempted from that?

[Mr Gauke]

As the hon. Lady will be aware, there are a whole host of exemptions that do allow 18 to 21-year-olds to access housing benefit, if those exemptions apply to them. I have to come back to this point, which the Labour party does not seem to accept: the best way in which we can sustainably lift people out of poverty is to have a welfare system that encourages them to work and to progress in work. That is what universal credit does and it is what the legacy system failed to do, which is why we are making these changes.