Oral Answers to Questions

Maria Miller Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

2. What assessment he has made of the effect of changes in funding for childcare support on unemployment among women.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

I refer the hon. Lady so the answer that I gave the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) last Thursday. In case she was not able to read Hansard, however, I can tell her that the Government fully recognise the importance of child care in helping parents—not just mothers—to move into or stay in work. Through universal credit, we will for the first time extend help with child care costs to those who work for less than 16 hours a week, which will benefit 80,000 families who formerly had no entitlement to such support.

[Julie Elliott]

Is the Minister aware that since the cut in the child care element of benefit in October 2011, 44,000 people have stopped claiming? How many of those people does she think have simply left work because it does not pay to work any more?

[Maria Miller]

I think the hon. Lady is referring to some statistics about the reason why individuals are not in work, but I do not think she can quite draw the conclusion she has drawn that those particular individuals are out of work. As she will know, the Government are absolutely committed to making sure more women are able to move into work, which is perhaps why there are some 61,000 more women in work now than when Labour left office.

[Mrs Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald) (Con)]

Does the Minister agree that flexible working and shared parental leave will be very helpful in keeping women in work and child care costs down?

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend is right. We have put in place a package of measures, including flexible working, that will make all the difference. I should also remind her that we have doubled the number of two-year-olds getting free nursery care, and some 80,000 more families will be able to get child care support under universal credit.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

3. What progress he has made on support packages for Remploy workers in stage one factories.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

We will have a full and intensive package of support available for any employee affected by the Government’s announcement to accept the Sayce review recommendations. Remploy is currently within its 90-day consultation period, and once that has ended we will provide final and detailed information about the support disabled people will be given to move into mainstream employment.

[Mel Stride]

Like my hon. Friend, I believe it is far better for disabled people to have the opportunity to work in mainstream employment than in segregated factories. However, will she outline the reforms she is making to the access to work programme to make sure that, in this case, some of the most vulnerable people in our society are able to get back into work quickly?

[Maria Miller]

My hon. Friend is right to suggest that we feel that access to work is the measure that will, when expanded, do most to help disabled people into work, and we will be working with disabled people to ensure we get the measures right. We have already been able to announce an extra £15 million to support access to work over the spending period, thereby helping some 8,000 more disabled people into work.

[Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)]

I have spoken to every single worker in the Wishaw Remploy factory, and all of them are in despair at the thought of losing their jobs. How many notes of interest have there been from potential bidders for the Wishaw factory?

[Maria Miller]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question. I am not privy to those sorts of commercial details, but I will be working as hard as I can—as, I am sure, will he—to ensure that there are more credible bids so that, if possible, factories such as the one in Wishaw, which supports some 20 disabled people, can continue. However, I also remind him that there are more than 11,000 disabled people in his constituency, and we are trying to ensure that the available money is helping all of them.

[Mr Lee Scott (Ilford North) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is very important to get young people with special needs into work, and does she welcome the scheme to be piloted in the borough of Redbridge in my constituency to get young people into work, and congratulate Interface and local businesses on playing their role in that?

[Maria Miller]

I commend the work my hon. Friend has been doing. He has done so much to support disabled people in his constituency get into work, and I look forward to continuing to follow the work he is doing.

[Mrs Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab)]

Remploy Ltd provides a defined benefit occupational pension scheme for its employees, but it is not eligible for pension protection funding by virtue of regulation 2(1)(d) of the Pension Protection Fund (Entry Rules) Regulations 2005. In the case of Remploy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions guarantees that the company’s assets are sufficient to meet its liabilities in the event of its winding-up. Under the Minister’s current proposals, will the Secretary of State continue to honour that commitment to current and retired Remploy employees?

[Maria Miller]

I am sure the right hon. Lady is aware of the fact that when this Government took office we inherited an enormous deficit in the Remploy pension fund. We are trying to sort that out. I can absolutely give her the undertaking that pensions that are in place will be fully protected, as she would expect.

[Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)]

4. What progress he has made on the youth contract; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

T4. Does the Minister recognise that traditionally the Child Support Agency has targeted fathers who contribute willingly, rather than chase the more challenging maintenance evaders?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

I understand that the current system feels unfair to many people. However, I reassure my hon. Friend that we do not target people in that way. We want to ensure that more people receive positive financial support. The tragic fact is that only half of children living in separated families currently have a positive financial arrangement in place.

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

T2. The Scottish Trades Union Congress reported today that the number of young Scots who are in receipt of unemployment benefit for more than 12 months has increased by 1,100% since 2007. Will the Minister confirm that those 5,000-plus young people will not be abandoned? What guarantee will he give about how many of them will be in work by this time next year?

--- Later in debate ---

[Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

T5. The Child Support Agency’s office for London and the south-east is in Hastings. It employs nearly 1,000 to do an often difficult and challenging job. When the Minister brings forward her reform plans, I ask her to ensure that this important service is not relocated, because a great deal of local expertise has been built up.

[Maria Miller]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to pay tribute to the excellent work of the Child Support Agency staff in Hastings. I reassure her that the changes that we are planning will have a negligible effect on delivery staff.

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

T3. After the hard-fought and successful campaign to get the higher rate of the mobility component for blind and partially sighted people under disability living allowance, will the Minister reassure me that no blind people will be disadvantaged by the transition to the personal independence payment and that such people will continue to receive the higher rate of the mobility component?

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady will know that we are in the process of finalising the assessment criteria for the new personal independence payment. I am sure that she will be reassured to know that I have met a number of organisations that represent blind people. I remind her that with the personal independence payment, we are trying to recognise the barriers that people face to living an independent life, and not simply to categorise them based on their impairment.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

T9. I thank the Minister for agreeing to come to a jobs fair in Thanet in June. I am sure that he shares everybody else’s pleasure at seeing that there has been a small drop in youth unemployment. What more can I tell the young people of Thanet that we are doing to help them get the jobs that will be advertised at the jobs fair?