Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to encourage people aged over 50 to remain in the workforce.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

22. What help his Department is giving to people aged 50 and over to find employment.

[The Minister for Employment (Guy Opperman)]

The Government are already providing £20 million for an enhanced offer to help older workers remain in, or return to, work. That includes provision for 37 full-time 50-plus champions, who deliver the midlife MOT, and for older workers jobs fairs. That includes the three 50-plus fairs held in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (James Sunderland) in the last few months.

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[Guy Opperman]

There are now 10.7 million 50-plus workers—a figure that has gone up by 2 million in the last 10 years. Local DWP jobcentres are constantly engaging with employers to showcase the benefits of hiring older workers. I urge the hon. Gentleman to go to Halfords in St James retail park in Dumbarton in his constituency, because Halfords is one of the employers employing over 100 new over-50s apprentices on an ongoing basis. The hon. Gentleman should visit and learn something.

[Michael Fabricant]

As you know, Mr Speaker, because of my youth, I do not have to declare an interest. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that, on the whole, older people tend to be more punctual, dedicated and reliable, and able to spell? What is he doing to tell employers that those factors are the reason why they need to employ older people?

[Guy Opperman]

Of course my hon. Friend, who I am sure is under the age of 50, does not need to declare an interest in the Government’s desire to ensure that we have more over-50s in employment. He will be aware, however, that in the past few months there have been four jobs fairs across Staffordshire and Derbyshire open to those from Lichfield who are 50-plus, and planning is under way for another event that will take place shortly.

Draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2023 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022.

Good morning, Mr Dowd; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I am pleased to introduce this order, which was laid before the House on 13 October.

The order will extend the higher rate of bereavement support payment and its predecessor, widowed parent’s allowance, to bereaved cohabitees with dependent children.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way at this early stage. I notice that the order applies, as she has just said, to cohabiting couples with children who were not at the time married or in any legal relationship. How would that apply to same-sex couples with dependent children, who are not married and not civil partners?

[Mims Davies]

My hon. Friend has kindly reminded us of all surviving partners, dependent children and the access to support that is available irrespective of that partnership and sexuality. I hope that the Committee find that welcome. That provision is absolutely right, and it is helpful to put that on the record early in our proceedings.

The benefits can only be paid to survivors who were in a legal union—married or in a civil partnership—with the deceased on the day that they died. However, the McLaughlin judgment in the Supreme Court, handed down on 30 August 2018, and the Jackson case in the High Court, handed down on 7 February 2020, identified that legislation on widowed parent’s allowance and the higher rate of bereavement support payment respectively was incompatible with article 14 of the European convention on human rights. That article requires all rights and freedoms set out in legislation to be protected and applied without discrimination. In both cases, the courts found that by restricting eligibility to those in a legal union, current legislation discriminates between children on the grounds of the legal status of their parents’ relationship.

The order provides a remedy for Great Britain and Northern Ireland by amending the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 and the Pensions Act 2014. I am satisfied that the provisions of the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022 are compatible with the ECHR. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has reported on the draft order and recommended its approval.

For the Committee’s wider understanding, I will provide an overview of bereavement benefits as I take Members through the proposed changes. Widowed parent’s allowance was introduced in 2001 alongside the bereavement allowance and the bereavement payment. The WPA was intended to provide ongoing financial support following the death of a spouse to those with dependent children, and from 2005 that support was extended to cover the death of a civil partner. With the introduction of universal credit, a benefit designed to help with ongoing living costs, it was necessary to look again at the whole package of bereavement benefits. That applied particularly to WPA, which could be paid for the same purpose as universal credit, and which was complicated to claim and to administer.

We modernised financial support for the bereaved by introducing a new benefit from 6 April 2017. Bereavement support payment was intended to help with the more immediate costs of bereavement and to allow for a period of adjustment following the death of a partner. It consists of an initial lump sum, followed by 18 monthly instalments. A higher rate is paid to those with dependent children. Unlike its predecessors, it is tax- free and disregarded for the purposes of income-related benefits, helping those on the lowest incomes the most.

Bereavement benefits have only ever been payable to those who were in a legal union with their deceased partner. They are contributory benefits, with eligibility linked to the national insurance contributions of the deceased partner. Such inheritable benefits, derived from another person’s national insurance contributions, have historically been based on the concept of a legal union.

I will now outline what this draft order covers. Eligibility for widowed parent’s allowance and the higher rate of bereavement support payment will be extended to surviving partners who have dependent children and who were living with their deceased partner as if they were married or in a civil partnership at the date of their death. That includes partners who are or were pregnant on the date of their partner’s death, and there will be no qualifying period of cohabitation. This change will benefit thousands of families with dependent children.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mims Davies]

I fully appreciate that there has been a long gap between laying the proposed draft and the draft order. During the period, there has been a small cross-departmental team of officials looking at exactly the point that my hon. Friend makes, in terms of the complexity and ensuring that the policy is drafted properly and the implementation issues are covered. It is important that we get this right, and that throughout the process, the remedial order is made the priority for the Department to look into. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we are looking at the issue. That goes to the point about who will be captured. I will be happy to confirm that more fully later in my comments, if that helps.

When deaths occur after the order comes into force, the bereavement support payment will be paid, subject to the usual claim time limits, which are 12 months for the initial lump sum, and three months for each instalment. It will help the Committee to learn that claimants will be eligible for widowed parent’s allowance if their partner died before 6 April 2017 and they continued to meet the entitlement conditions on 30 August 2018. They, too, must claim within 12 months of the date on which the order comes into force. They may also be entitled to ongoing payments if they continue to meet the widowed parent’s allowance eligibility criteria at the point of claim. I hope that gives my hon. Friend clarity.

The extension of the benefits to cohabiting partners means that there may be cases in which more than one person claims for the same death. That could apply in cases of polygamy, or of people dividing their time between two households, or where a separated spouse no longer lives with the deceased. As hon. Members can appreciate, this is a complex area, and my officials have been working hard to develop an approach that not only balances the need to protect taxpayers’ money with the contributory principle, but reflects people’s real-life circumstances. In such cases, the order proposes that we pay just once per death, prioritising the person who was living with the claimant on the date of death. If there are claims from different addresses, entitlement would be established as part of the normal decision-making and appeals processes.

In very rare cases, more than one potential claimant may have been living with the deceased on the date of death. Here, entitlement will be decided according to a hierarchy that is intended to reflect which claimant had the most established relationship with the deceased, as that person would usually bear the majority of the bereavement costs. Should that leave more than one potential claimant, the Secretary of State would determine who was entitled to the benefit.

[Michael Fabricant]

I am curious: it sounds as though my hon. Friend is saying that where there is a counter-claim, an absolute decision is made in favour of one person over another, or indeed all the rest. Why cannot time in the relationship be taken into account, and the benefit be apportioned among more than one person?

[Mims Davies]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point.

[Michael Fabricant]

Friend!

[Mims Davies]

Sorry, my hon. Friend. He is absolutely right, which is why we need to look into individual cases and treat them sensitively. Some people may find retrospectively that someone else is making a claim for a relationship of which they were simply not aware. That is, however, extremely rare. In all our engagement on the order, we have been looking in the round at all the circumstances that could come to pass, so that we can ensure that the decision made is fair, and so that situations in which families later find out things that are new to them can be managed. I hope that is helpful to my hon. Friend, and I thank him for that point.

Transitional protection will ensure that those who are in receipt of widowed parent’s allowance or the bereavement support payment before the date on which the order comes into force do not lose their entitlement for the duration of their award. The Joint Committee on Human Rights asked whether splitting the benefit might be more appropriate in cases of the kind that we are discussing. I am mindful that this is an incredibly sensitive area. If we split bereavement benefits, it would prove complex to administer, and it would be challenging for claimants to understand their potential entitlement before applying. That would be particularly true where claimants were, for example, eligible for different rates under bereavement support payment. We are determined to treat the issue appropriately and get this as right as we can.

Widowed parent’s allowance is treated as income for the purpose of income-related benefits, such as universal credit, and is assessed at the point of award. The order provides for all retrospective widowed parent’s allowance payments, up to the date of the claim, to be treated as capital and disregarded for 12 months or 52 weeks for the purposes of income-related benefits. That ensures that claimants will not lose any existing entitlement to income-related benefit as a result of receiving a retrospective award.

The order also ensures that there is a disregard for the same period for retrospective bereavement support payment awards. The usual rules will apply to future bereavement support payment and widowed parent’s allowance entitlements. We do not propose any changes for the treatment of income tax. Bereavement support payment is already tax-free, and widowed parent’s allowance will be taxed according to the period of entitlement, as per the existing rules.

We will communicate to widowed parent’s allowance claimants to make sure that they are fully aware of any payment under the draft order that may incur an income tax liability. We know that Members are particularly interested in how the Department will work with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to ensure that people can deal quickly with any potential income tax liability following the receipt of a payment under the draft order.

Where claimants pay tax as they earn, they will tell HMRC about any widowed parent’s allowance payment, including backdated payments. Claimants will not need to contact HMRC about income tax implications. Claimants who use the self-assessment process will need to declare payments on their tax returns for each tax year or write to HMRC to include back payments on previous tax returns.

The payment of bereavement support payment does not affect a person’s tax credit entitlement. Widowed parent’s allowance will be treated as income for tax credit purposes, as is commonplace for social security benefits. It will be assessed in the year of the payment rather than entitlement, so no adjustment to past years will be needed for these claimants.

In accordance with paragraph 3(1) of schedule 2 to the Human Rights Act 1998, a proposed draft of the order was laid for a period of 60 sitting days, on 15 July 2021, to allow for Members of both Houses and other stakeholders, including the JCHR to make suitable representations. I assure the Committee that Ministers fully considered all the representations made on the proposed draft order before preparing this draft for affirmative resolution. In doing so, Ministers agreed with the JCHR’s recommendation to amend the order to ensure that pregnant widowed parent’s allowance claimants were covered in the same way as those in a legal union. Ministers also agreed with its recommendation to ensure that the implications of the retrospective effect of the order on entitlement to income-related benefits were fully taken into account. Ministers have also included a number of technical amendments in response to comments from the JCHR.

Finally, before I let other Members contribute, I emphasise how easy the payment will be to claim. We know from our evaluation that claimants have had a very positive experience of claiming bereavement support payment, with 97% reporting satisfaction with the process.

Draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Laura Trott)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray. The regulations were laid before the House on 17 October. I am pleased to introduce this instrument that, subject to approval, will create the framework in which pensions dashboards will operate.

Pensions dashboards are digital tools that present individuals with their pensions information. The Pension Schemes Act 2021 gave the Government the powers to create these regulations. The regulations place requirements on registerable Great Britain-based occupational pension schemes with over 100 active, deferred or pension credit members, and specify when those schemes must connect to the Money and Pensions Service, or MaPS. The Department for Communities is expected to make corresponding regulations for Northern Ireland. Once connected, pension schemes must follow the requirement to find pensions and send the relevant information to an individual’s chosen qualifying pensions dashboard service.

The regulations provide that the Pensions Regulator may take enforcement action in relation to pension schemes that do not comply. The regulations also cover the requirements to be satisfied in order for a pensions dashboard service to be a qualifying pensions dashboard service, which include connection and functionality, display of view data, reporting and monitoring of the dashboard and enabling an independent person to audit the provider’s dashboard. Further to this, the Financial Conduct Authority has published final corresponding rules in relation to the providers of personal and stakeholder pension schemes, and will be consulting on a regulatory framework for qualifying pensions dashboard services later this year.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

The dashboards are to be used by consumers to see how their pensions will evolve over time. Will they be easily accessible? People, particularly those approaching pensionable age—although some are computer-literate, some are not—find so many of these computer programs rather difficult. How accessible will they be?

[Laura Trott]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. The standards will be consulted on by MaPS and the FCA, but it is absolutely intended that they will be as user friendly as possible. A lot of testing will take place to ensure that that is the case.

The regulations, in combination with a planned order to amend the Pensions Act 2004, will enable MaPS and the Pensions Regulator to disclose information to each other in connection with dashboard functions only. That will support MaPS and the Pensions Regulator in their pensions dashboards programme and compliance roles respectively, and support the secure delivery of the ecosystem and pensions dashboard services. The Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation duties continue to apply to the sharing of information about an individual.

I will briefly revisit why we need pensions dashboards and their potential to change people’s relationships with their pensions. We know about the huge success that automatic enrolment had in getting people saving into a pension, with millions of people now saving. However, research has found that almost three quarters of UK adults have multiple pensions, as people move around the labour market throughout their working life. Some people may not know either who their pension is with, what their pensions are worth or how many pensions they have. Pensions dashboards have the power to change all that.

We have conservatively estimated that reuniting people with lost pensions could be worth £541 million to individuals over 10 years, and it could be much more. The Pensions Policy Institute estimated in its most recent paper on lost pots that the total value could be up to £26.6 billion. Instead of relying on a box of paper under the stairs, pensions dashboards will help individuals to find their lost and forgotten pensions quickly and easily, and all in one place.

We are setting up a brand-new digital service that will connect thousands of individual pensions schemes covering millions of memberships. As Members may expect, a huge amount of work and thought has gone into developing these regulations. We have worked throughout with our delivery partners, the pensions dashboards programme as part of the Money and Pensions Service, the Pensions Regulator, and the FCA. I thank them all for their expert input into this cross-cutting project. We have also gained insight from those in the pensions industry and consumer groups through two public consultations and other fora.

The delivery of pensions dashboards needs to be both timely and operationally manageable for both the pensions dashboards programme and the pensions industry. The regulations set out a phased approach, known as staging, to connect different categories of scheme to MaPS. By prioritising schemes in order of type and membership size, we can maximise the member coverage on pensions dashboards in the shortest possible timeframe. Schemes will connect to the MaPS digital architecture, which is the technology that underpins dashboards. The architecture, and all parties and technical services that connect to it, form the dashboard ecosystem.

All Members are eager to see dashboards made available to the public. The point at which that will happen is referred to in the regulations as the “Dashboards Available Point”. The Secretary of State will issue a notice at least six months ahead of that point, having considered matters such as the coverage of memberships and service levels. This notice will give the pensions industry time to prepare to answer queries resulting from people engaging with their pensions information.

Lastly, it would be remiss of me not to update the House on the delivery of this programme. I am pleased to say that the pensions dashboards programme has delivered the digital architecture underpinning this project, and it is currently testing and refining the service in readiness for schemes to begin connecting from April 2023. Early participants will begin connecting in the new year. We are grateful to schemes for their co-operation, which is helping to prepare the ground and setting an example for others to follow.

I am satisfied that the draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 are compatible with the European convention on human rights. Subject to the view of this House, the approval of the regulations puts us one step closer to delivery for consumers. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill [Lords]

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

The Chair of the Select Committee makes, as ever, a thoughtful point. I very much look forward to working with him and the Committee. Yes, our evaluation did look at exactly that point. As I was just coming on to argue, our approach brings a greater consistency with the NHS, which considers people to be

“approaching the end of their lives when they are likely to die within the next 12 months.”

That consistency is an important objective. At that 12-month point, clinicians are encouraged to think about the support that their patients need, including any financial support.

A point that I am sure my hon. Friend the Minister of State will draw out at Committee stage is that we also think it is important that clinicians can be supported to make the most consistent and straightforward decisions. Of course, in many cases that is not straightforward, but we want to enable clinicians to have the best chance of making a clear decision in support of their patient. That was the evidence that our evaluation found in favour of the 12-month definition. Indeed, that has been borne out by a great deal of support for what we have since been able to announce, which the right hon. Gentleman will be aware of from the various groups that support those in their last stage of life.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for presenting this Bill, as will be my constituents in Lichfield. We are blessed with a particularly wonderful hospice, St Giles Hospice in Whittington village. Has the Department spoken to clinicians and organisers at hospices such as our one in Lichfield?

[Chloe Smith]

Yes, that is absolutely the case. There have been extensive conversations with clinicians and those in the hospice movement more broadly. I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to all those who work in hospices such as the one he mentions in Lichfield and the many more across the country. They do such an important job in giving people comfort and support and the right care at the end of their life.

In announcing that the Government intend to move from that six-month criteria to the 12-month end-of-life approach, we have engaged very widely and endeavoured to communicate as clearly as possible so that people know what support is available.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Will Quince]

I thank the hon. Lady for that question. We take this issue incredibly seriously. That is why we pumped an additional nearly £1 billion into the local housing allowance and have frozen it in cash terms for a further year, and why we have the two-week run-on of housing benefit, direct payments to landlords available, £140 million in DHPs, the homelessness prevention grant, work coach support and, of course, Money and Pensions Service support. We stand ready to support any tenant who needs that support to sustain their tenancy and prevent homelessness.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

What steps her Department is taking to support people with essential living costs during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Will Quince)]

The Government are delivering an unprecedented package of support, injecting billions into the welfare system. This includes a £20 uplift to universal credit and a one-off payment of £500 to working tax credit recipients, as well as rolling out our covid local support grant scheme, worth over £260 million to local authorities.

[Michael Fabricant [V]]

As a good Conservative, I believe in devolution, and I think local government is far better placed than national Government to provide emergency support. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree with me, and if not, why not?

[Will Quince]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and I do agree with him that the Government do not always know best. Actually, very often local authorities are best placed to decide how to allocate local funding to meet local need. That is why we moved quickly to implement innovative schemes during the pandemic, including the covid winter grant scheme and the local welfare assistance scheme. I have to say that, in his own constituency, Staffordshire County Council has spent the £3 million it was awarded on some really innovative projects, including oil heaters, warmth packs and, of course, food to support vulnerable families during the school holidays, meeting our objective of ensuring that vulnerable families would stay warm and well fed over the winter.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that it is primarily the role of the Ministry of Justice to consider these issues and help people to prepare for release. We are keen to have a work coach in every prison so that when people do leave they can get back into the world of work as quickly as possible. This issue is very much front and centre, and the Prime Minister has set up a specific taskforce, which he chairs, to ensure that we try to crack this cycle of crime, especially when people leave prison.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

9. What steps her Department is taking to support people into self-employment; and if she will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies)]

Supporting people into self-employment and backing them to grow their businesses is a priority for me, as the employment Minister. Since 2011, the new enterprise allowance has resulted in nearly 131,000 new businesses. We expanded this provision in 2017 to include universal credit claimants with existing businesses and provide them with specialist support to boost their earnings.

[Michael Fabricant]

That is very encouraging news indeed. As my hon. Friend will know, it was Adam Smith, not Napoleon Bonaparte, who said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. That is especially so in the west midlands, in that people have small businesses that expand into large businesses. When will she meet the Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, to discuss how we can stimulate the economy there still further?

[Mims Davies]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that. In fact, later today in the Chamber the west midlands will be standing proud as we see the debate on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill. The legacy around jobs and skills from that will be very welcome indeed. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be meeting Andy Street this Thursday; I am sure that everyone will be delighted about that. I recently held a roundtable to redesign how we look at self-employment going forward, listening to people across the country talk about how they can build, create and boost their businesses.

Draft Chemicals (Health and Safety) and Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 13th March 2019 General Committees

[Sarah Newton]

I was offering some reassurance about the REACH regulations. Although they are not what we are here to talk about today, I was addressing those concerns.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Hanson. With the air conditioning going and the Minister’s unusually quiet voice, although I heard the hon. Member for Weaver Vale clearly, it is really very difficult to hear the Minister.

[The Chair]

I have noted the air conditioning, and I will ensure that it is turned down for future meetings. Minister, if you could speak up, please.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 2nd July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands]

From the Government’s own business case for universal credit, it transpires that just 3% of those who have been brought into conditionality under universal credit are expected to find work, as a result of sanctions. Given that my constituents are going to suffer this roll-out in September, does he think that this is a robust business case for his Department’s punitive and callous sanctions regime?

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Enunciate, man!

[Alok Sharma]

The hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands) talks about sanctions, but he will know that the regime is different. For example, under JSA if somebody who was due to come in for an interview does not contact us after five days, they fall out of the system and are not sanctioned. Under universal credit, however, we continue to pay all the elements—the child element and the housing element—but the sanction that they would face applies only to the standard allowance. The hon. Gentleman talks about wanting to help people, but the Scottish National party voted against £1.5 billion of support. If he wants to support people, he should try to support the Government from time to time.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant), from a sedentary position and rather gratuitously, offered advice and exhortation to the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands). I simply say to the hon. Member for Lichfield that we can always hear him with crystal clarity. He is in no danger of not being noticed.

[Michael Fabricant]

Thank you.

[Ruth George]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mary Robinson (Cheadle) (Con)]

11. What steps the Government are taking to improve employment opportunities for people with family responsibilities.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

17. What steps the Government are taking to improve employment opportunities for people with family responsibilities.

[Damien Moore (Southport) (Con)]

21. What steps the Government are taking to improve employment opportunities for people with family responsibilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

Enunciation from Lichfield—Mr Michael Fabricant.

[Michael Fabricant]

I will be very precise, Mr Speaker. Does my hon. Friend agree that the key to getting people out of poverty is work? Given that this Government have created 1,000 new jobs every single day since 2010, we have produced the key to unlock that door.

[Kit Malthouse]

My hon. Friend has absolutely put his finger on the button. As I said in an earlier answer, in this country we have tried fighting poverty with welfare in the past and failed. The Labour Government spent some £150 billion on tax credits and hardly moved the poverty indicators at all. We have chosen the route of work as the way to human dignity, prosperity and control for people and their families. I celebrate with him the success of the entire country, and not least his constituency.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

This is complicated, Mr Speaker, so stay with me. What can the Secretary of State do to ensure continuity of universal credit benefit entitlement for those people paid on the same day every month for whom, every now and again, two pay packets will fall into the assessment period?

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Could you explain it again?

[Mr Speaker]

I think that it is all perfectly clear, as the hon. Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant) knows.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Kit Malthouse]

One of the really disappointing things about the debate on welfare and benefit reform in this place has been the persistent defence of the old benefits system, which was effectively a fraud perpetrated on the poor designed to trap them into being so. I would have hoped that the hon. Gentleman would welcome the fact that in the three years to 2016-17 the number of children living in poverty in Scotland was down by 24% compared with the three years to 2009-10, with relative poverty down in the same period too.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

With unemployment soaring at 9.3% in France and 11% in Italy but only at 4.3% in the UK, does my hon. Friend agree that one of the best ways of staying out of poverty is getting a good, educated job?

[Kit Malthouse]

My hon. Friend is exactly right—[Interruption.]

Personal Independence Payment

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Ms McVey]

I said that the Minister for Disabled People holds meetings for MPs, but she does the same for caseworkers, so MPs’ staff can attend those sessions, meet the Minister and ask relevant questions.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

The shadow Secretary of State said that she was gobsmacked by my right hon. Friend’s response. I am gobsmacked by the vilification of my right hon. Friend on social media and by the threats from Opposition Members to string her up, which are more unacceptable. Just for clarification, will she let the House know precisely by how much disability payments have risen since this Government came to power?

[Ms McVey]

I am glad that “gobsmacked” has become part of the language of the House. My hon. Friend is gobsmacked, but I was obviously greatly dismayed by the comments from the Opposition and by the personal attacks that I have suffered. However, I know that people make personal attacks only when they do not have workable policies to put forward, so that shows that the Opposition have no workable policies. We do not need to link politics with violence.

In answer to my hon. Friend’s question, the increase has been £4.2 billion.