DWP Policies and Low-income Households

Neil Gray Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Neil Gray (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)]

We have heard today about the working families who stand to be £1,000 a year worse off by 2020—or, indeed, up to £2,500 a year worse off, according to the Resolution Foundation—as a result of cuts to universal credit. The House of Commons Library says that the full brunt of the social security cuts will not be felt until the mid-2020s; by then, overall net savings will be in the region of £40 billion a year, with more than £1 billion lost to Scotland—that is net, so it includes all the more positive steps that have been introduced that could benefit some families in this country. Most worrying is the Institute for Fiscal Studies prediction that child poverty will rise by 50% by 2020 as a result of the cuts. The Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland cites inadequate social security benefits as one of the three main reasons for the rise in child poverty.

It is an old cliché, but politics is all about choices. Austerity is a choice; spending at least £4 billion on renovating this Palace is a choice; spending hundreds of billions of pounds on nuclear weapons is a choice; cutting tax for the highest earners and biggest businesses is a choice; and cutting £12 billion from the Department for Work and Pensions is a choice. But for a family living in a low-income household, seeing their income cut by this Government does not leave many choices.

The exponential rise in the use of food banks and the requirement for emergency food aid has been linked to sanctions and cuts to social security by a series of reports, including those by the Poverty Alliance, the University of Oxford and GoWell in Glasgow. That shows the harm that Tory choices are causing. When the Chancellor sets his Budget during times of austerity, whether it is Osborne’s austerity max or Hammond’s austerity almost max, Tory MPs cannot pretend that it is not a zero-sum game. They cannot claim that Trident does not have an impact on DWP budgets. Even the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith) is calling for the cuts to universal credit work allowances to be reversed. They are the only incentive to work in the universal credit system, and they are being slashed. The Government must look at that again.

The Government must also look again at the cut to employment and support allowance for the work-related activity group. Some £30 a week is being cut for sick and disabled people assessed as unfit for work—a drop in income of a third for sick and disabled people. Then there is the closing of jobcentres, which has been raised repeatedly, passionately and eloquently by my colleagues from Glasgow this evening. It is an aspect of our motion that the Government seek to delete entirely in their amendment—a mark of the level of respect that they show for the people of Glasgow.

Let me turn now to the switch from the disability living allowance to personal independence payment. I wish that I had more time to reflect on some the problems, but I will focus on only a couple of areas. I hope that, in closing, the Minister will expand on the commitments that were given about the scheme on 30 November in Westminster Hall. The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), acknowledged that there is an issue of people returning their Motability cars while delayed appeals are considered. She also said that

“we are exploring options to allow those who are not in receipt of the higher Motability component to have access to the Motability scheme.”—[Official Report, 30 November 2016; Vol. 617, c. 610WH.]

We have not heard or received anything further since. I hope that we can get clarification on both those issues regarding PIP this evening.

I have also written to the Secretary of State on behalf of my constituent, Mr Tom Keatings from Salsburgh, who visited my surgery on Friday. He had been in receipt of PIP for some time, but after having three spinal discs prolapse last year he reapplied to receive the higher Motability rate. He made the application in August, and received a negative response in October. He immediately requested a mandatory reconsideration in October, and has heard nothing, despite being promised that it would take nine weeks to get a reply. He phoned the DWP last week only to be told that not only was the reconsideration not complete, but that it had not even been looked at yet. It is nearly three months since the appeal was sent. I cannot see how Ministers can say that that is in any way acceptable. I hope to hear how the Government are addressing such delays.

Finally, we have heard erroneous claims from Government Members this evening about delays to the Scottish Government’s implementation of the new social security powers. Those claims are not true. There have been announcements just this week. The Scottish Government made a commitment to introduce the new Scottish social security system in the lifetime of the new Scottish Parliament and that is what the Scottish Government will do—it was in our manifesto.

We have also heard that, somehow, the Scottish Government should divert more and more money to mitigate the Tory mess that has been inflicted on social security. It is time Government Members got their own house in order before deciding how the Scottish Government should be spending their money.

I hope that, in closing this debate, the Minister will advise how the Government plan to make this shared society a reality. It is a welcome change in tone. It acknowledges that things are not currently shared out fairly. Tinkering at the edges, as we saw in the autumn statement, will not bring about a society that is working for everyone. Listening to some of the concerns and suggestions expressed by others and working constructively across political parties and between central and devolved Governments would at least be a start.