Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Pat McFadden and Catherine Fookes

Monday 9th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

The hon. Member is right to point to the disparity of information that there sometimes is for apprenticeships compared with university courses. It is something that we need to address by improving the information available and ensuring that young people embarking on an apprenticeship are treated with just as much esteem and respect as those who undertake a university course. Information is very much part of the changes that we are pursuing.

[Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)]

Sadly, I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are facing a hidden problem in the child maintenance system: their ex-partner has found ways of hiding their income to avoid having their monthly payments increased or paying the arrears that they owe. Can the Minister share with me the work that the Department is doing to ensure that income assessment of paying parents is accurate, agile and serves the children it is meant to support?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Pat McFadden and Catherine Fookes

Monday 27th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Pat McFadden)]

I am very conscious of the responsibilities of the Department, which touches millions of lives in this country every month. We have joined up skills and employment support in the Department to bring the skills system closer to the labour market, and, as part of our youth guarantee, we have announced that it will include a backstop jobs guarantee. Together with that and Connect to Work, we are both tackling the incentives in the system and providing critical support, because my priority is to have a welfare state that looks after people when times are tough, but also provides a platform of opportunity to help get them out of welfare and into work.

[Catherine Fookes]

At the Conservative party conference, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury called for the state pension to be means-tested. This has caused deep concern to pensioners in Monmouthshire who have worked hard all their lives and built up modest savings. Under the Conservative party’s plans, they would risk losing their state pension. Will the Secretary of State confirm that, under this Labour Government, the state pension will remain available to all?

[Pat McFadden]

I am happy to say that what my hon. Friend says about means-testing is not the Government’s policy, but can the Conservatives confirm whether it is theirs? The shadow Chief Secretary let the cat out of the bag. Can she confirm that this is not her policy, or is it that her leader still sticks to the position she set out earlier this year when she said:

“We are going to look at means-testing”?

Are they still looking at it, or are they not?