Oral Answers to Questions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (Lab)]

8. What steps his Department are taking to ensure that personal independence payment assessments are undertaken fairly and efficiently.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

16. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that personal independence payment assessments are undertaken fairly and efficiently.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

18. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that personal independence payment assessments are undertaken fairly and efficiently.

--- Later in debate ---

[Penny Mordaunt]

Currently, 3% of caseload is overturned on appeal, and in the last quarter the number of cases having to go to appeal dropped by 22%. We have introduced changes to get evidence in earlier and to improve the quality of assessments, but we will respond to all the things that Paul Gray has set out in his review this autumn.

[Paula Sherriff]

Two thirds of disabled people are successful at tribunal when they appeal PIP decisions. Given that the system is so clearly flawed, will the Minister commit to a full overhaul of the assessment process?

[Penny Mordaunt]

We have opportunities to reduce the burden on individuals going through assessments through what we are trying to do with the work capability assessment and by enabling information used in health care and in ESA assessments to reduce the burden on people getting PIP assessments—and, hopefully, doing away with the volume of assessments that people have. However, I say to the hon. Lady that currently 3% of cases are overturned on appeal. We are doing our best to ensure that the right decision is made earlier, and that seems to be bearing fruit in the numbers of people going to appeal.

Pensions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

First, I should say that the longer we can delay my hon. Friend’s retirement, the better that will be all round.

In terms of communicating with those affected, we are giving something like 20 years’ notice today, but as we legislate in due course, it will of course be necessary to communicate properly with those who are affected. [Interruption.] It will be done properly. It is proper that we communicate with those people, and we will do so.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

What steps is the Secretary of State’s Department taking to ensure that older people are not subject to the Government’s punitive sanctions regime?

[Mr Gauke]

The number of sanctions is down by about half in the last year. We have a welfare system that has at its heart the principle of conditionality for many benefits, and to enforce conditions it is necessary to have a sanctions regime. However, the vast majority—something like 98%—of benefit claimants are not sanctioned.

Benefit Claimants Sanctions (Required Assessment) Bill

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 2nd December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Paula Sherriff]

The hon. Gentleman is doing his best to suggest he can empathise with people, but I wonder whether he has ever experienced not knowing where his next meal is coming from or whether he can feed or clothe his children. I also wonder what effect this sanctioning regime is having on our already embattled mental health services, which are struggling to cope as it is.

[Conor Burns]

I have in fact been in those circumstances. I was unemployed and had to sign on after I graduated in 1994 in the worst graduate recession since the second world war. I experienced that again after I tried to get elected to this House in 2005 and had not got the money; I had to decide whether to pay the mortgage or the council tax on overdraft. So, yes I have been in those circumstances, and I have to say: do not ever sit there and suggest to people that we do not have the ability to empathise in this House of Commons simply because we sit on the Conservative Benches. That is the worst type of class war stereotypical nonsense, which frankly we should have moved way beyond in this House a long time ago.

Let us return to the point in question. The fact is that 94% of JSA claimants stick to their commitments and are not sanctioned, and even smaller is the percentage of ESA claimants—the main in-work sickness benefit—who are sanctioned, which stands at less than 1%. However, something being uncommon does not justify ignoring it, if it is a justified issue, which brings me on to my other point.

Department for Work and Pensions research shows that 70% of people receiving JSA and 60% of those receiving ESA said that the regime made them more likely to follow the rules. This is a sensible policy, which takes account of, and goes to great lengths never to disadvantage, those genuinely in need of benefits, but which seeks to cut down any dependency culture, ensure that those claiming benefits—

Under-occupancy Charge

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 14th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. The Department has spent approximately £206,000 in legal costs in respect of the Supreme Court proceedings.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

My constituents Ann and Kevin Gresham, who live in a two-bedroom flat, are unable to share a room owing to Ann’s various disabilities. They successfully fought the bedroom tax in court but this caused them significant heartache and stress. When will this Government finally stop punishing the disabled, admit that the cruel bedroom tax just is not working, and axe it?

[Damian Green]

As I said in response to previous hon. Members, I do not agree that the overall policy is not working, and we have no plans to change it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

22. If his Department will introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by changes in the state pension age.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Shailesh Vara)]

Women affected by changes made in 2011 face a maximum increase in state pension age of 18 months, rather than two years, as a result of a Government concession, and will retire under the new state pension, which will be more generous for many than the previous system. No further transitional arrangements are planned.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Vara]

The hon. Lady asks for a costing. During the 2011 debate the cost was calculated to be £1.1 billion, and there is no intention to revisit the issue.

[Paula Sherriff]

Does the Minister accept that there were significant failures from his own Department to communicate the changes to the state pension age, and does he think it unacceptable that some women found out about the changes only months before they expected to retire?

[Mr Vara]

In 2012, a survey compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions found that only 6% of women who were due to retire within 10 years thought that the pension age was still 60. Moreover, in 1995, people were able to ask for an estimate of when they were likely to retire, and in 2011 more than 5 million people were sent a letter to the address that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs then had informing them of the changes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justin Tomlinson]

It is a fantastic organisation; I enjoyed meeting Newlife. I have already taken the opportunity to highlight its good work and how we can promote it further in tandem with my colleagues in the Department of Health.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

T7. In December, the Secretary of State said:“For those already on universal credit, advisers will…ensure that their status remains the same”.—[Official Report, 7 December 2015; Vol. 603, c. 703.]However, the Government’s decision appears to have changed; they are now saying that it is at the discretion of work coaches to use the flexible support fund. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the 60,000 workers currently on universal credit will, in his own words, have their status remain “the same”?