Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Actually my right hon. Friend did not make that claim. If the hon. Gentleman had gone on with the quote, we would hear that he said:

“I’m a very strong supporter of what he is doing…and I’m absolutely confident that”

he is capable of implementing it.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

20. How many adults and young people have been helped to find employment by Kettering Jobcentre Plus in each of the last three years.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

In the last three years, the number of young people and adults claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Kettering has fallen by 26%, long-term unemployment is down 8%, youth employment is down 35% and long-term youth unemployment is down 31%. Claimants are not required to tell us their reason for leaving JSA, but surveys suggest that it is that 77% of people move into work.

[Mr Hollobone]

I thank the Minister for that extremely good news for Kettering. Will she say what assistance is being provided to help young people find employment?

[Esther McVey]

I will indeed. I was planning to give my hon. Friend some information for those young people in Kettering. There is a growth hub, Brackley job club, Christ Church work club, the graduate boost work club, Kettering library work club and a whole host of extra support. Across the country, we have put £1 billion in the Youth Contract to help young people get into work.

Universal Credit

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We do not take any lessons from the Opposition about computer failure: the tax credit system crashed, the health system crashed and they lost billions and billions of pounds while the shadow Chancellor was at the right hand of the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown).

I might also say that although the Opposition have asked an urgent question on universal credit today, the truth is that they are themselves in denial about the legacy of welfare failure they left us. Welfare spending increased by 60% in real terms under the previous Government—£3,000 a year for every household in Britain. More than £170 billion was spent on tax credits alone. There were 5 million on out-of-work benefits, and nearly a quarter of working-age people were economically inactive.

This Government have already saved £11 billion on the welfare bill, £48 billion over this Parliament. The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that welfare bills will fall in real terms to below the level at which we received them. Employment is up by more than 1 million. More households are now in work than ever before, with the lowest proportion of children living in workless households since records began. Child poverty is at its lowest level since the 1990s, and pensioner poverty is at its lowest for almost 30 years.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Is not a phased roll-out of the new universal credit system far better than incurring the £2.8 billion of waste through fraud, error and overpayment incurred by the previous Government in their tax credit system?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Opposition want to talk about universal credit, but the reality is that, unlike tax credits, it will roll out without damaging a single person, and it will also deliver massive benefits, under control by our test, learn and implement approach. The waste that we inherited was the waste of people who did not listen, rushed programmes and implemented them badly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The Minister of State has the advantage in this case of being right. It was rather a cheeky inquiry by the hon. Member for Ealing North (Stephen Pound), even by his own standards.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

2. How many people in Kettering constituency claim ESA; how many such claimants have had their claim turned down in the last year; and how many are appealing that decision to the first tier tribunal.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Mike Penning)]

In Kettering 4,400 claims started between October 2008 and February 2013. Of those assessed, 49% were deemed fit for work. Appeals data, I fully accept, are running very slow, especially in my hon. Friend’s constituency, which he has been campaigning hard for. We will be looking to recruit more judges as we go forward.

[Mr Hollobone]

Benefit appellants in the Kettering constituency are being told that they now have to wait up to 40 weeks for a first-tier tribunal hearing. This is more than twice the national average and is completely unacceptable. Will my hon. Friend speak with his counterpart in the Ministry of Justice and get the situation sorted out?

[Mike Penning]

My hon. Friend has been campaigning hard on behalf of his constituents and we have been working closely with the Ministry of Justice, which is why I can announce that there were six sessions per month in June 2012 and there are now 18 sessions per month, a 300% increase, and we intend to do better.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 14th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mike Penning]

In my first week, I must admit that I have not had a chance to look at that part of the form. I will do so, and if it needs amending I will do that.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend undertake a work capability assessment on the Ministry of Justice, because the waiting time for appeal hearings for WCA claims is now up to 40 weeks in the Kettering area? That is completely unacceptable.

[Mike Penning]

I think we all accept that the delays are unacceptable. We need to ensure that the assessments are done correctly when they are first done, and the Department is working closely now to make sure that they are assessed before they get to the referral situation.

Remploy

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Thursday 4th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Esther McVey]

I have a couple of points to make to the right hon. Gentleman. There was no spin in what I said; those were the numbers, and he is more than welcome to verify them. As for his comment about strangling, that is incorrect, too. I would say “liberating”. That is why some of the factories that closed have reopened and we are supporting them as best we can. If I were him, I would claim no credit for spending £555 million in 2008 on a modernisation process that went nowhere, or for estimates for contracts in the public sector that were grossly exaggerated—by 130%—and which never came to pass. Ours are real, they have been justified, they are monitored by an expert panel and KPMG is involved as well.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

To put today’s statement in context, is it not fair to say that over the past three years Remploy employment services has found employment for 35,000 disabled and disadvantaged people, many of whom have similar disabilities to those employed in the factories?

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. That is exactly what it has been doing. It has found people jobs in mainstream work at a fraction of the cost. It can do it, we know we can do it, and that is what we are going to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

It was the hon. Lady’s party, when it was in government, that established targets for sanctions on jobseekers—targets that the present Government scrapped.

A range of measures exist to support those who are leaving the Work programme and bring them closer to employment. However, we are also asking people to go into the jobcentre every day in order to receive one-to-one support, and I think we shall find that that is very effective.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

A4e tells me that 38% of its Work programme clients in the east midlands are aged between 18 and 24, and that one of the biggest challenges that they face is the provision of inadequate or irregular transport services in rural areas, and bad bus services in particular. Is the Minister aware of that problem, and what work can he do with the Department for Transport to deal with it?

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend has raised an issue that applies to a number of areas. Work programme providers, Jobcentre Plus, employers and transport companies have worked together well to improve transport links, and to ensure that as many people as possible can travel to a job that enables them to look after themselves and their families.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I remind the right hon. Gentleman that he was in the Government who introduced the work capability assessment and the employment and support allowance. I have set out the improvements that we have made to the system that we inherited from the previous Government, which was not working. We are continuing to make reforms, and that is demonstrated by the fact that the proportion of people claiming employment and support allowance has tripled under this Government.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

I am afraid that appeals to tribunals following refused ESA claims are taking far too long. The Leicester office, which deals with appeals from my constituents, now has a waiting list of 40 weeks. I know that this is not the responsibility of the Minister’s Department, but will he liaise with the Ministry of Justice to get this sorted out as quickly as possible?

[Mr Hoban]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the whole process is taking far too long. We are working closely with the Ministry of Justice to reform the system and ensure that appeals can be heard more quickly. We are also working with charities to see what additional support we can give to people claiming employment and support allowance, to ensure that the right information is made available as soon as possible to enable claims to be processed as quickly as possible.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

No one should be complacent about the challenge that young people are facing, but I should point out to the hon. Gentleman that, if full-time students are excluded, 66,000 more young people have been in work over the last quarter. We are seeing more progress, but we must not be complacent, and we must not forget that the problem started some time ago.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

What progress is being made with sector-based work academies? Which sectors are being targeted, and in which parts of the country?

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend is right to point out what an important part of our programme sector-based work academies represent. They provide a combination of work experience, training and a guaranteed job interview. Jobcentre Plus will work closely with employers throughout the country to organise the right type of sector-based work academies, but I encourage Members to work with jobcentres to identify good opportunities in that regard.

Romanians and Bulgarians (Benefits)

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 5th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I am dying to do that. We want to know who has actually been claiming benefits, but we really do not know that from the figures. The last Government did not want to know. It was almost a deliberate policy not to have the figures available so that people would not know how many were coming in and claiming benefits. That will change. We are an open Government and we will publish the figures. We will be very clear and we will see the size of the problem that we have to resolve.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

My constituents are absolutely furious that the UK’s borders are being flung open in this way. Do Her Majesty’s Government have any idea at all about how many Romanians and Bulgarians might be coming our way? Do they know and are not telling us, or have they not made an estimate? Have they contacted the Romanian and Bulgarian Governments to find out their estimates of the number of their citizens who will be coming to our shores?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

As I recall, the last Government put together a set of figures on Polish migration that were fundamentally wrong. The best way to deal with this is to make the systems much tighter and much better focused, so that we can deal with whatever numbers want to come here and ensure that they do not come here to claim benefits. I have said before and I say again that the last Government did not want to know how many of those people were claiming benefits. That is now changing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

Let me say straight away that I do not recognise the hon. Lady’s figures at all. What I can tell her is that £50 billion is spent every year on support and benefits, and that will continue. We are spending £13 billion a year on disability living allowance, and we will continue spending that when people are moved on to the personal independence payment. We are doing a lot and we are protecting the most vulnerable, as acknowledged around the world.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

The winter fuel allowance is a non-contributory benefit, yet every year we spend tens of millions of pounds on winter fuel allowance for pensioners who live abroad in far pleasanter climates than our own. Is there nothing that the Government can do within the terms of the EU directive to ensure that such payments cease and that pensioners in this country benefit from that money?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

This is a matter that we are looking into. As my hon. Friend knows very well, it is caught under European law; however, the recent judgment that came out said that we had to make these payments. There might be other ways we may be able to limit that exposure, and I will be able to let my hon. Friend know later in the day.