Youth Unemployment

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd June 2011 Westminster Hall

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Caton. I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) on his thoughtful speech, even if I did not agree with all of it, and on securing the debate.

This is an important debate, because today is vocational qualifications day and apprentices throughout the country are being congratulated on their achievements. In my maiden speech, I said:

“In Essex, nearly 4,000 young people are not in employment, education or training, and Harlow is one of the worst-affected towns…If we give young people the necessary skills and training, we give them opportunities and jobs for the future.”—[Official Report, 2 June 2011; Vol. 510, c. 488.]

The argument is about not just economic efficiency, but social justice. I want to talk about where youth unemployment is coming from, what the Government are doing and what more can be done.

In 2000, there were 600,000 16 to 24-year-olds who were not in employment, education or training. By 2010, there were well over 1 million and the figure remains at that level. This massive surge was not the by-product of the credit crunch—youth unemployment rose steadily throughout the past decade and the direct causes are well documented. We asked teachers to spread themselves too thinly, with too many competing priorities. Maths and English suffered, and half a million children left primary school unable to read or write. The Education Secretary has recently argued that too many soft qualifications crept in at GCSE and A-level, undermining academic rigour. The recent review led by Sir Richard Sykes, the former rector of Imperial college, concluded that many students were forced to take easier courses, to raise schools’ positions in league tables. One member of the review panel said that our current system is a “national disgrace”, because it encourages pupils to drop tough subjects such as science. The result is a skills deficit.

In Austria and Germany, one in four businesses offer apprenticeships to young people, but in England the figure is just one in 10. Why do only 28% of British workers qualify to become apprentices or gain technical skills, compared with 51% in France and 65% in Germany? What has gone so badly wrong in the UK that our skills level is so low? Our population is less skilled than that of France, Germany and the United States. As a result, we are 15% less productive than those countries. For example, construction has long represented about 10% of gross domestic product, but we have consistently imported much of that labour from Europe. The consequence has been a rootless, under-educated, jobless generation of graduates who do not have the right skills for our growth industries.

[Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP)]

Is it not true that, throughout the United Kingdom, we have given the impression that if a young person has not got a degree, they are not really a young person with great achievement? We have sent a lot of our young people to university to obtain a degree that has little relevance to working life. Therefore, do we not need to change that approach and say, “Listen, we need young people without a degree, but who are at least skilled and ready for the workplace”?

[Robert Halfon]

The hon. Gentleman is exactly right. I always find it astonishing that, when someone goes to university, it is regarded as something of great prestige—and, of course, it should be—but when someone does work experience or an apprenticeship, hardly anyone bats an eyelid. We must change the culture of skills and apprenticeships in our country.

[Mr Iain Wright]

The hon. Gentleman is making his argument in his usual thoughtful and considered manner, and I agree with virtually everything he is saying: for far too long in this country, we have had a culture of academic success but vocational failure. However, will not the changes to the English baccalaureate and the curriculum be a backward step? Is not the Secretary of State for Education embedding that negative culture, whereby academic equals success but vocational equals failure?

[Robert Halfon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, but I do not agree with them. As I will show later, we are gearing everything towards vocational training and apprenticeships.

I accept that the previous Government and many Opposition Members were concerned about and did their best to tackle youth unemployment. However, sometimes their policies were expensive and inefficient. The future jobs fund, which was mentioned by the hon. Members for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) and for Birmingham, Selly Oak, cost up to £6,500 per placement. Most placements were temporary six-month internships in the public sector. In comparison, the normal cost of finding work for a young person on the new deal was just £3,500 per job, which is better value for money.

Despite that, tens of thousands of young people who finished school were still on the dole a decade later. Although billions were spent on the new deal, around 100,000 of those who left school in the first term of the previous Government have never held a job. They are now in their 30s and have never worked in their lives. The future jobs fund and the new deal too often operated like a revolving hamster’s wheel back to benefits. People were shifted around and around but did not get anywhere. The future jobs fund was announced in 2009 and aimed to create 150,000 jobs in two years. By the end of the first year, fewer than 5,000 jobs had been created, which is 3% of the target. It just did not work. There were also problems with Train to Gain. Much of the training on Train to Gain was not actually training; it was bureaucratic assessments dressed up as training.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

The figure that the hon. Gentleman gave is a little bit misleading. Between October 2009 and January 2011, there were more than 90,000 starts thanks to the future jobs fund. Of course, the scheme did not run for the full two years, for reasons that we know about, but over the full period that it was in operation, a large number of young people got into work.

[Robert Halfon]

Yes, but the crucial thing is not just for someone to get initial work, but for them to stay in work. I hope that the Minister will announce later that our policies relate to giving people long-term jobs. The point is this: job creation schemes, however noble, will not break the poverty trap unless they give people new skills in real private sector jobs.

The Government’s skills strategy published last year sets out plans to refocus spending on apprenticeships and to make all vocational training free at the point of access, with costs repayable only once someone earns a decent salary. That will help many young people into training, especially single parents, people who have been made homeless, and ex-offenders. I strongly support the announcement that 250,000 new apprenticeships will be created over the next few years. I particularly support the establishment of 24 new university technical colleges, which are essentially pre-apprenticeship schools led by local employers.

In Harlow, we have applied for a UTC led by Harlow college. If we get it, that UTC will be a centre of excellence for engineering and journalism backed by local firms and Anglia Ruskin university. On top of that, I support the funding for 100,000 sponsored work experience placements for jobless 18 to 21-year olds. I hope that such policies will significantly reduce youth unemployment in the years ahead.

However, it is not just about national Government. In Parliament, I have often championed the pioneering wage-subsidy scheme run by Essex council and Harlow college. As I mention in early-day motion 1258, that scheme has boosted young apprentices in key growth industries, especially high-tech manufacturing. Essex council and Mr Dean Barclay have even helped to sponsor the apprentice in my Westminster office, Andy Huckle, who is combining a year in the House of Commons with a level 3 course in business administration. A few other MPs have taken on apprentices and I urge all hon. Members to do the same.

In Essex, that scheme is being taken to the next level by the Federation of Small Businesses, which has applied to the regional growth fund to sponsor 2,000 new apprentices, especially in the energy sector. That scheme will be similar to the targeted £2,500 wage subsidy proposed by the central business institute a few years ago. So despite the historic problem, a lot is being done to address the social injustice of young people who want to get on in life but cannot find a job.

Work experience and apprenticeships give young people a chance to see a busy workplace, and to make things happen in the real world. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak mentioned the Prince’s Trust. As we speak, a young girl from the Prince’s Trust is doing some work experience with me. The Government must start to use their planning powers and their contracts to insist that there is a better uptake of apprenticeships in Britain. Harlow council is currently looking at ways of using planning law to require developers to employ young apprentices. In the same way, Essex council is exploring ways of putting clauses into contracts to boost apprenticeships for young people. The total value of public sector contracts is £175 billion a year. If even a fraction of those built in apprenticeships, it would make a huge dent in youth unemployment across the country.

The issue is not just about how to create job opportunities. Let us be honest: for too long apprenticeships have been seen as plan B if someone does not want to do A-levels, as the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr McCrea) mentioned. That was the problem with the old technical schools of the past: attending them was seen as a lesser thing to do. That must be confronted, rather than swept under the carpet. The plans to enhance a level 3 apprenticeship to technician level will make a difference, but as I mentioned, we must give apprenticeships parity of esteem to make them more attractive to young people who are looking for work.

That is why at 3.30 pm today, in the Jubilee Room next door, I will launch a new apprentice card with the National Union of Students and businesses, who together have tens of thousands of apprentices on their books. The card has one simple aim: to give apprentices the same benefits as A-level and university students. I have worked for many months with the NUS and other organisations to establish a national society of apprentices. The card is the very first step towards such a scheme and it will give young apprentices discounts at restaurants, travel agents and high street stores, as well as access to free support services and legal advice. There will also be social events, mentoring, careers guidance and other planned benefits, including financial products such as interest-free overdrafts.

[Dr McCrea]

It is important to find out if the scheme about which the hon. Gentleman is talking is being rolled out throughout the United Kingdom or if it is just happening here on the mainland.

[Robert Halfon]

At the moment, it is an English apprentice card, but we hope to extend it as we slowly roll out the scheme. I urge the hon. Gentleman to come along to the launch this afternoon; he would be very welcome.

The effective rate of youth unemployment is devastating, and has been for the past decade. If we leverage Government contracts and planning, and boost the prestige of on-the-job learning through efforts such as the apprenticeship card, we will transform the lives of the 1 million young people who are out of work.

[Martin Caton (in the Chair)]

Order. I want the winding-up speeches to start at 10.40 am, and I have five people indicating that they want to speak—so, more brevity, more speakers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I would like to reassure the hon. Gentleman. One of the things that we wondered as we went in to the contracting process was whether we would see a difference in the level of interest between different areas of the country, depending on the nature of the local labour market. That was not the case: the competition was equally intense across all areas. I hope that the presence of the Work programme, offering young people support after nine months—and in some cases after three months—of unemployment, combined with the additional support that we are providing though Jobcentre Plus to provide work experience opportunities for young people, will make a significant difference to their prospects as the months go by.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to deal with youth unemployment is not just through the 250,000 apprenticeships, but the roll-out of the 24 university technical pre-apprenticeship schools around the country?

[Chris Grayling]

I do indeed agree. Those schools, the increased numbers of apprenticeships, the work experience scheme, the support being provided through the Work programme and the additional measures we have announced recently to support 16 to 18-year olds all show that we have a Government who recognise the problem of youth unemployment, understand its severity and are doing something about it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

As we have said before from the Dispatch Box, the intention of our measures to reform the personal independence payment is not to remove the ability of people such as her constituent to get out and about. We will now include the needs of people in care homes in the overall PIP reassessment.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

A number of my constituents are facing redundancy. What extra help can the Government give those people, particularly those who have worked in their companies for a very long time?

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

At the moment, the vast majority of people—about 98%, I think—receive their benefit payments directly into their bank accounts. There is a small number of people who are still, for various reasons, in receipt of cash payments. A proposal was left to us by the previous Government on how all this can be delivered in the next few years, but we have not made a final decision on it yet. We will announce our decision very shortly.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I am grateful to the Government for allowing a pilot scheme for local jobcentres to give out food bank vouchers from the food bank charities. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that the scheme that emerges is as simple and unbureaucratic as possible, so that the jobcentres in Harlow can receive food bank vouchers as soon as possible?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I would not dare do otherwise, with my hon. Friend breathing down my neck on this one. It is due to his hard efforts and pressure that we have made this particular change, and I think that it is for the good. Of course, it is important that it does not become a substitute for anything else, but it will certainly be there if people feel that they need that extra assistance, and there is no reason why we should not do it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

9. When he plans to bring forward proposals to prevent unfair dismissal on grounds of age.

[Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)]

17. When he plans to bring forward proposals to prevent unfair dismissal of staff on grounds of age.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

We are moving in that direction. Our changes will abolish the default retirement age, and we will make sure that people can no longer be kicked out of work because they have reached a certain age. By getting rid of that, we will improve the economy and help older people find work for a longer period, which is beneficial to the economy and beneficial for those people.

[Robert Halfon]

In the recession redundancies have been higher among the over-50s than any other age group, including in Harlow. Many people, like my constituent, Kevin Forbes, who applied for more than 4,500 jobs, are worried that employment law is biased against older people. What are the Government doing, apart from what my right hon. Friend has just described, to make work fairer for the over-50s?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The reality for companies and for those who are seeking work is that, because of the need for employment over the next few years, we will need more and more of the skills that are present in the age group to which my hon. Friend refers. Therefore, companies have to reach the sensible solution, which is that people who have those skills and ways of doing their jobs can stay in work much longer. The Work programme will be set up so that they can be helped back into work if they become unemployed. My concern is that companies should recognise that older workers have huge value, well beyond the cost of paying their wages.

Disability Allowance

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2010 Westminster Hall

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

May I begin by apologising that I will have to leave soon to attend a Select Committee sitting? I congratulate the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke) on his thoughtful speech and on securing the debate. Although we might not agree on everything, I understand his intentions.

I want to start by acknowledging the need for welfare reform, which is one of the single most important things that the Government are doing. I know that many Opposition Members, such as the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field), have wanted to reform welfare during the past 13 years. Like me, they will welcome the fact that the Government are committed to a universal credit.

Many of my constituents will welcome this chance to escape the poverty trap. However, on the specific issue of the mobility element of disability allowance, many constituents have contacted me with genuine family concerns. Only a small number are affected but, as has been noted, they are deeply anxious, and they do not have a political axe to grind. I have already spoken to the Minister about this and written to her about specific cases in my constituency. Ms Jacqueline Hobbs is concerned about the low residual income that will be left for people in care homes. Mr Kevin McGrath is worried that the cut will apply also to younger adults, who prize their independence and need mobility services to have a decent quality of life. Ms Jean Plumridge is anxious that disabled people must not become prisoners in their own homes, but must retain access to the outside world.

It is important to be clear about what the new Government are proposing. They inherited the largest deficit in our peacetime history, and we now spend £120 million a day on debt interest alone. In June, as part of the emergency Budget, the Government announced that they would save £11 billion a year from welfare spending by 2014-15.

[Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)]

As the hon. Gentleman is so concerned about debt, will he tell us how people in residential homes who have taken out loans to buy electric wheelchairs to use outside will repay that debt? What do the Government have to say to them?

[Robert Halfon]

If the hon. Lady is patient, she will hear the answer later in my remarks.

To preserve spending on other front-line services, the Government then announced that they would have to go even further in tackling the extremely large welfare bill. One way in which they are doing that is by ending the mobility component of DLA from 2012-13 to claimants who have been in a residential care home for more than 28 days, which will affect about 58,000 claimants. The Treasury says that that will save £60 million in 2012 and that the figure will rise to £135 million by the end of the Parliament. I appreciate, however, that the Government have confirmed that affected residents will retain an underlying entitlement to the benefit, and that payments will start again if they leave the care home. I also understand that the measure will not be introduced until October 2012. Local authorities will have a legal obligation to provide mobility services for residents from their social care funding.

[Dr Whiteford]

I come back to the point that I made to the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke): local authorities face the same squeeze in their budgets as everybody else. I know from my constituency that there are some great voluntary services supporting wheelchair users and people with severe mobility problems who live in care homes or in their own homes, but who do not have access to transport. However, those charities are terribly strapped financially because of a lack of giving and the problems with trust funds. There is nothing to pick up the slack. Why should disabled people be on the front line? Why should they be punished for financial mistakes that were not of their making?

[Robert Halfon]

I thank the hon. Lady, but I do not agree that all care homes would be unable to afford to provide mobility equipment if there was a statutory requirement. I have a further response to what she says, but I will come to it later.

[Ian Paisley]

Does the hon. Gentleman not realise the extent of the problem? There are 42 care homes in my constituency. As the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Dr Whiteford) indicated, this issue affects a massive population of elderly and young people. In my case, we are talking about hundreds of people. Every one of those care homes without exception has written to me about this issue—this is massive.

[Robert Halfon]

I am here today because I accept that this is a serious problem. Opposition Members do not have a monopoly on compassion; I care just as much about disabled people as they do.

Let me explain what I want to happen and what I believe should happen. Local authorities will have a legal obligation to provide mobility services for residents from their social funding. That funding will increasingly be distributed in the form of personal budgets, giving disabled people more choice and control over their services, including access to mobility equipment, taxis or scooters, if that suits them. That will end the anomaly whereby two state-funded residents with similar needs who are placed in the same care home can be treated differently according to whether they are funded through the NHS or the local authority.

I welcome the fact that the Government are waiting until 2012 to introduce this change, because it is important to give local authorities enough time. They will need safely to translate people on to personal budgets and to get those budgets up and running on a mass scale. Despite the welcome introduction of personal budgets in 2007, progress in rolling them out was simply too slow.

[Kate Green]

One difficulty that many of my constituents face is that they are in residential care outside the borough because there are insufficient places in the borough, which means that their transport costs are higher. Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern about stretching personal budgets far enough to meet those costs?

[Robert Halfon]

In some ways, I agree with the hon. Lady. The whole point of my argument is that we need to extend the personal budgets.

As was mentioned, the Audit Commission recently highlighted the fact that although some local authorities were on course to offer 30% of eligible people a personal budget by April 2011, most were not, and only six out of 152 councils are currently on track. What is more, a 2010 survey showed that only 6% of total spending on adult social care was allocated to personal budgets. That is a disappointing record, given the huge potential of personal budgets to give disabled people more independence.

My central concern is that we must help the 58,000 claimants I mentioned to access personal budgets before the mobility element of DLA is withdrawn. On that basis, I have a few questions for the Minister. Will she reassure hon. Members that the Government will seek to migrate those 58,000 claimants to personal budgets before 2012? Will she set out how the statutory requirement for local authorities to provide mobility services will work in practice? Finally, will she reassure my constituents that disabled people will continue to be supported so that they can keep their independence and mobility?

In conclusion, many people in Harlow are concerned for their families. They do not have a political axe to grind, but they are genuinely anxious about the future. As someone with a disability, I know that any change, or any threat of change, can cause immense anxiety, even if the outcome is not as drastic as expected. The problem with the changes that have been proposed is that decent people are worried. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure hon. Members and my constituents that disabled people and their families will not suffer as a result of these reforms.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

Welfare Reform

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

May I first of all say that I hope Labour Members do not simply continue to hope for the worst and preach? The reality is that even in the past few weeks and months, there have been more than 300,000 new private sector jobs. As I said, more than 1 million jobs went through the jobcentres in the last three months and were found for people. Today’s statement is about making people better off. If I were sitting where the hon. Lady is sitting, I would say, “How wonderful if the bottom three deciles improve their incomes.” The hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) may laugh, but in her time in the Government, they spent money and failed and left us with a deficit. Labour Members should apologise for that.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement, particularly as the previous Government’s approach to welfare reform was more Ethelred the Unready than Nixon in China. Is he aware that more than 8,000 people in my constituency are on out-of-work benefits? That is one in 10 people. Will the Minister assure them that the universal credit will protect the most vulnerable and give others a real incentive—more money, not less—as they find jobs?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The universal credit is about what happens to people as they seek and go back to work. Benefit levels for disabled people—whatever their condition—will continue and be maintained. Those who need support will receive it, but the most beneficial thing for people in my hon. Friend’s constituency is simply this: we are at last going to try to get to that group who have been left behind. More than 5 million people were left behind without jobs in workless households during the high years, with children in poverty. That is what we hope to break. I hope that that is seen as a positive message.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 18th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her position—I believe that this is her first time at the Dispatch Box. I would like to reassure her that we already have the processes in place to undertake an equality impact assessment of all the measures that affect disabled people. We have said that we will make it publicly available.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I have been contacted by Employ-Ability, a charity in my constituency that helps people with mental health difficulties and disabilities to get back into work. Those people are concerned that, if they are no longer eligible for incapacity benefit or employment and support allowance because they recover, they will lose the working tax credit at 16 hours and also their return-to-work bonus at £40 a week for a year. Will the Under-Secretary ensure that it is financially worth while for those people to get back into work?

[Maria Miller]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question, in which he outlines some of the complexities that disabled people face when they try to get back into the workplace. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said earlier, we want to ensure that work pays for everybody who wants and is able to get back into the workplace. That principle underpins all the work that we are undertaking.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 19th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

In the Budget the Chancellor made it clear that we need to look at the disability living allowance and put in place an objective assessment to ensure that money is going to the people who need it most. We will undertake a review, working closely with disability lobbies, to ensure that we focus on people who need that help the most.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

T6. Does the Minister agree that more must be done to help the unemployed over-50s, who are not necessarily on benefits? A constituent of mine, Mr Kevin Forbes, who was made redundant, has applied for more than 4,700 jobs without any luck. What comfort can the Minister give him and many others that we will radically improve back-to-work schemes for the over-50s?

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, not least about ageist attitudes, particularly among employers. One of the worst examples is that it is currently legal to sack somebody for being over 65. We think that that is outrageous. The previous Government talked about it, but we are going to change the law, and that will be part of a cultural change. We need to see longer working lives. Many people want to go on making a contribution, and, like my hon. Friend’s constituent, they are thwarted in their attempts to do so. We need to change that culture and to change attitudes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Yes, we have indeed spoken to those organisations, which will continue to create thousands of new jobs under the future jobs fund during the remainder of this year. However, there is general agreement, particularly among those who have been working with us on the Work programme, that we need apprenticeships, lower employment costs and sustainable long-term jobs in the private sector, not in the public sector—too many of the future jobs fund jobs are in the public sector. We need to create sustainable, long-term employment opportunities for young people and older people on benefits in this country.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

Is the Minister aware of early-day motion 159, which is about jobcentres and foodbanks? Is he also aware that charities in my constituency, such as the excellent Harlow foodbank, have been stopped by Jobcentre Plus from giving out food vouchers to the unemployed because of regulations introduced by the previous Government? Does he agree that that is an example of Labour bureaucracy hurting the poor most, and will he take steps to reverse this policy as soon as possible?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue. Foodbanks have an important role to play in our local communities. It is important that we ensure that people who might benefit from the services that they offer know that they are available, and we will certainly be reviewing whether it is possible to highlight the availability of local foodbanks through Jobcentre Plus.