Pensions and Benefits Uprating

Roger Williams Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend puts his finger on it. The Opposition have struggled to find anything to criticise in the statement. So few of them have turned up because it is a positive measure both for pensioners and for vulnerable people in our society.

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

I, too, congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement, which will be warmly received by pensioners in my constituency and throughout the country. Some time ago, my right hon. Friend was kind enough to meet representatives of the community from Coelbren, who were concerned that they rarely qualified for the severe weather payment. The Minister explained that it was due to the postcode, but I think he realised that qualifying for that payment was a fairly rough and ready matter. Has he been able to reflect further on that, and can I give the people of Coelbren some good news?

[Steve Webb]

I well remember our meeting, poring over maps of the Welsh valleys with my hon. Friend and his constituents. As he knows, the trigger for the cold weather payment of £25 a week—let me confirm that we are retaining that payment, not the cut to £8.50 a week that Labour had planned—is linked to postcode sectors. We use just under 100 of those. We review the scheme each year, and where there are fresh representations from hon. Members, we look at them afresh. Although the system is up and running for this year, if my hon. Friend wanted to make further representations, we would of course continue to look at them.

Food Banks

Roger Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

I am pleased that this debate has entered a calmer, cooler stream, because I felt very uneasy that some of the most vulnerable people, such as those I have met in my constituency, were being used as a political football across this Chamber. They would not have wanted that. They often feel a sense of indignity about going to food banks. They feel that it is in some way their own fault, but in many cases it is not their fault at all. I look to Members on both sides of the House to come forward with considered ideas about how we can best address this matter.

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

May I give the hon. Gentleman one suggestion? Why do not his Government meet the Trussell Trust to try to understand the causes of food insecurity instead of refusing to do so?

[Roger Williams]

I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. [Interruption.] I am being encouraged to say that the Government intend to meet the Trussell Trust. I am pleased about that.

Food banks have come rather late to my constituency, but I really welcome them. I went to the New Life church in Llandrindod Wells and was very impressed by the number of volunteers who were working there. They were members of the church and other volunteers who had gone there particularly to distribute food. I then went on to Tesco. I do not often compliment Tesco on its work, but on this matter it was doing very good work indeed. The church had a stall near the store’s exit and people were encouraged to donate some of the food they had bought. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people—some of whom were on low incomes themselves—who were prepared to give a little away in order to help others. Tesco also made a 30% contribution.

[Duncan Hames]

I share my hon. Friend’s sentiments in relation to the food banks I have visited. Does he agree that, even though food banks came to his constituency more recently, during each of his 16 years in this place, in good times and bad, there will have been constituents who would have benefited greatly from the availability of the services of food banks if they had been there at the time?

[Roger Williams]

I have not quite achieved 16 years, but that is my intention if I am successful at the next election.

My hon. Friend is right. I am sure that every hon. Member will agree that it is not just lately that people have come to our surgeries because they have had problems with their benefits and find themselves in desperate and dire circumstances. Before the food bank was established in my constituency, I had no organised place to refer people to; I had to find churches or philanthropists to help them to get out of trouble and to get them through it. At least now I can direct them to somewhere they will get help.

[Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con)]

On benefits, does my hon. Friend agree that the best way out of poverty is through work? Is it not also the case that the perverse incentives of the dog’s dinner of a benefits system that we inherited mean that someone who gains part-time work could end up worse off than if they stayed on benefits?

[Roger Williams]

I agree that getting into work is the best way out of poverty, but work is not always available for people. I am sure that hon. Members know of such experiences.

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

But does the hon. Gentleman not agree that a lot of people who are claiming food parcels from food banks are actually in work?

[Roger Williams]

I am sure that is the case. I am trying to respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood). I believe that the current benefits system is not fit for purpose and that this Government are making progress to make it better, but there is still a huge amount of work to be done. The conditionality of so many benefits leads to difficulties. In my constituency, Jobcentre Plus seems to be using different criteria in different towns to impose sanctions on people. Obviously, when sanctions are imposed, people are left in great difficulty.

[Sheila Gilmore]

As a member of one of the governing parties, what is the hon. Gentleman saying to Ministers about that sanctioning disaster?

[Roger Williams]

I have already written to a Minister and I am going to meet them to find out why the sanctions in different jobcentres have different criteria; why they have different systems for writing to and contacting people in order to encourage them to attend meetings; and why, if people do not attend those meetings, they get sanctioned.

[Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Roger Williams]

No, I will not. I am terribly sorry. I would have, but I have almost run out of time. I have been very generous.

I think that this country needs a food policy. Huge spikes in food prices add to the difficulties faced by people trying to budget. We need a system to ensure that we have a secure supply of food with levelling prices.

This coming week I will meet the pastor of Elim church in Brecon and I hope we will be able to work with that church to set up our second food bank. I will do so with a heavy heart, but I know it will provide really good help for my constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Roger Williams Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

We have brought together various aspects of the energy sector in a single department. That bringing together of complementary skills is a sensible response to the increased diversification of the energy sector. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that there is no slackening of focus on the offshore sector; indeed, we are recruiting more offshore inspectors.

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

5. What assessment he has made of the effects of planned changes to the state pension on women born between April 1952 and April 1953.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

We have published a detailed assessment of women in that group, and we have found that an overwhelming majority will receive more pension over their lifetime than under the existing system than would a man born on the same day who receives a single-tier pension.

[Roger Williams]

I thank the Minister for that reply, and for the work that he has done on this matter. Given the fact that the new system and the current one will run concurrently after the implementation of the single-tier pension, can he reassure women in the affected age group that none will lose out in the transition, compared with women who are eligible for the proposed single-tier pension? Would he also consider meeting a group of women from my constituency to discuss the matter?

[Steve Webb]

Obviously, women in the age group we are talking about get a basic state pension based on 30 years, whereas those under single tier will need 35 years and those a few years older need 39 years. Each group has a different system, but the key point is that the new system will cost exactly the same as the system it replaced. We are not putting extra money into new pensions and ignoring today’s pensioners; it is the same amount of money, but spent in a simpler way.

Employment Support

Roger Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 7th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I do not doubt the hon. Gentleman’s genuine concern for his constituents, but I do not think that I have dodged that question. I have made it clear that we will monitor the progress made by disabled people, and I am always happy to come to the House and talk about the progress that the Government are making.

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

When the Ystradgynlais Remploy factory in my constituency was closed under the last Labour Government, a number of my constituents transferred to Baglan, which I think today’s written statement refers to as Neath. It is included in the stage 2 list as being potentially viable. Will the Minister ensure that the Remploy board is given all the encouragement and resources that are needed to ensure that that viability continues?

[Maria Miller]

We certainly want to help the Neath factory to realise what is clearly its potential. I hope that we can work with my hon. Friend as well, and that his support will ensure that the factory is the success that he feels that it can be in the future.

Remploy

Roger Williams Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Westminster Hall

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

It is a great pleasure to take part in the debate under your chairmanship, Mr Havard. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) on obtaining this timely debate, which has given hon. Members an opportunity to express their views on employment for disabled people and on how it affects their constituencies. The right hon. Lady reminisced about her time in the European Parliament, and I delivered a few leaflets for her in her election campaign, although by the time she stood for Westminster, in a by-election a few years later, I was on the other side. If I say that I am on her side today, it is to support the spirit of her argument.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Stephen Lloyd), because he showed considerable courage to speak from his personal experience and from his experience of working with disabled people throughout the country as well as in his constituency. This afternoon, his contribution achieved something that is rarely seen in the House, because, to an extent, he changed the mood of the debate. He might not have carried everyone with his full argument, but he changed the mood.

I recently visited the Remploy factory in Baglan and was amazed to see the good work going on and the excellent materials being turned out. It is a furniture part of Remploy, and it produces laboratory equipment and equipment for schools, the Ministry of Defence and a number of other public sector bodies. I met representatives from the factory today, and I was told that they have a good order book and are putting on an extra shift. In its new way, Remploy can not only deal with employing people with disability but play an important part in the local economy.

I do not have a Remploy factory in my constituency, because, sadly, it was closed by the previous Government. I have seen a BBC press report that said that it is not closing but merging with the operation in Baglan, but I can tell the Chamber that it did not feel like that in Ystradgynlais when it was closed. A lot of people in my constituency still feel bitter, because many felt that they could not travel down to Baglan, took the redundancy and have not been able to find employment since. A number transferred to Baglan, and I met them when I visited. They are gainfully employed and enjoying that experience. Indeed, their families have written to me to say how desperate it would be for them if they did not have that opportunity in future.

My visit to the Remploy factory in Baglan was an extraordinarily positive experience on a number of levels. The operation is outward rather than inward looking, and it engages with the community. Many of the employees are taking training opportunities in local colleges, but the factory is also providing work experience for pupils with disability, so they can see what opportunities might be available to them not only in that factory but in the broader working market. It would be a real sadness if the facility closed down. It would be a loss not only for the people employed there, but for other people, who see it as an example of how disabled people can come into the workplace.

None of us disagrees with the argument that people with disabilities should have access to the broader market labour market. In more benign employment times, when employers came to me to say that they were short of people to work in their facility, factory, restaurant and so on, I have encouraged them to take a wider approach to labour recruitment and to recruit people whom they may not have believed could play a part in their business because of their disability or other needs. Those employers were rewarded with a talented, skilful and loyal work force as a result of broadening their recruitment process. There is a role for workplaces such as those provided by Remploy, and I shall be very disappointed if the Government cannot see that as part of providing work experience for people with disabilities.

Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

Roger Williams Excerpts

Monday 28th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Andrew George]

As far as I recall, none of the three main parties ruled out the prospect of VAT increasing. It is only when one is in government that one can see the nature and state of the finances, and therefore fully understand the impact that it is likely to have.

Having said that, as all Members will know, there is an amendment about VAT on the Order Paper in my name and those of some of my hon. Friends. It asks, I think reasonably, that an impact assessment be undertaken, taking into account a number of factors including the impact that the VAT increase would have on businesses, charities and families and households across the income range and age groups. It is vital that, in order to advance a number of the challenging measures in the Budget, the Government should reasonably be expected to bring forward more information than they are able to at this emergency stage of the Budget, so that we can debate the impact of those changes.

[Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and I agree with the sentiments he is expressing. Does he agree that charities that are unable to reclaim VAT could be about £250 million worse off as an unintended consequence of the VAT measure?

[Andrew George]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for that comment. There is not just a new coalition Government, but a new Parliament, and in it we should be able to debate issues both across the Chamber and within the parties of the coalition Government. That is not unreasonable. The Chamber should enable greater transparency and discourse across and between parties. The purpose of our amendment is to probe issues that need and deserve to be probed.