Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rupa Huq and Guy Opperman

Monday 19th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

13. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of universal credit deductions on levels of food bank use.

[The Minister for Employment (Guy Opperman)]

The Department for Work and Pensions has reduced the standard deduction cap from 40% to 25% of the standard allowance since 2019. Where a person feels they cannot afford benefit overpayment recoveries, they are encouraged to contact the Department.

[Guy Opperman]

In recent years, the standard cap has been reduced, as I said, from 40% to 25%. Reducing the threshold further would risk key social obligations such as child maintenance not being met. We aim to continue to strike the right balance between ensuring that protections are in place and allowing claimants to retain as much of their award as possible.

[Dr Huq]

The role of accommodating food bank Britain has fallen to churches and places of worship, which have also housed playgroups, vaccination centres and warm spaces of late. Given that they are stepping up to fill gaps in state provision—state failure—would Ministers be able to exempt their often crumbling and creaking buildings, whether or not they are listed, from VAT on building repairs, as generosity and him upstairs alone will not pay the bills?

[Guy Opperman]

That is a matter for the Treasury, as I am sure the hon. Lady knows.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rupa Huq and Guy Opperman

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

18. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the state pension in meeting the rising cost of living.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Guy Opperman)]

The Government have announced a £37 billion package of support to help people with the cost of living. The full basic state pension is now £2,300 a year higher than in 2010 and is supported by many other measures.

[Dr Huq]

It is good to see the Minister back; there is nothing like organised labour to effect progress.

In reality the state pension has not managed to keep up with the multiple crises we face: we have the Ukraine crisis pushing up food and fuel prices on top of the existing cost of living crisis. Yet the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 dictates that last week’s non-returning Ministers, including an alleged groper, are set to net £423,000 in severance payments. Given the widespread public revulsion among our constituents feeling the pinch, including state pensioners, does the Minister not see that there is an argument for the non-exercise of that provision in this instance, because—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rupa Huq and Guy Opperman

Wednesday 12th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Guy Opperman]

The hon. Lady will know that there is the household support fund, the winter fuel payments, the cold weather payments and the increase in the state pension by 2.5% for this year and by 3.1% next year, and that there is everything from the energy price cap to the freeze in fuel duty, which all go to assist anybody affected.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

5. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of steps taken by the Government to increase the uptake of covid-19 vaccinations where uptake is lower among certain ethnic groups.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rupa Huq and Guy Opperman

Monday 13th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

13. What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the state pension in tackling pensioner poverty; and if she will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Guy Opperman)]

Let me take this opportunity to welcome the newcomers to the Opposition Front Bench.

The state pension is the foundation of support for older people and, under this Government, the full yearly amount of the basic state pension will be more than £2,300 higher in April than in 2010. The latest figures show that 200,000 fewer pensioners are in absolute poverty compared with 2009-10.

[Guy Opperman]

I cannot comment on the individual case, but I can say that the hon. Gentleman is right to say that there was a backlog over the summer period by reason of covid and many other factors, which we took great steps to address. A dedicated team of several hundred individuals ensured that we caught up with the backlog, and we are now operating business as usual.

[Dr Huq]

With winter biting and energy companies going to the wall, approximately 13.2% of households in Ealing Central and Acton are in fuel poverty—that is 6,864 pensioners struggling to heat their homes. Will the Minister agree with Labour and cut VAT on household heating bills during these winter months? The Conservatives have pilfered enough of our manifesto before; they could do this and make a real difference to pensioners.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rupa Huq and Guy Opperman

Wednesday 7th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

What steps she is taking with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce the employment gap for Black, Asian and ethnic minority people.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Guy Opperman)]

The Government are committed to supporting people from all backgrounds to move into work. Clearly, £2 billion has been spent on kickstart. There are 13,000 extra job coaches, and the job entry targeted support scheme is also being rolled out. For black, Asian and minority ethnic claimants specifically, we are taking action in 20 local authority areas with high populations of ethnic minority people.

[Dr Huq [V]]

With the Office for National Statistics finding that in coronavirus, black and minority ethnic people are less likely to be in management positions, more likely to be unemployed and more likely to earn less, confirming the Government’s own McGregor [Inaudible.] report, when will the Government implement its 26 recommendations?