Tax Credits

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Alison McGovern

Tuesday 15th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra]

My hon. Friend has made his point incredibly well. I now wish to make some progress.

The IFS has also shown that those on the lowest incomes are being hit the hardest by the Government’s tax and benefits changes. It is also of great concern that many tax credit claimants will not be aware of the cuts and will suffer additional hardship from April without any time to adjust their budgets. Cuts in families’ income will have wider economic impacts. For example, the changes will hit local businesses, and less will be spent in our local shops.

It is staggering that the Budget document did not include a distributional analysis of the impact of the Chancellor’s spending decisions. It is no wonder that people believe that that was deliberate and part of the intent to hide the impact of these changes. That pattern has continued today.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Was my hon. Friend as astounded as I was to hear the Minister say that these changes protect those with the least and are being paid for by those with the most? Not only have the London School of Economics and the IFS demonstrated that the Government have hit those in the lower half of the income distribution, but I have evidence of a real family in Merseyside who will be £32 a week worse off. Does that not prove that what the Government are saying is a falsehood?

Women and the Cost of Living

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Alison McGovern

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The hon. Member for Braintree (Mr Newmark) tells me that I do not like to hear facts, and then he confuses the population of women in employment with the unemployment rate. I am sorry—[Interruption.] Madam Deputy Speaker, it is incredibly frustrating in this House when people shout things like, “More women in work than ever before,” when we all know that the rate of unemployment is what matters. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman acquaints himself with some of the facts. If the population increases, that will increase the population in work. It is the unemployment rate that matters, most importantly the long-term unemployment rate. That is the most damaging thing, as I know from communities such as mine. Long-term unemployment has increased eight times as fast for women as it has for men, so I would instruct the hon. Gentleman to acquaint himself with the facts rather than coming to this House to patronise me.

[Seema Malhotra]

Does my hon. Friend share my surprise at the fact that under this Government 63% of the jobs that have been created have gone to men and 37% to women?

[Alison McGovern]

Unfortunately, I am not surprised by that fact. I am only too aware of it. I suggest that the hon. Member for Braintree acquaints himself with the facts before he intervenes again.

I intervened to mention care workers and zero-hours contracts. I see this a great deal in my constituency, so I make no apology for raising the issue in the House again. The Government estimate that 1,750 people are working in the care sector in Wirral. It is my assumption from experience, although we do not know, that many of those are women. It is my guess that many of them are older women. I hope the Ministers on the Treasury Bench might at some point go and talk to women working in the care sector. I am sure they will do so in their constituencies. They will hear about the heartbreaking experience of women who face local government cuts, which creates low wages in the sector and means that there is not always good training.

Local government cuts have had a severe impact on care, which has affected not only those who receive that care and support, but those working in the sector and their ability to make ends meet while they do an incredibly stressful job, sometimes caring for older people at the end of their life, which I know Ministers will agree is a terribly important job. I am sure they will look at that issue with great care and attention.

Finally, I want to say a couple of words about older women. I believe that my generation stands on the shoulders of the generation that was born in the 1950s. That group of women saw none of the benefits of the legal and social change that they fought for, but they fought for it none the less. They are now being punished by this Government because of pension changes that have gone through too quickly. They are also a generation of women who, as I mentioned in response to the intervention from the hon. Member for Braintree, have seen much greater unemployment by proportion compared with men. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) has pointed out so eloquently, they are a generation of women who always seem in danger of being counted out.

Let us not do that economically. That generation of women fought for the rights that have enabled people like me to see any success in my life. Let us make sure that we back them up, not just in terms of pensions, but in terms of their living costs now, and make sure that they do not face the severe and significant unemployment that hurts their chances now and as they move into later life.