Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Timms Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Will Stone (Swindon North) (Lab)]

1. What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of recent trends in levels of disability living allowance cases that have been incorrectly reduced to a lower rate without an explanation.

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

There should be no benefit decisions without explanation. Claim decisions should always be set out with the reasons. If a decision is unclear, or if the reasons for it are unclear, a further detailed verbal or written explanation can be requested and will be provided.

[Will Stone]

Will the Minister please outline how this Government will support young disabled people to have a positive engagement with the benefit system alongside work?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to press for improvements. We want to change how we think about jobcentres and the benefit system. Our youth work coaches talk a lot to disabled young people and are very keen to help more. Our reforms are making that possible, by giving better help and support, and by opening up new opportunities for disabled young people up and down the country.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

My staff member, alongside me, does benefit applications, appeals and tribunals at least five days a week. She overturns 75% of applications in favour of the applicant, which tells me that there is something wrong with the system. I am worried sick for my constituents who suffer from mental and physical issues because of our 30-year conflict. There must be a system that protects my constituents and the people we all represent.

[Sir Stephen Timms]

Again, the hon. Gentleman is right to call for improvements. We want to see improvements in assessments, and he is probably well aware that we will shortly be publishing a Green Paper with proposals for reform to the health and disability benefit system. We will have something to say about this in that document.

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

2. What steps she is taking to support young people into employment, education or training in the Portsmouth North constituency.

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[Liz Jarvis (Eastleigh) (LD)]

15. What steps she is taking through the benefits system to support disabled people.

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

We will be reforming the current broken system of health and disability benefits. We will bring forward a Green Paper with proper plans very soon, setting out how we will help disabled people who can work to do so, while fully supporting the most severely disabled as well.

[Mr Brash]

Work is good for us: it is good for our physical and mental health, and for our general wellbeing. When someone can work, it is essential that they are given all the support to do so. That said, it is also imperative that those who are sick, vulnerable or disabled are always protected. Does the Minister agree that striking the balance between supporting those who can work and protecting those who cannot work must be central to any welfare reform?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That balance will be at the heart of the Green Paper that we are bringing forward. We will deliver proper employment support for disabled people, which has been taken away since 2010. We will deal with the incentives to inactivity that the current system presents. Of course, there will always be people who are unable to work through disability or ill health, and we are committed to fully supporting them too.

[Liz Jarvis]

My constituents in Eastleigh who support and help to care for disabled family members are desperately concerned about any potential cuts to benefits, including personal independent payment. They include Laura, whose son is registered blind, and Debbie, who helps to care for her disabled daughter and is herself disabled. Can the Minister reassure my constituents that disability benefits for people who are unable to work will not be cut?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I am concerned about the level of anxiety and speculation that has been around over recent weeks. I am sad that that has happened and that people have been concerned, but the current welfare system is failing the very people it is supposed to help—the people it is there for. Our aim is to make the system sustainable so that it will be there for people now and in the future. When the hon. Lady sees the proposals, I think she will see how we will deliver on that commitment.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee.

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I can confirm to my hon. Friend that we will produce a full impact assessment in due course.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

When I was a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, working with my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) on reducing welfare dependency, getting 1,000 more people into work each and every day, and delivering record numbers of people into work, the Labour party opposed us every step of the way. Can I take it that the Government’s recent conversion to reducing the benefit bill is only about conning the Office for Budget Responsibility into thinking that they will balance the books after their disastrous Budget, rather than because they really believe in it?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I remember extremely well when the right hon. Lady was a Minister in the Department—it was very striking how the disability employment gap, which had been falling up until 2010, suddenly stopped falling and plateaued from that moment on. We will deliver a decisive shift to early intervention, helping people to stay in work, and renew fairness and trust in the system. We will provide personalised support so that those who can work can get the jobs that they want.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

7. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of incentives to seek employment.

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[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

T10. My constituent Heidi recently moved off benefits and back into work, only to find she is earning less than when she was on benefits. Meanwhile, my constituent Tyrone is blind, autistic and has cerebral palsy, and, although he is an aspiring DJ, may struggle to find permanent work. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that we take a balanced approach, supporting those who cannot work with protection, dignity and security while ensuring that those who can go back into work?

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

My hon. Friend sets out exactly the balance that we need to strike with our plan: proper employment support on the one hand, which has not been available in the past, and dealing with work disincentives in the current system on the other. When he sees the proposals shortly, I think he will welcome the measures we are planning.

[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

Can the Minister reassure people who have had an amputation or have schizophrenia, terminal cancer or uncontrolled epilepsy that tomorrow’s announcements will not mean a cut in their social security?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

As we have already made clear today, we are absolutely determined to protect those who need to be protected in the proposals we are bringing forward. I think the hon. Lady will welcome and be reassured by the proposals when she sees them.

[Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

There are currently thousands of disabled children and adults across the country, including in Hyndburn and Haslingden, who cannot access their childhood tax funds. How is the Minister working to address this issue with the Ministry of Justice to help families to gain quick and easy access to these funds? Will he give further consideration to increasing the scope of the DWP appointee scheme to cover child tax funds and junior individual savings accounts up to £5,000?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s interest in this subject, which she and I have met to discuss. She is absolutely right: there should be no barriers to young people and their families accessing these funds. The Ministry of Justice has made some progress already. I do not think the answer will be altering the DWP appointee scheme, but there will be further progress to make things easier.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

What is the Minister’s estimate for the number of pensioners who would qualify for pension credit but have not applied in North Durham?

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Supporting people back into work is not only the right thing to do for the UK economy, but the fair and compassionate thing to do for people stuck in the welfare system. However, over the past few days, a significant number of people have contacted my constituency office with profound concerns about what they have heard and read in the press. Does the Minister agree that by removing the culture of fear and creating a nurturing environment, we can help people back into work and give them the support they need not just to survive but to thrive?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are determined to provide proper support, which existed in the past, but disappeared after 2010. We want to provide that support again because so many people would thrive if they had it. At the moment there are 200,000 people out of work on health and disability grounds who would love to be in a job if they just had the support. We will provide it.

[Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)]

For weeks, the Government’s active trailing of welfare cuts has generated genuine fear. Disabled people in Brighton Pavilion are writing to me in terror. Will the Secretary of State apologise for this and reassure the public that benefit changes will not take place this calendar year or without parliamentary votes in this House?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

First, I recognise that there has been a good deal of anxiety, and I regret that. But there will not be long to wait. The proposals will soon become clear. The hon. Lady will welcome a great deal of the changes that we want to make.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

As a human rights city, York believes that disabled people should be at the heart of all decision making. How have disabled people formed the Minister’s views in making these changes? Have they been at the heart of the decision making?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

My hon. Friend is right. Our manifesto has a firm commitment that the views and voices of disabled people should be at the heart of everything that we do. Over the past week I have had discussions with a number of disabled people’s fora. When we come forward with our proposals shortly, we will consult extensively with disabled people and their organisations about the right way forward.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

The Government announced billions of cuts to the Department; then, over recent days, Ministers have made U-turn after U-turn, and in the media round over the weekend were spinning out of control. Is there anything meaningful left to announce from the Secretary of State’s original welfare plans?

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[Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)]

Given that nearly half of families in poverty have a disabled member and that without PIP an additional 700,000 disabled households could be pushed into poverty, I am concerned that the rumoured cuts will not help people into work but instead drive them further into destitution. What assurances can the Minister give me that the voices of disabled people have been heard and reflected on in the upcoming Green Paper?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I give my hon. Friend a firm assurance that not only have we been listening, but we shall continue to listen once the proposals have been published.

[Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)]

I have previously urged the Secretary of State to liaise with the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland over its pitiful pursuit of benefit fraud. In the same vein, is the Minister aware that of the 39,000 new vehicles registered in Northern Ireland last year, 18,000 were under the Motability scheme? Is that not indicative of appalling abuse of that scheme? Will he raise with the Department for Communities what it is doing about that?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

The Motability scheme is highly valued by disabled people around the UK. If the hon. and learned Gentleman has examples of misuse of that scheme, I would very much like to see them, but it is a scheme that is greatly prized right across the House. I think he would discover that if he talked to other Members about it.