Housing Benefit Entitlement

Debate between Steve Webb and Hugh Bayley

Wednesday 23rd January 2013 Westminster Hall

[Hugh Bayley (in the Chair)]

Order. May I ask Members not to make remarks from a sedentary position? The Minister has quite a lot of points to respond to, and he has made it clear that he does not want to give way.

[Steve Webb]

Thank you, Mr Bayley. The second unfairness that we must tackle is the needs of people who live in overcrowded accommodation. A quarter of a million of them need to have a voice in this debate, because all too often they do not, and we must tackle that.

People have rightly said that these are family homes. They are not just houses; people have lived their lives in them. I accept that, which is why we have exempted people over state pension credit age. Essentially, someone who is a pensioner is not affected by these changes; we are talking about people of working age.

How will people respond to the change? There are a range of responses. It has been mentioned that housing benefit is an in-work benefit in some cases. Nationally, the average loss from this policy is £14 a week. For someone who is in work on a minimum wage, that is the equivalent of about two and half hours of additional work; it is not quite that because of tapers and so on, but we are talking about a few hours of extra work as one option—

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Webb]

I have just 60 seconds to go. When councils build houses of the right size to match housing need, they should be applauded and not condemned.

The hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) said that we need to manage over-occupation and under-occupation. We have had decades to do something about that, but nothing has happened. Some housing associations have welcomed the opportunity to look at the housing allocations to make better use of the precious resource of social housing. I fully accept that there will be disruption as a result of this measure, which is why we have a two-year programme looking at all this work, evaluating the impact and publishing the research. If we need to make changes to the system as we go because there are perhaps groups or impacts that we have not thought of, we will be in a position to do that. The matter will be thoroughly researched, and we will publish the results. At a time when we need to save money, being fairer to people in the social sector and the private sector and tackling overcrowding as well as under-occupation is a fair way to reduce the spending deficit that we were handed by the Opposition.

[Hugh Bayley (in the Chair)]

I congratulate all Members—Back Benchers and Front Benchers—on sticking to the time limits, so everyone was able to get in.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Webb and Hugh Bayley

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

15. If he will set a limit on the charges which pension fund managers may levy for the administration of pension funds.

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

Initial evidence ahead of the roll-out of auto-enrolment later this year is that the creation of NEST, with its relatively low charges, and competition in the market are leading pension providers to offer products for auto-enrolment with lower than average charges. However, we believe that charging levels are important and have taken additional reserved powers under the Pensions Act 2011 to cap charges under auto-enrolment if that proves necessary.

[Hugh Bayley]

The report produced for the Government by Dr Christopher Sier shows that pensioners are losing out because of the excessive fees and charges levied by private pension fund managers. What action will the Government take to cap the amount that private fund managers can milk from the funds they manage on behalf of pensioners?

[Steve Webb]

I think the hon. Gentleman was a Minister in our Department under the previous Administration, and as he knows they chose not to cap charges but to give themselves powers to cap them if it proved necessary. At the moment, our judgment is that the early roll-out of auto-enrolment will deal with big firms who will give good deals and low charges and that we have more competition than was perhaps expected, with NEST coming in at around 0.5% and other providers at or below that point. We are encouraged by developments in the market but we are absolutely prepared to use the capping powers if it proves necessary.