Housing Benefit (Under-occupancy Penalty)

Tom Greatrex Excerpts

Wednesday 27th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Greg Mulholland]

I am not quite sure what relevance that adds to the point I was making. Again, the hon. Gentleman’s Front Benchers were committed to benefit cuts in their 2010 manifesto, which they seem conveniently to have forgotten.

As I have said, I do not believe that the Government currently have the policy right. I have told the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), and other Ministers and colleagues that I believe that other exemptions should be included. Let us remind ourselves who the current exemptions are for: those of pensionable age; those in local housing shared ownership; those in temporary housing; the recently bereaved, who have protection for 52 weeks; and those who are provided with overnight care by an unpaid carer. I firmly believe that there should be other exemptions, as I said when the Bill was going through the House. We were unsuccessful in achieving any of our proposed amendments, which is why I did not support the Bill at the time. I made it clear that I could not support the policy as it stood then, and I cannot support it as it stands now.

Let me explain the other exemptions that I believe should be included. First, if it is deemed that two partners have to sleep in separate rooms for medical reasons or because of a disability, clearly they should be exempt. Similarly, if a child with a disability is deemed to require a separate room, they, too, should be exempt. Social housing plays a different role in the housing mix and is there, in particular, to support families in that situation who also have a low income. Of course, that would help with the current issue over the Court of Appeal ruling. The easiest thing for the Government to do would be to accept those exemptions.

[Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am listening to the hon. Gentleman carefully. Obviously, I would prefer that this change was not happening at all. While he is on the subject of possible exemptions, does he agree that foster parents should also be exempt? When I raised that with the Minister at Work and Pensions questions, he talked about a discretionary fund, but foster parents in my constituency have told me that, because of the uncertain future, they might be put off continuing to foster. Would it not be much better if foster parents whose spare rooms are not a luxury but used to care for children who would otherwise probably be cared for at greater cost to the public purse were also exempt?

[Greg Mulholland]

The hon. Gentleman pre-empts what I was about to say, because the next thing on my list is foster carers who are in between children to be cared for. Much of the criticism of the Government has been unfair and party political, which is in the nature of democratic politics, but the principle behind this measure, as I have said, is reasonable. We need to try to address the issue because of the housing crisis we face and to enable families living in seriously overcrowded accommodation to find appropriate housing. However, it is important that the Government do not undermine other key objectives, and clearly one of those is placing more children with foster families and encouraging more people to foster. I am afraid that that is what the measure, without the exemption, threatens to do.

The other category that I believe should be exempted is families who have sadly split up because the parents have separated, which is always difficult for every member of the family. In the majority of cases, the father is the non-resident parent and the parent without care. Whether they have their child for three days a week or two days a month, for example, is in many cases not determined by them; it is often imposed and has to be accepted even though the non-resident parent would like their child to stay with them more often. The parent wants to ensure that when their child stays they feel that it is also their home.

We talk about broken homes, but in reality we are talking about a family with two homes, or in many cases we are talking about two families. It is therefore perfectly reasonable for the non-resident parent to maintain a bedroom and keep it for their child, with their things in it, so that when they come to stay they know they are staying with their other parent, at their other home and in their other bedroom. I think that is very important. Of course, child benefit is paid to the parent with care, so there can be serious financial pressures on the non-resident parent, who still has to feed the child, possibly for up to three nights a week, and indeed they also want to be able to contribute by buying things for them.

My message to my hon. Friend the Minister is please to look at these things again. He is absolutely right that there must be room for discretion, and some of that should rightly be exercised locally.

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[Stewart Hosie]

Unless, of course, we factor in the fact that rents in the private sector are dearer, and we have heard evidence that would rather contradict the assertion made elegantly by the hon. Gentleman.

Another thing that struck me was the hon. Member for Keighley (Kris Hopkins), who is not in his place, saying that he wanted more facts and less scaremongering. That is very sensible; I am all in favour of evidence-based policy making. What he and others have then done is to say that a discretionary payments system is available to help. That confirms that those who live in specially adapted accessible housing are not exempt and that foster carer families are not automatically exempt. By asking for more facts and less scaremongering, and then talking about discretionary payments, which, by their nature, may not be available, particularly if the pot runs out, these people are confirming the lack of exemptions that make this bedroom tax as nasty as Opposition Members think it is.

[Tom Greatrex]

The hon. Gentleman is making an important point about the discretionary nature of this policy, particularly in relation to foster parents. I have been contacted by a foster parent who was contacted by their housing association to say that rooms where people are cared for are counted as spare rooms, but they did not know anything about the existence of the discretionary payment. Such people are reliant on at least two or three levels of communication to get the discretionary payment, so surely it would be much better if foster parents were completely exempt.

[Stewart Hosie]

I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman. In the meanwhile—until that happens—communication should of course be better and foster carer families should be encouraged to apply now, in advance, if that is possible. He rightly says that this policy should simply be scrapped because it will not work and, as far as I can see, it is only punitive. That is certainly also the view of the Scottish Government, who feel that it will have an appalling impact on families throughout Scotland and, indeed, the rest of the UK.

That assessment also shows that eight out of 10—the exact figure is 79%—of the households in Scotland set to be hit by this change, as we have heard before, contain an adult with a recognised disability. That is extraordinary. This is about as punitive as it could be—[Interruption.] The Minister of State is muttering, “Do they need a spare bedroom?” He is using the robotic mantra again, suggesting that somehow it is evil to have a spare bedroom. There are very good reasons for having spare bedrooms and I shall come to some of them later.

I know that the Minister for Housing and Welfare in the Scottish Government has warned the UK Government of the impact of this change. The Scottish Government have highlighted to the Government the disproportionate effect on disabled people and have asked them to rethink their policy. We understood before the start of the debate that the Secretary of State had instructed a rethink on part of the policy, and that is to be welcomed. However, we have found out that we will have a rolling review after the policy starts, which might not report until two years after commencement.

The numbers I have show that people with two spare rooms will pay an extra £20 a week, or more than £1,000 a year. They could be £2,000 down before the Government’s review reports back and says that those rooms are not really spare at all, because one of the sons is serving in Afghanistan. Alternatively, he will not be able to come back to the family home because they will have been forced to move. That is the kind of issue the Government are failing to take into consideration—[Interruption.] The Minister is still muttering, but he will not get to his feet to say anything. I am sure that when he was at university, he was more than happy to go home to his family house. Why should working-class children whose houses are part-funded by housing benefit not be able to go back to their family home because of the nature of their tenure? That is ridiculous.

Other groups are affected, of course, such as tenants who are willing to move to smaller properties and are waiting for one to become available, but who will lose out in the meantime; the parents of foster children; and parents who live separately and look after their children. The final category concerns me greatly. I have already been contacted by a constituent—one of many. He is separated from his wife, which is sadly not uncommon, and has two daughters in their late teens. This gentleman is so careful that he does not switch the heating on in his very modest apartment unless there are guests. He counts every penny.

His wife has primary caring responsibility for the two children, but one or both of his daughters stays with him up to four nights a week. That will become impossible without the second bedroom, and even if he could find a smaller property it is highly unlikely—almost impossible, in fact—that he would be able to do so within the community in which he and the rest of his family live. That means that the relationship between him and his children will wither, because contact will become far less possible.

The Government do not understand the appalling impact this tax will have. The fact that eight out of 10 of the households that will be hit include an adult with a disability is compelling evidence that the UK Government must reconsider, and quickly.

As I said earlier, not only disabled people but many others will be forced to pay. I want to raise two specific cases with the Minister. The first is that of a woman—a pensioner who will not herself be affected—who cares for her severely disabled adult son. He lives in his own apartment, which has two bedrooms. That is not his fault; it is the one he was allocated. He has a severe psychological condition and needs to be cared for every day, and his mother carries out those caring responsibilities. If he is forced to move, the trauma will be extraordinary. If he manages to get through that, the fact that his mother has medical conditions of her own means she will be unable to carry out her caring responsibilities if her son is forced to move even a few streets away. The real-life impact on that family in that part of that community will be horrendous. I am deeply disturbed that the Government have not thought this through properly.

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[Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I know that many other Members wish to speak, so I shall try to keep well within the 10-minute limit.

I am particularly concerned about the way in which this measure will affect foster carers. The hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) made a powerful case for why it makes much more sense for them to be exempted from it. When I have raised the issue with the Minister at Question Time, he has said that they will be all right because there is a discretionary fund, but I think it much more sensible for them to be exempted.

It is clear to me from conversations with more than one set of foster parents in my constituency that there is a lack of communication about discretionary payments, and that people find out about them only by dint of good luck and interventions of other kinds. I am well aware that the constituents who come to me may be just scratching the surface, and that there are likely to be many others in a similar position who do not visit their Members of Parliament. The hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison) seemed to suggest that we should not raise the cases that are brought to us, but I think that they are the tip of the iceberg rather than the exceptions that she sought to suggest.

One of my constituents has been a foster carer for more than 30 years. During that time she has fostered more than 50 children, sometimes on long-term placements—a couple who are with her at present have been there for a number of years—but sometimes on shorter placements. Sometimes there is a gap. She was recently told by her housing association—her social landlord—that she had three spare rooms. She does not. She has three bedrooms in her property, which are used to provide care for children who would probably cost the taxpayer even more otherwise, and would probably be receiving a less constant form of social care. She is providing that care because it is something that society wants and values. Only this week my local authority, South Lanarkshire council, sought to encourage more people to foster, but at the same time constituents of mine are telling me how concerned they are about the impact of this measure.

As for discretionary payments, the clue is in the name: they are discretionary. That means that they may or may not be applied. That means that there is a limit to the money, and once it has gone, it has gone. That means that it is added to a bigger fund to deal with a whole range of different circumstances, and there is no guarantee that it will be sufficient. My constituent lives almost on the border of two local authority areas; she fosters for one local authority and lives in another. She is fortunate in that she contacted me and I was able to join things up, but we do not know that that will happen in many cases. All those points make the case for foster parents and foster carers to be exempt, rather than being caught in the “discretionary” category.

The hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg), who is no longer in the Chamber, makes some cogent points from time to time, but it was ridiculous of him to suggest this afternoon that people would seek to apply to become foster carers just to avoid this. That is a ridiculous assertion, and it is insulting to those who put time and effort into being foster carers, for the wider good of society. On this specific point, the Government need to think again. The hon. Member for Leeds North West put that to the Minister, and they are both from the same party. I say that, too, as a Member of a different party. If the Government are to pursue this policy, this specific point must be addressed, because it is not fair and it is not equitable, and it has all sorts of potential unintended consequences.

The right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood) hinted at some of the potential shortcomings and explained the problems. It is not sensible to continue with badly thought-through policies that have adverse consequences. The Government have an opportunity to think again on this, and to try to get it right. I understand the points being made about occupancy and pressure on housing, but that is not an excuse to bring in a measure that is severely punitive.

A pair of foster parents in my constituency have said that if they were starting out again they would think again about whether to foster. They have been fostering for more than 20 years, providing dozens of children with a higher standard of care and a more stable position in society. If such people are to be put off because of this imposition, and because they will be caught up in a payment that is discretionary, that will send a poor signal to society in general. I implore the Minister to think again on this specific point, as well as on the tax as a whole.