Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

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

At the weekend, I spoke to one of my constituents in Scotland who has been a foster parent for 23 years and currently has four foster children, two of whom are in long-term placements. She fosters for one local authority and lives just over the border in another, which means that there is now considerable confusion about the discretionary payments. Would it not be much better if foster parents were exempted altogether?

[Steve Webb]

We recognise the special position of foster carers, which is why we allocated £5 million of discretionary housing payments so that local authorities can respond on a case-by-case basis to the needs of foster carers. We believe that that is a more flexible approach than a blanket exemption.

Benefits (Terminally Ill Patients)

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Thursday 9th February 2012 Commons Chamber

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

I congratulate the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) on securing this debate about such an important and sensitive matter. I join her in praising the work of the hospice movement—including St Joseph’s hospice in her constituency—for the care and support it gives terminally ill people and their families, and, as she said, for helping people to access the benefits that, perhaps in many cases, they should have been receiving earlier. I welcome that work, as well as the work of Macmillan Cancer Support, with which the Department works closely on a range of issues.

The hon. Lady has raised some important matters, to which I hope to respond. I can offer her the assurance that the coalition Government seek to put in place structures in the benefits system that treat people with terminal illness with dignity and give them efficient and effective support—as, indeed, did the predecessor Administration. Individual cases have been raised, both by the hon. Lady and by her hon. Friends the Members for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Tom Greatrex) and for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman). I cannot respond to those individual cases immediately, but I can certainly give an undertaking that if any hon. Member here today wants to follow up on those cases with details—national insurance numbers, and so on—we will be keen to do that, because it is by following through what sometimes appears to have gone wrong that we learn lessons that will be of general benefit.

We want to make it clear that if an individual has a terminal illness, they must be entitled to the highest rate of support, and should receive that support quickly and in the most sensitive way possible. As the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch mentioned, the two key benefits that are relevant to terminally ill people and their families are employment and support allowance, and disability living allowance—or instead, for those of pension age, attendance allowance. In both cases, our aim is to ensure that terminally ill individuals are fast-tracked through the process for DLA and ESA, so that they can receive the highest level of support as quickly as possible, with a minimal burden on them and their family.

Although there are some differences between the two benefits—for reasons that I will explain—there are also common threads, which links in slightly with the hon. Lady’s point about having common treatment for people with terminal illness. One of those threads, quite properly, is that the definition of terminal illness that the Department uses is the same for ESA, DLA and attendance allowance. The definition is, as she said, that an individual is suffering from a progressive disease and that death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within six months. Although that is a standard definition, I stress that there is also a good deal of flexibility built in. Therefore, although the definition is an indicative rule for accessing what are called the special rules, nobody in a jobcentre or a benefits processing centre will say, “Well, if it’s six months and a day, forget about it.” The definition is intended to be applied as flexibly and sensitively as possible.

Let me give an indication of the extent to which people qualify under the special rules scheme—that is, let me place before the House some indications, as it were, of where the system is delivering as it should. As the hon. Lady said, 4,200 people are placed directly in the support group—which is for non-time-limited support—for employment and support allowance owing to terminal illness each year. Around 22,000 people are awarded DLA owing to a terminal illness, while 38,000 people are awarded AA, which is obviously for older claimants, owing to a terminal illness each year. Therefore, although there will be some overlap between the two groups, roughly 65,000 people are, quite properly, accessing the special rules, which get their claims fast-tracked, so that they can be put straight on to the highest rates.

I want to say a bit more about the process that should be followed. The hon. Lady asked why there was no fast-tracking for employment and support allowance. I can assure her that there is. Individuals are fast-tracked into the support group, and they receive financial support, which is currently £113.90 for a single adult over 25. No obligations are placed on them to look for work or to undertake work-related activity.

[Tom Greatrex]

Will the Minister give way?

[Steve Webb]

I will not, if the hon. Gentleman does not mind. This is the hon. Lady’s debate, and I have only a few minutes in which to respond.

Unlike other claimants to employment and support allowance, individuals who are terminally ill are paid the support group component backdated to the date of claim. So, the assessment period, during which those making a standard claim would be paid at a lower rate, does not apply. Once we have identified that someone is terminally ill and put them in the support group, their payment at the higher rate is backdated to week one; they are not paid the lower 13-week assessment rate. That is quite properly an additional source of support. Similarly for disability living allowance, individuals are fast-tracked to the highest rate of the care component, which is currently worth £73.60. They do not have to satisfy the normal entitlement conditions for the care component, or meet the usual qualifying period of three months. These have all been features of the system for some time, and they are designed specifically to assist terminally ill people.

The hon. Lady also, quite properly, raised the issue of people finding out in an inappropriate manner that they are terminally ill. It is totally unacceptable for someone to find that out from a jobcentre or over the phone: that simply should not happen.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 24th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his new role in the House. I much enjoyed his attempt to persuade the House last week that £11 billion was not very much if we divided it by 10 and by the national debt. In answer to his question about auto-enrolment, I can assure him that 2012 goes ahead as planned, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said at the Dispatch Box last week.

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

11. What assessment he has made of progress towards implementation of the recommendations of the Harrington review of the work capability assessment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 18th July 2011 Commons Chamber

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

During his last outing at DWP questions the Pensions Minister undertook to respond to me imminently about Sure Start maternity grant for parents of multiples. Can he tell me how imminent is “imminent”?

[Steve Webb]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for assiduously pursuing that issue. Following oral questions I had discussions with Ministers on the point that he raised, and I hope to come back to him shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 13th June 2011 Commons Chamber

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

The Pensions Minister may recall that he kindly met me, the hon. Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames) and a representative of the Twins and Multiple Births Association to discuss a modest proposal to amend the Sure Start maternity grant for parents of multiples. He undertook to come back to us on that, so I wonder whether he could update us on when he will be able to do so.

[Steve Webb]

The hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham rightly raised some specific issues relating to people who have had twins or other multiple births and the interaction between that situation and our changes to maternity grants, and I hope to be in a position to respond shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

The hon. Lady is right: of the 5 million people who will be affected by the increase in the state pension, a relatively small age group will be affected as she describes. It would be an option to go more slowly, as the previous Government did, but, if we deferred all changes until 2020 in order to deal with the point that she makes, it would cost an extra £10 billion. Once again, we have a suggestion for £10 billion of extra spending but no suggestion of where the £10 billion might come from.

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

14. What recent assessment he has made of the likely effects of his welfare reform proposals on families with multiple births.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tom Greatrex and Steve Webb

Monday 19th July 2010 Commons Chamber

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

We need to ensure that, as well as lifting the level of the basic state pension, the most vulnerable pensioners, who receive the pension credit, get the full benefit of the increase that we will be introducing next April. However, in the longer term we do not want to allow people to retire poor and then try to catch them through a means test; we want to ensure that more people have, for example, workplace pensions, so that fewer people retire poor in the first place. That is a better strategy for the long term.

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

T3. Given the brief opportunity afforded by Lord Young for others to input into his review of health and safety legislation, what comfort can the Minister give my constituents that its motivation is a serious effort to ensure that the right protection is in place to prevent disasters such as the one that occurred in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin), at Stockline, rather than another excuse to trot out the usual litany of myth and distortion for the gratification of the Daily Mail?