Alison McGovern MP: speeches

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Speeches

16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source
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Anybody who sees that, in the British economy, there are nearly 1 million young people out of work or training—not doing anything—would say that is a dreadful legacy left by the previous Administration. That is why the youth guarantee is at the heart of our “Get Britain Working” plan.
16 Dec 2024 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source
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The statistics my hon. Friend has read out are, I am sorry to say, consistent with those of the Trussell Trust, which distributed 61,000 emergency food parcels in 2010. Last year, the figure was 3.1 million. That is not acceptable, which is why we have committed to tripling investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million and—as I have said—introduce our fair repayment rate for deductions from universal credit, because if a person is out of debt, they are out of danger. We are increasing the national living wage to £12.21 an hour from next April, which will boost the pay of 3 million workers. That is also why the child poverty taskforce is working very hard.
16 Dec 2024 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Lady for the question that she rightly puts to this House. We have increased the number of staff working on pension credit by over 500, and are working very quickly to deal with those backlogs and delays. As she says, we need to get through those backlogs.
16 Dec 2024 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source
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More people in good jobs is the foundation of our approach to tackling poverty. That is why we have set out the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, on top of extending the household support fund, introducing a fair repayment rate for universal credit, and the extensive work of the child poverty taskforce.
19 Nov 2024 · Food Banks · Hansard source
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It is, as ever, a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for bringing this important debate. It is testament to his judgment and to the importance of this issue that fully 20 Members of Parliament have chosen to speak; in fact, we could have gone on for hours, because of the importance of the issue. I will deal briefly with a couple of questions that were put to me in the debate. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is no longer in his place, asked if I will meet him, which of course I will. The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) also asked that I meet the Stoke Members of Parliament to discuss the issue, which of course I will. The Lib Dems spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chippenham (Sarah Gibson), asked about asylum seekers and where they will fit in, and I will ask the Home Office Minister responsible for asylum seekers to write to her on that subject, because she raises an important point. Labour’s election-winning manifesto said: “Good work will be the foundation of our approach to tackling poverty and inequality. We will create more good jobs, reform employment support, and make work pay so that many more people benefit from the dignity and purpose of work. Labour is committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty. We want to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels, which is a moral scar on our society.” And these are my words: no one in the United Kingdom should have to beg for food. Our first Budget in 14 years was a down payment on our approach to tackling poverty. As hon. Members have mentioned, we extended the household support fund for a further year, to help people currently struggling with the cost of essentials, including food. We saw a pay rise for more than 3 million lower earners, with a 6.7% increase to the national living wage, making work pay. We introduced a fair repayment rate on deductions in universal credit—a point that is very important to me—which will help about 700,000 of the poorest families with children to keep more of their universal credit. As Members have also mentioned, the roll-out of breakfast clubs and improved access to childcare will help parents have more choice in order to get better jobs. The manifesto commitment and what we saw in our first Budget explains our approach to the issue. These first steps will make a real difference to people’s lives, but the scale of the challenge is huge. Members have mentioned what has happened to emergency food help over the past five years. Ms Vaz, you and I have been around a while now, and you will remember that in 2010 the Trussell Trust distributed 61,000 emergency food parcels. Last year, it was 3.1 million. Either my maths is wrong, or that is a fiftyfold increase. I simply ask, what happened in those 14 years? I think Members have set out the case well—the combination of failed economic and social policies. In Opposition, on the Back Benches and from the Front Bench, I travelled around the country speaking to people running food banks and supporting those who needed them, to try to understand what on earth was going on with this massive increase in the need for emergency food help. Before the pandemic, my experience was that families were experiencing really significant challenges in their budgets. Post pandemic, deteriorating health has made it 10 times worse. In Government, I have spent time with many of our volunteers who are addressing the family incomes crisis that we are facing. From listening to them, I know this: not one of those volunteers wants emergency food help to go on being given in this way for ever; not one of them wants our fellow citizens to be so vulnerable; and every single food bank volunteer that I have met—a number of whom have volunteered because they needed help themselves at one stage—wants a country where people live never in destitution and always with dignity. I want to talk about children. About 800,000 children live in households in the United Kingdom that have used a food bank in the last 12 months. That is a devastating statistic. That does not just harm children today; it has a lasting effect on their life chances—their long-term health, their education and their employment outcomes. They cannot fulfil their potential if they are going to school hungry or worrying about the family at home, and we will not fulfil our potential as a country if the next generation is held back. Ensuring that every child is safe, well fed and has chances and choices in their life is not just a moral imperative, but an economic one too. It is a priority for myself and for the Secretary of State. That is why we have got the child poverty taskforce up and running, led by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions alongside the Education Secretary. We know that the causes of child poverty are wide-ranging and we are looking at all the levers we can pull to increase family incomes, reduce family costs and give our kids the best start in life. Only yesterday, we met employers, trade unions and think-tanks to discuss options to increase incomes and family resilience in low-income households. We are hearing from a very wide range of people and organisations, including those who are experiencing poverty today. That approach will inform our strategy, which will be published in the spring, but despite the dreadful inheritance and the £22 billion hole in public finances, we have not waited until next spring to help people in desperate need of support. The cost of living crisis does mean that pressure on household budgets is at an all-time high. We have seen inflation spikes, including in energy bills and the cost of shopping. Those are not luxuries that anyone can easily cut out; everyone needs a warm home and everyone needs the basics, which is why—as mentioned—within two months of taking office we announced a six-month extension to the household support fund. We have extended it again for a further year. Members have mentioned the need to consider the future of the household support fund and of crisis support. I look forward to having those conversations with Members. We will invest £1 billion, including the Barnett impact, to extend the household support fund and to maintain the discretionary housing payment fund for a further year. I know that such support is a lifeline for many, and I am grateful to all the charities and local authorities who work hard to distribute it.
19 Nov 2024 · Food Banks · Hansard source
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I send my congratulations to those receiving that wonderful award in West Dunbartonshire. Well done to them. We will always need some form of crisis support. My worry is not just the consequences of day-to-day crisis, but the chronic challenge. People need an income that they can live on, and that is why in last month’s Budget the Chancellor announced that we will introduce a fair repayment rate to help households on universal credit who are having deductions made from their benefit keep more of their money to help them budget for essentials. More than 1.2 million households on universal credit will benefit from that—a reduction in the deductions cap from 25% to 15%, which is worth about £420 a year on average. As my dad used to say, “Out of debt, out of danger.” That will make a big difference for some of the poorest people in our country, but we understand that more change will still be needed. That is why we are committed, as Members have mentioned, to reviewing universal credit. I know, and Beveridge wrote in his report, that social security can only work well when we have policies for full and fulfilling employment. We have to make work pay. It is ridiculous to have a queue at the food bank door when our businesses are crying out for staff. We have millions of people locked out of work, not getting the support they need to build a better life. Alongside the reforms I have set out, therefore, we have set an ambitious long-term goal of an 80% employment rate, towards full employment. To achieve it, we have kick-started the biggest reforms to employment support for a generation. We will build a new jobs and careers service to give people proper, tailored support to help them get on in work. Our White Paper will bring forward a youth guarantee for our young people, to ensure that they are not left on the scrapheap. We will empower our local areas, towns and cities so that they can be in the lead with their work, health and skills plan. We will set out all that detail in our “Get Britain Working” White Paper shortly. I cannot wait to talk to Members and colleagues about it. I want to make one more point about making work pay. It is not enough to get people into any job; it must be a good job. In 2022, 2.3 million people lived in a household that had used a food bank in the past year, and 40% of them were living in families where at least one adult worked. That is not acceptable to me. Too many people in our country are being denied the dignity of decent and fair work. Too many are stuck in insecure jobs with unpredictable working patterns. That is why we introduced our Employment Rights Bill. I do not agree that we have to make a choice between high unemployment and poor-quality work. We will have the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation, including an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts, which often see people not just low-paid, but unsure about what pay they will get next week. That stress and instability tip people into destitution. As I said, we are also putting up the living wage, which will benefit 3 million workers and be worth £1,400 next year for the average full-time worker. In conclusion, as I have set out—and as Members know from their experiences talking to people in their constituencies—the inheritance of this Government could hardly be worse. It is not really the 3.1 million bags of shopping handed out to people in desperate need that is the problem, but the social and economic failure that that represents. We cannot accept it. Tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels is not just a manifesto commitment that we made to the British public; it is our priority every day. It is vital to all this Government’s missions to break down barriers to opportunity and to deliver economic growth, because you cannot grow a country on shaky foundations. The action we have already taken to support those most in need—to spread opportunity and make work pay—shows that we will take that challenge head-on. I look forward to working with all Members present to deliver that change.
11 Nov 2024 · Child Poverty · Hansard source
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One person who has never looked the other way when people were facing poverty in this country is my hon. Friend. Through her innovation, she has ensured that household food insecurity is measured properly, and I pay tribute to her efforts. I have listened to what she said about Feeding Britain, and I will take that as an input into the child poverty taskforce. I hope that she and Feeding Britain will meet me to discuss how we can take that forward.
11 Nov 2024 · Child Poverty · Hansard source
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As well as putting in place breakfast clubs that mean children are ready to learn, and as well as the fair payment rate—we have discussed that—which will stop families being tipped into destitution by debt, the ministerial taskforce, chaired by the Work and Pensions and Education Secretaries, will publish the child poverty strategy in spring 2025, using all available levers across government to bring about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this Parliament, as part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change.
11 Nov 2024 · Parents Looking for Work · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this matter to the House, and I pay tribute to all those he has worked with to understand the challenge that we face. He is right that we will take this forward through the “Get Britain Working” White Paper. Citizens Advice is playing an important role in supporting that work, and the work of the child poverty taskforce.
11 Nov 2024 · Parents Looking for Work · Hansard source
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Helping parents to have fulfilling and sustainable work helps our economy and prevents child poverty. As we have mentioned several times, the “Get Britain Working” White Paper will rewrite employment policy and set our ambition for an 80% employment rate, but we will not get there without parents.
11 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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There have been changes to ensure that referrals are GDPR-compliant, but I will happily discuss this issue with my hon. Friend. The very best jobcentres are closely linked with local support organisations, and we must ensure that that is the case everywhere.
11 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Lady raises some of the worst aspects of the consequences of 14 years of Conservative Government. We will consider all those issues through the child poverty taskforce.
11 Nov 2024 · Poverty · Hansard source
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After 14 years of Conservative Government, 8 million adults and 4.3 million children were left in poverty. Among other things, £240 million was recently announced in the Budget to support better work so that people can get the dignity of a good job and the security of a proper wage. Details will soon be available, as the Secretary of State mentioned, in our “Get Britain Working” White Paper.
11 Nov 2024 · Poverty · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend mentions the new fair repayment rate, which is another crucial part of the Budget and a downpayment on the action that we will take on poverty. I am fond of an invitation to Scotland, and I will happily accept that one.
11 Nov 2024 · Jobcentres: Broxbourne · Hansard source
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I thank the Minister for his question— [ Interruption. ] Honestly, I am still getting used to being on this side of the House. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that jobcentres everywhere need to be locally responsive to employers, and that we need to provide an excellent service to local employers. If he has further thoughts on how we can make that work in his constituency, I would be very happy to discuss it with him.
11 Nov 2024 · Jobcentres: Broxbourne · Hansard source
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Jobcentres serving the Broxbourne constituency and elsewhere will change following the “Get Britain Working” White Paper, which has already been mentioned. This fundamental reform will have three parts: a new public employment service to get more people into work and to help them get on in work; a joined-up work, health and skills plan; and a guarantee for young people aged 18 to 21.
6 Nov 2024 · Furniture Poverty · Hansard source
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As ever, Sir Roger, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairship. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Sam Carling) for securing this debate and for the very important work that he has done to support the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will make a big difference to the experience of people living in privately rented homes. On behalf of us all, may I congratulate the hon. Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies) on her new appointment? She is right to say that she and I have debated these issues many times. I will miss doing so, and I know that many of my colleagues in the DWP miss her. We wish her all the very best in her new role. The current level of poverty is unacceptable: 1.3 million more people are in poverty than in 2010. Poverty damages lives in so many ways, as we have heard this afternoon. People simply cannot fulfil their potential when struggling to pay for basic essentials, or in many cases going without them. I am determined that we will take steps to put that right. Good work will always be the foundation of our approach to tackling poverty. Hon. Members will know that we had a manifesto commitment to bring forward changes in this area. We will shortly publish the “Get Britain Working” White Paper, which will announce our reforms in that area. We will have a new service to support more people to enter, remain and do better in work, and a youth guarantee, with increased join-up of employment and health, which are causing so many challenges in this area. Through our plan to make work pay, we will ensure that we create opportunities for all by tackling low pay, poor working conditions and job security. This is a truly ambitious agenda to empower working people and grow our economy. We want to protect living standards, and wages are important in doing that. The national wage introduced by the new Labour Government back in 1999 has had a transformative effect on the fortunes of working people. In last week’s Budget it was announced that the national living wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from next April, boosting the pay of 3 million workers. That is an increase of 6.7%, worth £1,400 a year for a full-time worker, helping us to make progress towards a genuine living wage. Hon. Members have mentioned the child poverty taskforce. I will take today’s debate as a submission through the child poverty taskforce process, because we have shown how interconnected many of the issues are. It is shameful that in a rich country such as the UK, 4 million children were living in relative poverty last year, and that 800,000 children have used a food bank in the past 12 months. As has been said, the End Child Poverty campaign has suggested that 1.2 million children were in furniture poverty in 2022. That is just unacceptable. It scars children’s lives now and can damage their long-term health, education and employment outcomes. It holds our country back, and we are determined to see change. I hope it is helpful to hon. Members if I give a brief update on the child poverty taskforce, which is working to publish a comprehensive and ambitious child poverty strategy in the spring. Last month, we published a framework to set out how we will develop the strategy, harnessing all available levers because, as so many Members have said, policy in one area affects another. We want to develop the strategy with exactly that in mind. We have four key themes: incomes, costs, increasing financial resilience and getting better local support. On that note, I recently visited Glasgow, where the city council is doing excellent work to join things up locally, as Members have suggested. Later this month, the taskforce will meet employers, trade unions and think-tanks to discuss options to increase incomes and financial resilience in low-income households. We want to ensure that the strategy addresses poverty in every corner of the land and that we hear and learn from families in poverty as we shape it. We will be holding engagement events across the UK—I have already visited various constituencies myself—bringing together a diverse range of voices and setting up a new forum for parents and carers to ensure that the experiences of our kids are included at the heart of the strategy. The Government believe that a wealthy country like the United Kingdom should have a social security system that meets the needs of people who are unable to fully support themselves through work. We know that for many, the system we inherited is not currently achieving that. We are determined to fix the fundamentals so that low-income families can afford the basics. We have inherited a number of policies and a challenging fiscal climate that have left us with difficult choices. In response to the shadow Minister’s point about universal credit, it is fair to say that the policy has been on a long journey. Some of the points she made about the responsiveness of social security during the pandemic are important. We must learn from that and try to address the challenges we now face. That is why we have committed to reviewing universal credit and will listen to a full range of views on potential changes to make sure that it is doing its job now. As a first step, the Chancellor announced in last week’s Budget that we will introduce a fair repayment rate. That will help households on universal credit who are having deductions made from their benefit, perhaps because they had a loan of some kind or moved into a new home and needed to buy furniture or other items. We will ensure that they can retain more of the money from their benefit to help them to budget for essentials like this. Over 1.2 million households on universal credit will benefit from the changing of the deduction cap from 25% to 15%. It will mean an average of £420 a year, which is a good down payment on a future plan. I turn to the specific issue of furniture affordability. Most of us will experience large one-off costs or unexpected expenditure at some point. As hon. Members have explained fully, these costs can be difficult to budget for, and we do not want to drive people into debt.
6 Nov 2024 · Furniture Poverty · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman makes his point very well. Let me respond briefly to questions that Members have raised. I will ask the relevant Minister to write to my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire about the regulatory changes arising from the Renters’ Rights Bill, on whose Public Bill Committee he served ably. I reassure him that the DWP will work across Departments, because these areas cover different departmental responsibilities. We will include all those points in the child poverty taskforce. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is right about charities—Wirral Repair Café in my constituency does a fantastic job. My hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) made an excellent speech on household support fund guidance. I encourage him to be part of that conversation. I will take away what he has said, but he might want to write to me with more detail. To other hon. Members, I say that we are looking at all the ways in which poverty is now affecting people, given the spikes in energy prices and other issues. The comments were about the construction of homes and how we can limit the cost of energy are very important. I encourage Members to keep bringing those points forward, because now is the time to address them. Hon. Members will know that the social security system has always made provision to help people on low incomes without adequate savings, and we do consider the impact of budgeting loans, advances and other measures. I mentioned the change in deductions. We know that while there will always be people who struggle to meet unexpected costs, no one wants a system in which large numbers of people are relying on crisis support to help them to feed their families or pay for heating and other day-to-day essentials. We want the system to genuinely respond to this as a crisis, not a chronic problem. To support the upcoming child poverty strategy and address the demand we face, as the hon. Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield mentioned, we are continuing to provide substantial funding for crisis support through the household support fund and discretionary housing payments. We will invest £1 billion, including the Barnett impact, to extend the household support fund in England for an additional year until 31 March 2026 and to maintain the discretionary housing payments fund for a further year. This will ensure that the current targeted support is available for the most vulnerable. In the end, we know that there is no quick fix. The issues that we have in this country are deep rooted and complicated, but that can never be an excuse for not trying to tackle them. We have taken the first steps, and there is more to come in the child poverty strategy and the “Get Britain Working” White Paper. I look forward to working with all Members here to get this right. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House has considered furniture poverty.
4 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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indicated dissent .
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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I apologise, Mr Speaker. You would think that after 14 years I would be able to get it right.
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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Apologies, but I feel that I should keep going. Means-tested benefits can help where appropriate. Universal credit, for example, pays an extra £2,400 a year to unpaid family carers. I do not underestimate the challenges within the universal credit system, and we want to ensure that carers who need it get that support. As I was saying to the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton a moment ago, we are looking at different aspects of the system, including by reviewing universal credit to ensure that it does the job we all want it to do. We will set out the details in due course. Pension credit can also be paid to carers at a higher rate than what those without caring responsibilities receive, and over 100,000 carers receive an extra amount of pension credit because of their entitlement to carer’s allowance. However, we think that as many as 760,000 pensioners who are eligible for pension credit are not receiving it, which is why the Government have already taken action to drive up pension credit take-up. Last month, we started a national campaign to encourage eligible pensioners to check their eligibility and apply. We are asking local authorities to support that and, as the House will know, the Secretary of State and the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to them in August. Following that, we have seen a 152% increase in applications for pension credit since 29 July, with almost 75,000 applications in just eight weeks. In November we will write to around 120,000 pensioners in receipt of housing benefit who may be eligible but are not currently claiming pension credit, and I encourage all family carers to check that they are receiving all the support to which they are entitled. The gov.uk website has lots of information on carer’s allowance, and 90% of people claim online, although traditional paper forms are available for those who want to claim it that way. I know that organisations such as Carers UK and Citizens Advice are also on hand and do a fantastic job of giving advice. Financial help for carers is really important, but it is only one pillar of a proper support system. All of us need a balance in life, and that is important for carers too. Most carers of working age want to consider working in some form, and not just for financial wellbeing but to enhance their life and the life of the person for whom they care. We want to help family carers combine their caring responsibilities with paid work where they can. We will review the implementation of the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, which gave employed carers a right to time off work for the first time, and we will explore the benefits of paid leave while being mindful of the impact of any changes on small employers. Through the Employment Rights Bill, we will ensure that flexible working, which can play such an important role in helping carers to balance their work and caring responsibilities, is available to all workers, except where it is genuinely not feasible. The Government will carefully consider the findings of Lord Darzi’s independent review of the NHS, which is very clear about the need for a fresh approach to supporting family carers. Caring is a demanding role in which no one can function at their best without ever having a break, and the better care fund includes money that can be used for unpaid carer support, including short breaks and respite services for carers. As I mentioned at the beginning of my contribution, we will ensure that family carers’ voices are heard as we develop plans to create a national care service as part of our reforms to adult social care. Every day, unpaid family carers step up when loved ones need their support. Without the contribution of family carers, our country would not function. The pressure on social care in this country is already unbearable; without unpaid family carers, it would become completely untenable.
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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In a moment. If the results of the pilot are positive, that will be the first step towards addressing the overpayments problem. I know that we need to do much more, and there are many other issues, but it will be a good start.
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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I thank the right hon. Member for his question. I went through the details of what the review will look at just a moment ago, but there are wider problems with support for carers. The right hon. Member will know that the Department is currently looking at a whole host of areas, and we need family carers to be much better supported, both in work and when they are not working, so we will look at the wider issues. The review is about doing that, as I have said, but that does not mean that we are not fully aware of all the issues that carers face. As I was saying, addressing overpayments is only part of the action we need to take to ensure that unpaid carers get the support they need and deserve.
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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Obviously whistleblowing is very important. The Hillsborough law that is being introduced is not my responsibility, so the hon. Lady will understand that I cannot go over it extensively, but I will say, as someone who worked on the Hillsborough issue for many years, that it is very important to me personally. These problems are significant, and given the scale of the challenges, we will not be able to solve all of them overnight, but we have taken important first steps, including tackling the issue of overpayments of carer’s allowance related to earnings. We have all heard the stories of some of the thousands of carers who have been affected, we have all heard and know about the stress and anxiety that it has caused them, and we all want—I hope—to establish the facts. To address this problem, we must first truly understand what has gone wrong. That is why the DWP has announced today an independent review of overpayments of carer’s allowance that have exceeded the entitlement threshold. The review will investigate how the overpayments have occurred, what can best be done to support those who have accrued them, and how to reduce the risk of such problems occurring in future. We are delighted that Liz Sayce OBE has agreed to lead the review. My colleagues the Minister for Social Security and Disability, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Sir Stephen Timms), and the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Andrew Western), have already met representatives of Carers UK, along with carers themselves, to discuss their report on overpayments, and we will consider the findings of that report alongside the independent review.
16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source
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Yes, 14 years. It just goes to show that every day in this House is a school day. Thank you, Mr Speaker; I always welcome your suggestions. I cannot pre-empt the Secretary of State’s decision, but she will shortly start her uprating review of carer’s allowance, following the release of yesterday’s earnings data and today’s inflation figures, and the outcome of that review will include the new weekly rate of carer’s allowance from April 2025.

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