Employment

Debate between Lord Freud and Lord Kinnock

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kinnock (Lab)]

Does the Minister recall this week’s worse than anticipated borrowing figures, attributable in large part to worse than anticipated revenues from income tax? Does he recognise and share the view of many independent economists commentating yesterday, who said that this was because we are having a very low-wage recovery? Does he concede the truth of that and understand that on the present basis the recovery is very fragile and will remain so as long as wages are low in so many sectors of the economy?

[Lord Freud]

There are major flows going on in this structure. We have had a very large increase in employment, with 1.7 million more people in the workforce. Clearly, some of those coming in for the first time tend to be at the lower level and then work their way up. In 2012-13 the earnings of those who have stayed in work grew by between 3.7% and 3.9%—far more than the average, which was between 0.7% and 0.9%.

Child Poverty

Debate between Lord Freud and Lord Kinnock

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kinnock]

After the last two answers, is not the Minister going to conclude that he has been taking refuge in statistics and semantics rather than addressing the fundamental question raised by my noble friend, which relates to the level of child poverty in this relatively affluent country? Is it not clear that, even if the institute’s calculations were significantly wrong, we would still be talking about a rise of more than 500,000 in the number of children in poor families in the foreseeable future in the 21st century? Can the Minister give us his own objective view of whether that is morally, socially and economically acceptable, or whether it is appalling?

[Lord Freud]

What is vital with child poverty is that we decide on how to tackle it. Under the last Government, we found that enormous amounts of money were spent on tackling it without hardly moving a figure. In the last few years of that Government, it hardly shifted. The noble Lord can look at the figures himself. We spend 3.6% of GDP on children and families; we are the second highest in the UNICEF measures, and we get precious little bang for our buck. We end up well down the table in performance for how children do. We need to work out how to solve child poverty and not worry about income transfers, which do not achieve the outcome.

Energy: Winter Fuel Payment

Debate between Lord Freud and Lord Kinnock

Monday 19th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, clearly, one can look at how one treats this, but essentially it is a simple payment. It is one of the universal payments to pensioners along with the state pension, additional pension and passported benefits such as NHS prescriptions. That is how it is designed. It would be rather complicated and expensive to tax it.

[Lord Kinnock]

My Lords, the Minister appears to be very sympathetic to the idea of changing the system, and I am not taking into account the season of the year. Will he reconsider the possibility of a levy on higher-rate taxpayers? After all, what is good for King Wenceslas should be good enough for 81 per cent of us.

Autism: Personal Independence Payments

Debate between Lord Freud and Lord Kinnock

Monday 12th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, clearly this is a different assessment that measures different things. However, we are learning lessons from the WCA, and noble Lords will know that we are making considerable changes to it to make sure that it works as effectively as possible. We also expect to make sure that the personal independence payment is focused on the needs of the individual. The assessment is much more appropriate than the DLA assessment, which is, frankly, subjective and inconsistent and relies much too much on self-assessment.

[Lord Kinnock]

Would the Minister like to give further attention to the first reply he gave to my noble friend Lord Touhig to the effect that the cuts are cuts in projections and spending is flat? Does that take account of the fact that we now live with the reality of a 5 per cent inflation rate?

[Lord Freud]

Yes, my Lords. I made absolutely clear in that response that I was talking in real terms, so it takes account of inflation.