Oral Answers to Questions

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman is now speaking about older workers as well as working families. We need to look at universal credit in the context of the support that it provides. He also mentioned the Resolution Foundation report, which failed to take on board various factors such as childcare support for working families and the ongoing support that universal credit and our work coaches provide to working families.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

7. What recent progress he has made on the Work and Health programme.

[The Minister for Employment (Priti Patel)]

Development of the Work and Health programme design is well under way, including engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. The Department has commenced the commercial process for the programme by releasing the prior information notice for potential providers on 28 April.

[Melanie Onn]

A constituent of mine was volunteering last year at Green Futures, a social enterprise. That was directly related to his degree subject. While he was applying for work, the jobcentre put him on the community work placement scheme, saying that a voluntary placement would be better for him if arranged through the jobcentre. A private company paid by the jobcentre then arranged a six-month unpaid placement at the very organisation he was already volunteering with. Does the Minister agree that this is an utter waste of taxpayers’ money? How can she guarantee that this sort of incompetence will not be repeated under the new scheme?

[Priti Patel]

I would be very happy to look into that particular example. The hon. Lady has highlighted a practice that clearly needs to change. The Work and Health programme will be designed to support claimants with health conditions and disabilities who have been unemployed for at least two years, but, as I have said, I shall be very happy to look at the case that she has raised.

Universal Credit Work Allowance

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justin Tomlinson]

The shadow Secretary of State is mis-matching the two parts. The people who are going across will continue to have their cash protected. The £69 million fund will provide ongoing support to help people to navigate through the process.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

I want to return to the Minister’s point about work coaches. The mapping exercise that was undertaken in my constituency and across the borough of North East Lincolnshire was out by 150%, and the local authorities there cannot meet the needs of the work coaches who are needed to support people on universal credit. That task has now been passed on to the citizens advice bureau, which also cannot manage the load because the figures that it was initially given were incorrect.

[Justin Tomlinson]

This is actually delivered through the jobcentres and the universal service, so I think we will have to discuss that a bit further.

Figures have been bandied about, and I want to make it clear that they were wildly inaccurate. They were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of universal credit, which is why I am so keen to arrange a visit for the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith). The vast majority of those on the universal credit caseload will not lose out as a result of the changes. That is because the measure affects only those people who are in work, most of whom would have received nothing under tax credits. I have not seen the Opposition campaigning on this issue before. Unlike tax credits, universal credit is a dynamic benefit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments and, as he mentions alternative therapies, I should add that this Government place great emphasis on supporting benefit claimants with a range of conditions and that support can come in the form of treatment such as talking therapies as well as valuable support for those with mental health conditions. It is important to continue to provide support for those who need help, and that is the objective of this Government.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

I wrote to the Secretary of State over the summer following the news that his Department has been publishing fake quotes which it attributed to benefit claimants who had been sanctioned. As I am yet to receive a response, perhaps the Secretary of State or his team could answer one of my questions today. Has this practice of fabricating people and quotes been used by his Department in other instances? If so, can he provide details of when, and, if not, will he apologise to the British public for misleading them and commit to ensuring the practice is never undertaken again?

[Mr Speaker]

This is purely in relation to deteriorating health conditions.

Welfare Reform and Work Bill

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

The Bill as it stands will hurt some of the most vulnerable people in our society. I cannot support a Bill that abolishes the target for the Government to reduce and eradicate child poverty.

Lifting children out of poverty should be one of the primary duties of any Government. I am proud that the previous Labour Government made this issue a priority, introducing the Child Poverty Act 2010, and helping 1 million children out of relative poverty and 2 million children out of absolute poverty. We must be able to measure and monitor levels of child poverty. Progress has stalled in the past five years and it is outrageous that the Government want to scrap the child poverty targets just to save themselves the embarrassment of missing them.

During the previous Parliament, we saw support cut for families on low incomes, many of whom are in work. Cuts to tax credits hit households with children the hardest, with families losing thousands of pounds. Figures from The Children’s Society show that 15,000 children in Grimsby were adversely affected by below-inflation rises in child benefit and by reductions in tax credits. Now, more than one third of children in my constituency are in poverty. In the East Marsh ward, the figure is close to one in two. Constituents, teachers and social workers in the town have reported to me increased numbers of children arriving at school hungry and without school equipment, and whose school dinner is the only expected meal of the day.

It is not acceptable to balance the books off the backs of the poor; nor is it acceptable to backtrack on the work done in the past two decades to reduce deprivation while 2.3 million children are still living in poverty. I cannot support the removal of child tax credits from families with more than two children, and I cannot support a Bill that will remove protection from the most vulnerable young people. When I was 17, I needed assistance from the state because I did not have anywhere to live. The Bill will take away the very assistance from young people—very vulnerable young people—that I benefited from. Protections are not in place, and if Ministers had been in the position I was in, I doubt they would be proposing these changes.

Again, Labour has a record to be proud of on this issue. The previous Labour Government more than halved homelessness during our time in office. Since 2010, however, homelessness has gone up by 25%. I fear that removing housing benefit from under-21s could drive young people who have nowhere else to go on to the streets.

There is a driving narrative among Ministers and those on the Conservative Back Benches that people on benefits are making a lifestyle choice, and that when 18-year-olds leave school they make a choice between going to university, getting a job or going on benefits. The reality is that many young people find themselves in incredibly difficult circumstances, and they need to be supported. Whether they have fallen out of education, had to leave home because of a breakdown in a family relationship or been let down by the care system, we should not turn our backs on them. A Government who remove support from anyone in those circumstances are not, by any stretch of the imagination, a one nation Government. I urge them to think again about the effects the Bill will have on some of the most vulnerable people in our country, and to accept that the Bill needs to change.