Oral Answers to Questions

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Richard Harrington]

Yes.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

7. What recent estimate his Department has made of the number of children living in relative poverty in the UK.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Damian Green)]

There are 100,000 fewer children in relative poverty than in 2010 and 557,000 fewer children living in workless households. The forthcoming Green Paper on social justice will identify and address the root causes of poverty, building on the two statutory indicators set out in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016—namely, worklessness and educational attainment.

[Stella Creasy]

I note that the Minister uses the figures for relative poverty, and I am a little surprised. We know that absolute poverty in this country has been in decline for the past 10 years, except among children. We know that 500,000 more children in this country are living in absolute poverty than was the case in 2010. What responsibility does he think this Government and the previous Government have for that?

[Damian Green]

The Government have a responsibility to make sure that as many households as possible have work, particularly households with children. Working-age adults in non-working families are almost four times more likely to be living on a low income. The “Child Poverty Transitions” report of June 2015 found that 74% of poor children in workless families who moved into full employment exited poverty. That is what we can do, and are doing, for children who have been in poverty.

The hon. Lady neglected to say it, but there are now 500,000 fewer people living in absolute poverty than in 2010. The key point is about getting people into work. As a reasonable Opposition Member, I hope she would acknowledge that achieving historically low levels of unemployment is actually the best thing we can do for children—it is the best way to get children and the households they live in out of poverty. I am happy to tell her that, in her constituency, the claimant count is down by 47% since 2010 and the youth claimant count has fallen by 2% in the past year.

Funeral Poverty

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

I would definitely like to thank Quaker Social Action, which I have done a lot of work with over the past 12 months. I am aware of some of the quite startling stats about this growing problem mentioned by my hon. Friend. I really do not think it is going to go away; it is going to get worse. Worryingly, as she said, the cost of a funeral service continues to rise well above the rate of inflation and the average debt is rising.

Losing a loved one, as most of us will sadly know, is one of the most difficult experiences we face in our lives. It shakes us and changes our world forever. In the middle of that personal turmoil, the last thing that people need is money worries. People will always feel a strong duty to do right by others when they depart, which makes it especially painful for those who are not able to provide what they see as a fitting service for their loved ones. That is why we need to have a really serious conversation about funeral affordability.

Hon. Members may be aware that in the previous Parliament I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill. The aim of my Funeral Services Bill was to approach some of the issues around funeral affordability. At the centre of the Bill was a call for the Government to carry out an overarching review of funeral affordability. When researching the issue, it quickly became clear how many factors affect the price of a funeral and how many Departments have a stake in it. Making funerals more affordable is not simple and requires co-operation between the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Justice; only a cross-departmental approach can work. I hope that the Minister can give us a commitment that the Government will begin to look strategically at funeral poverty.

I am aware that there is not enough time to cover everything, so I will focus on one thing that should be reformed urgently: the way in which social fund payments operate. Funeral payments give people much-needed support, but the system has some major flaws. A funeral payment covers all of an applicant’s necessary costs plus up to £700 of other costs. That might sound reasonable enough, but, in fact, those other costs include things such as funeral directors’ fees and ministers’ fees—things that we can agree most applicants would consider necessary. The £700 cap was set in 2003 and has not kept pace with the rising cost of funerals, so funeral payment awards are increasingly inadequate. The average award is just over £1,300 at a time when the average funeral costs £3,700. If the cap on other costs had risen with inflation, it would stand at just under £1,000 today. As we have heard, funeral costs rise even faster than inflation. Although I appreciate the comment by the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys that the social fund is a contribution, the reality is that if we want funeral payments to be fit for purpose, that cap needs to rise.

The other issue is the way applications are administered. At the moment, the DWP requires an invoice from the funeral organiser before it can process a claim, which means that people have to commit to a service before they know the value of the funeral payment they will receive. Inevitably, that means that some people commit to a funeral service they cannot afford and end up in severe debt. The process is completely backwards. The DWP urgently needs to look at how it can give applicants a clearer idea of the support they will receive, which will help people to make a more informed decision about the kind of service that is right for them.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I add my support for Quaker Social Action and the work it has done on the matter. My hon. Friend is making a point about the people’s ability to plan funerals. Does she agree that we have to be very sensitive to communities when the speed at which someone is buried comes into play in being able to plan and cost accordingly, and to some of the risks that creates for those communities?

Oral Answers to Questions

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

On the contrary, the labour market performance of older workers has been among the best during the last four years. During a period of slow economic growth, older workers actually did the best. Nevertheless, we are not complacent, hence the new pilots that I announced last week.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

18. What steps he is taking to ensure that child maintenance is paid to parents with care in separated families.

[The Minister for Pensions (Steve Webb)]

When possible, our child maintenance options service and the £14 million investment in better support services help families to reach their own family-based arrangements in the best interests of their children. When that is not possible, the 2012 statutory scheme provides a more efficient service, including swifter action against the minority of parents who do not pay in full and on time.

[Stella Creasy]

The Government’s system is predicated on the idea that, on the whole, parents can negotiate, but we know that that is simply not possible for some families. What is the Department doing to ensure that women who have experienced domestic violence are aware of the application fee exemption, and what evidence has he that women who are unaware of it are not being deterred from applying for child maintenance?

[Steve Webb]

I discussed this issue with my officials recently. We will publish the figures shortly, but we know that a significant proportion of women are applying successfully for the domestic violence exemption from the £20 fee. We have made the rules relating to access to the exemption as relaxed as possible, and the domestic violence charities with which we have worked believe that we have drawn the right definition for the purpose.

amendment of the law

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. As he knows, Labour’s compulsory jobs guarantee would benefit people exactly like the young people he met in Corby. It would guarantee a job for every young person who has been out of work for a year, giving them real hope and opportunity and utilising their skills and talents.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

If things are going as swimmingly as the Government wish us to believe, is my hon. Friend as concerned as I am about the numbers of people getting into personal debt trying to make ends meet, and about all the evidence that shows that personal debt will rise, not fall, over the years ahead? Does she think that is a sign of an economy recovering, or of people scraping to make ends meet under this Government?

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend speaks knowledgably not only of what she sees in her constituency of Walthamstow, but of what she hears when talking to others about the impact of payday lenders and debt on many of our communities.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Friday 22nd March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Byrne]

My admiration for jobcentre staff working under this regime is unbounded. They are good people trapped in bad systems, with a Secretary of State who, I fear, is out of touch.

I have a copy of the e-mail that Mr Wintour reports today, and this is its concluding paragraph:

“Guys, we really need to up the game here”—

on the issuing of sanctions—

“The 5% target is one thing—the fact that we are seeing over 300 people a week and only submitting six of them for possible doubts is simply not quite credible.”

The e-mail says, “So the bottom line. I have until 15 February, along with other area managers, to show an improvement, and then it is a performance improvement plan for me.” He continues:

“Obviously if I am on a PIP…to improve my team’s Stricter Benefit Regime referral rate I will not have a choice but to consider implementing PIPs for those individuals who are clearly not delivering SBR within the team.”

That is why it is important that we have assurances that the independent review, set out in the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill, will get to the bottom of every sanction issued.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I was extremely disappointed to hear the Secretary of State’s response just now, because we are talking about the jobcentre that serves both our constituencies. The e-mail also states:

“Our district manager is not pleased”.

“James Corbett is not pleased and neither is John”, states the e-mail. It says that because John is

“under pressure to improve our office output and move up the league he has to apply some pressure downwards.”

The e-mail is talking about league tables. Will the Secretary of State comment on that? Who does my right hon. Friend think is putting together these league tables and applying this pressure on staff, from a regional perspective down to our jobcentres, to find reasons to sanction people in our community, not because of their behaviour, but simply to meet a target?

[Mr Byrne]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing that to the House’s attention. This is an incredibly serious matter.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is an honour to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck), whose expertise on these issues is unparalleled. My remarks will focus on two matters: debt and welfare.

Given the landscape that the Budget has put this country into, the Labour party will never again take lessons from Government Members about the management of the public finances and public debt. We will not listen to them seeing that they are borrowing £245 billion more than they planned and will not meet the promises that they have made year after year. We have the embarrassing spectacle of the British Government being a bad partner by delaying the payment of bills and putting people at risk with their contracts, as the OBR makes clear.

While the Government are trying to avoid the debts that they have incurred, the British public cannot avoid the debts that will be incurred as a result of the Budget and the Government’s actions. I tell the House plainly that any financial director of a company who came to the board three years in a row asking for more money, having got their sums wrong, would be sacked, and rightly so. That is the situation in which we are leaving the British public. The British public are struggling.

The hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) is not in his place, unfortunately. He suggested, in a rather cavalier manner, that the country is awash with suffering. We see that every single day in our local communities. We see people for whom any increase in the personal allowance will be wiped out by cuts to tax credits and child benefit. We see people suffering from pay freeze after pay freeze, when prices have risen five times as fast wages. We see people who are feeling the squeeze—those are not my words, but the words of Which?. It talks about a “squeezometer”, with 40% of people feeling the squeeze, and an increase in people who are using credit or overdrafts to make sense of it. In particular, it reports that 9% of people are defaulting on their bills and loans, and that 49% are now worried about their level of debt—that is up by 5% on last month alone.

That is the context in which the Budget needed to make sense. It is in my own community, where 60% to 70% of income is spent on housing costs alone, that we see the struggles we face. The problems raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North have not been addressed and so will not go away, whether they are problems with the cost of energy, food or transport.

Most people would say that people in my community need to get a job. Many people in my community want to work. Unfortunately, we have a stubbornly high level of unemployment in Walthamstow. We have a much higher level of unemployment than other areas of London, and one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in London. Our rate is 10%, compared to just 6% in London and 7% nationally. That is why our welfare system is so important to the people of Walthamstow—important to ensure that it is fair, supportive and helps people get back into the work they want to do.

That is why I am horrified by the comments of the Secretary of State. We have seen today the revelations that there are targets for sanctions in my local jobcentre. Those targets mean that people, whose behaviour may well be understandable or rational, are still being sanctioned and having their benefits taken away as part of the Work programme, which we know is a terrible failure from the figures we have already seen. It is clear that the sanctions, and how they are being applied, are damaging people’s lives. For the first time we have conclusive proof that that is not by accident, but by design.

The e-mail contains the shocking allegation that staff in my jobcentre are so worried about losing their jobs if they do not sanction people that they are making up reasons to sanction people. What does that mean? That means sanctioning people with family commitments, sanctioning parents who have informal shared custody arrangements, sanctioning people caring for their family members, sanctioning people who may struggle with the English language, and sanctioning people who cannot find an interpreter to go with them.

The e-mail is not the work of one over-enthusiastic member of staff. When it mentions league tables and the role of divisional managers, it is clear that this is not happening by accident. I do not blame the person who sent me this whistleblower e-mail and I do not blame the scared jobcentre staff who are desperate to meet the target for sanctions that they have been told to reach— 25 sanctions per week, when they are only finding six. They are clearly frightened for their own jobs. I blame the Government who are asking everyone but themselves to take the blame for their failed economic policies. They are now setting up my community to fail, just so they can meet their own targets.

That is why the independent review into the use of sanctions in the Work programme is critical. I trusted Ministers when, on Tuesday, they claimed that there are no targets whatsoever. I now see that that means that they are either simply admitting that they do not know what goes on in their own Department, or that they were not giving us the full truth on Tuesday in this House. We need an independent review to get to the bottom of this problem, and to understand just how out of control this toxic Work programme is.

On Tuesday, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) set out 10 questions for the inquiry. I would add another: are sanctions being made to reach a target to help ensure that the Department for Work and Pensions reaches its own budgetary requirement? The clock is ticking for Ministers to come clean about what is going on, and to stop saying that there are no targets for sanctions in the Department. They admitted to newspapers last night that the whistleblower e-mail that I brought forward was true, yet today the Secretary of State has tried to claim that it is not. The clock is ticking. I urge others not to be frightened and to use the whistleblower legislation to come forward and tell the truth, so that the independent review can hear what is really going on.

This issue is too important. We must get welfare right. We have a system that, yes, offers something for something, and, yes, uses sanctions where appropriate, but this is not appropriate. This is not about behaviour; this is about budgetary targets. This is about telling people, “However hard you are working does not matter to us, we will penalise you.” That is not fair. That is not right. That is not appropriate in the 21st century. It will do nothing to help this country get back on its feet, and the Government should be ashamed that this is happening.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

At times of economic crisis, historically and all over the world, we have seen people moving towards blaming scapegoats, attacking weaker and poorer communities and trying to damage the interests of those who are not in their own environment. Today the potential for this global economic crisis can be seen in Europe with the rise of neo-Nazi groups in countries such as Hungary and Greece in the EU, and potentially in some other countries. We have to remember that it started in 2008 in the United States with the Lehman Brothers collapse, not with a policy determined and decided by the Labour Government in this country, as some Government Members would have us believe. It was a global, western European, north American economic crisis, with terrible consequences that we are still dealing with today.

In the 1930s, at the time of a similar global economic crisis, bold measures were eventually taken by some countries in an attempt to solve the problems. Unfortunately, it was the rearmament and the second world war that led to more people being in work in some other countries. We face real dangers today, and unless the Government and the politicians—not just in this country, but in the rest of Europe—adopt a different approach, we will see some very nasty developments over the coming years. The Government still claim, I think, that we are all in it together, but from references made by other hon. Members here today, we know how the poorest people in this country are being damaged and scapegoated while millionaires get tax cuts.

I do not have time to talk about all the issues I would like to, but I will say one positive thing about the Chancellor’s Budget. I support the Enough Food for Everyone If campaign and am pleased that we still have, at least on paper—it will be interesting to see if it happens in practice, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) mentioned, quite pertinently—the commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on international development and aid projects. Over the past couple of years we have seen some fudging at the edges, as items previously funded from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office budget have been redefined and rebadged so that they now come out of the aid and development budget. Nevertheless, I take the Government’s commitment at face value and hope that over the next two or three years they will resist the pressures from the far right of their party, and from some newspapers, to cut the budget for helping the poorest people in the world’s poorest countries.

I want to touch on some of the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) in what I thought was an absolutely fantastic contribution. She highlighted the problems that are coming out of the Department for Work and Pensions employment service in her constituency. I, too, am a north-east London MP. Some of my constituents have come to me with interesting information in recent weeks. I understand that the DWP staff in north-east London who deal with my constituents have now been told to refer to them no longer as “clients” but as “claimants.” There is apparently an instruction to that effect. That clearly changes people’s attitude. The approach is no longer about customer service; it is about dealing with supplicants who are asking for help.

[Stella Creasy]

My hon. Friend might be interested to know that one of the people mentioned in the leaked e-mail about the conduct in my jobcentre is a regional manager who also covers his part of the borough of Redbridge, which might explain why the issue of sanctions and targets is emerging. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for not explaining in my earlier contribution that, owing to a previous commitment, I will unfortunately be unable to stay for the wind-ups, but the Minister can be assured that, even if Members are not here in person, we will all be listening very closely to what he has to say.

[Mike Gapes]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her intervention, which also gives me the opportunity to speak for another minute.

I have been pursuing a number of cases on behalf of my constituents in recent months, and for several weeks now we have received no written responses to any representations we have made to the DWP. The reason was not clear. We received telephone calls, but nothing in writing. We have begun to receive some responses by e-mail, but they are late and do not contain much detail. I do not know whether that is a policy position, because under the previous management of the Department’s services in my area I used to receive detailed written responses to the representations I made in respect of individual cases. The responses are no longer so detailed and they are delayed. I wonder whether that is because of the pressure on staff because of the cuts within the Department, or whether it is because of an attitude that says, “We don’t want MPs to have the information because then they can make effective representations about the inadequacies and failures of the Department.”

I also want to highlight what is happening with levels of unemployment. At a superficial level, because more people are in work the Government are claiming that everything seems to be fine. We have the paradoxical situation in which real living standards and real wages are falling, yet despite the double-dip recession and the flatlining economy more people are in work. However, if we dig into the statistics for the Ilford South constituency this week, we see that between February 2012 and February 2013, although the number of young people unemployed and registered for the claimant count is down, the number over 12 months of people out of work has gone up by 44%. The number of over-25s who have been claiming for more than two years in my constituency has gone up from 140 to 420—a 200% increase in one year. It seems to me that the organisations being used by the Department are concentrating on getting people into low-paid jobs quickly but not on those who might have mental health or alcohol problems, poor work records or a lack of confidence. The difficult cases are there, and they will add up in the future. That is really worrying.

Living Standards

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I am grateful for the intervention, as it allows me to remind the hon. Lady that in looking back at the period in the run-up to and start of the recession the OBR said the depth of boom and bust was greater than was anticipated—by more than 1%. The baseline from which we started, therefore, was much lower, which means, as is seen by the Treasury, that the amount we would have had to borrow would have been more than £100 billion if we had not taken our decisions early on. Labour Members’ posturing about their own position is fundamentally incorrect, and they must recognise that.

The OBR said that the eurozone crisis is

“likely to have contributed to weaker UK growth and business and consumer confidence.”

I know that Labour Members do not like to hear that that is an issue, but it is seen by everybody, not least of which the OBR.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

We all welcomed the establishment of the OBR because of the independence it gives. The full quotation from the OBR states that

“an external inflation shock constraining real household consumption”

is the reason for the revision in growth forecasts. How does the Secretary of State think that bearing down further on family incomes will help our economy to grow again?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The reality, as the OBR and the Institute for Fiscal Studies make very clear, is that you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. I know that Opposition Members are indulging in voodoo economics—a fake religion—but almost every economist abroad and at home says that you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, Conservative Members have supported the national minimum wage for many years—and will continue to do so.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

17. What recent representations he has received on his proposed review of housing benefit reforms.

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

We have had, and have responded to, many representations on the review of the housing benefit reforms. Most recently, my noble Friend Lord Freud met with Lord Best to discuss the review and our intention to commission a team of independent, external researchers to undertake the task.

[Stella Creasy]

The Secretary of State will be well aware of the severe and long-term shortages of housing currently faced in Waltham Forest, as in many London boroughs. Given that there are 1,500 people aged 26 to 35 currently in receipt of housing benefit in Waltham Forest, where does he think they will be living next year if his plans to change the shared room rate go through?

[Steve Webb]

One consequence of the reforms to housing benefit will be that the local housing market will change. We anticipate, for example, that some of the larger properties might find themselves converted into houses in multiple occupation, although we do not know exactly what will happen. One problem is that over many years we have seen inadequate house building taking place under the hon. Lady’s Government.