Alison McGovern MP: speeches

Speeches

• 3 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As I have already mentioned in a number of responses, we understand the scale and seriousness of the problem the hon. Member mentions. We have already published the terms of reference for the child poverty taskforce, and we will continue to keep the House updated as we move forward, given the seriousness of the issue.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  In the specifics of our proposal, we will publish a Green Paper on health and disability in the coming months. With regards to the financial controls, we will do all that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury set out some moments ago on allowing the Office for Budget Responsibility to perform its function. That is the best way to ensure that we take fiscal decisions within the guardrails that he set out. The results of 14 years of failure are unfortunately only too obvious, as I said earlier. Everywhere we look in this country, we can see the impact of what the previous Government did. Too many people in far too many places were neglected and failed, starved of opportunity, and left to turn to a social security system that just is not working. Everybody in this country suffers the consequences.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I did make the case for the overall welfare cap and for that policy at the beginning of my speech, because it is important that we have proper controls on public spending. Fantasy economics will do absolutely nothing to support family finances and the Government are determined that we will manage public finances in a responsible fashion. The results of failure are far too obvious; we all pay the consequences. That is why we will not stand for it. Every penny counts, but so does the future of every person in this country. That is why, in order to ensure we save every penny for the things we want to spend on in social security, we are bringing forward the biggest welfare fraud and error package in recent history. We are not just tweaking a broken system; we are going to fundamentally change the way we approach reform, starting with the principle of focusing on people. We will tackle the root causes of unemployment—whether you are out of work because you cannot find a job or are out of work because the last Government wrote you off, everybody deserves to build a better life and fulfil their potential.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  We published in November an extensive reform programme for the Department to get Britain working. We showed how in some parts of the country—I will come to this in more detail shortly—people have been abandoned and their labour market has not supported enough good jobs for a very long time. We showed how, by acting on better health and better local support services, we will reintroduce ambition into our support services. We want to help people get into a job that will support their family finances and help our economy thrive. We have a huge change programme underway in the Department for Work and Pensions, and we will be doing even more than we set out in that White Paper. The challenge is huge, but the potential is also massive. I worry about everybody who is out of work, but particularly our young people, who have effectively been thrown on the scrapheap. It is a disaster now in exactly the same way that it was a disaster, brought about by the economic turbulence that I grew up in, in the 1980s, which is the period the right hon. Member refers to. We will therefore take the challenge of restoring employment—proper employment—in this country extremely seriously. In doing that, I want to talk about the Government’s wider responsibilities, not just in reforming the social security system but far beyond that. You will forgive me, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I return to the founding document of our social security system, the Beveridge report. In 1942, William Beveridge identified the “establishment of comprehensive health and rehabilitation services, and maintenance of employment…as necessary conditions of success” in social security. That lesson is forgotten again and again in this country, and we will never have a social security system that functions well unless we have an NHS that works and we maintain policies designed to move towards full employment. Social security cannot soak up every single problem in this country if the Government forget their wider responsibilities. I note that the Beveridge report considered the consequences of war and the injury to the nation that that had brought about. In many ways, we ought to learn the lessons of the pandemic: that the health of the nation can never be taken for granted and that, in setting us on the right path in terms of both health and employment, we can plot a course towards a more sustainable future. As I have said, is it any wonder that our social security system is broken given the health of the nation, given what we have been through and given the last Government’s neglect of the NHS and the state of our labour market? To look backwards again for a moment, we know that in our country’s economic history, we had periods when whole towns and cities were deindustrialised and left to fend for themselves. Economies simply failed, and while great progress has been made, including in my constituency, in my city region in Merseyside and in other places whose economies have moved on greatly since that time, sadly, too many have never properly recovered. As a result, we have a labour market that simply fails to offer good work everywhere. As part of our “Get Britain Working” White Paper analysis, we found that when students are not counted, the inactivity rate, to give the example of Blackpool, is 29%. That is nearly a third of working age people. That can never be a good platform on which to build a thriving economy, and I am determined that we will turn it around. More than half of the 20 local authorities with the highest rates of inactivity in England are in the north, while none are in the south-east. It is, however, far from a north-south divide. We have identified 14 types of labour markets in the United Kingdom and considered their features: what they share and what divides them. We want to identify those places that are furthest behind, precisely so that we can help. It is not just the prevailing economic circumstances or what has happened in the recent past to a local authority that defeats people, but, unfortunately, the jobcentres that are supposed to be there to help. When we did our analysis for our “Get Britain Working” White Paper, we uncovered the record of the last Conservative Government. I was shocked to find that only around 8%—only 8%—of universal credit claimants in the “searching for work” group move into work from one month to the next. In the “no work requirements” group, 92% were still there after six months. That is the very definition of being on the scrapheap: no work and no help to get work. That is just failing people. Then there is the price tag. Spending on universal credit and disability benefits was £10.9 billion higher than anticipated when the level of the welfare cap was calculated. That is a dreadful record. For the reasons that I set out earlier, the breach of the cap is unavoidable this year, but this Government are taking the action necessary to drive up opportunity in employment while driving down the benefits bill. Our “Get Britain Working” White Paper, as I have mentioned, set out the biggest reforms to employment in a generation, with a radical new approach backed by £240 million of investment. We are overhauling our jobcentres and creating a new jobs and careers service, doing away with needless admin and freeing up work coach time, so that my colleagues can give real, high-quality support to people. Although I am often disappointed in the help that people receive in jobcentres, I am never disappointed by what our work coaches do. The thing that lets the work coaches down is the system in which they work. For example, they are told that they can see someone for only 10 minutes. How are they supposed to help in 10 minutes? They have to carry out numerous admin checks that could be done with modern technology, when the person in front of them is just sat there waiting, not receiving any help. Our work coaches are full of ideas, full of local knowledge and full of determination that we will make a new system work. I take this opportunity to put on record my thanks to every single DWP member of staff who has embraced change with gusto.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  The NHS is the bedrock that ensures people can thrive and contribute to society, economically and in every other way. We also need to ensure that the health support people get is the right support. At the moment, we are not doing enough on occupational therapies and other things that provide health support tailored to people’s work. We will have more to say about that in the near future, I am sure. A huge number of people are turning to a social security system that is not geared up to meet the huge employment challenge. At the moment, social security cannot cope. Hon. Members may ask themselves how on earth we got to this place, after 14 years of so-called benefits crackdowns by the Conservatives. Well, I invite everybody to look at their record. When universal credit was introduced 12 years ago, the Government of the day made all sorts of promises. They said it would “break the cycle of benefit dependency” and offer “greater incentives to find a job”. The former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), said that universal credit “will ensure that work always pays and is seen to pay”, but what have we seen since? A disastrous series of wrong-headed choices that have achieved precisely the opposite effect. New data, which we are publishing today for the first time, shows the extent of the effects of universal credit on incapacity benefits. There has been increase of 800,000 people receiving incapacity benefits between 2018 and 2023. Around 10% of that increase is because of the rising state pension age and another 10% because of the way changes were made in the move from employment support allowance and other benefits to universal credit, a situation that should have been foreseen and planned for by the previous Government. That leaves an increase of over 500,000 people, to which I will now turn. The Conservatives need to take a long hard look at the changes they made to universal credit. We must consider how people transitioned between the “looking for work” group in the universal credit health journey, where they are told that they have limited capacity to do any work or work-related activity, to “actively looking for work”. How did people move between being told they cannot work and being told to actively look for work? People moving between those two groups used to receive a top-up to their benefits, but that was removed in 2017, creating a hard barrier between those categorised as incapable for work and those looking for work. In addition, there was a four-year freeze to the rates of universal credit in the late 2010s, except the highest tier of health-related benefits. As a result, the income of those trying to find work was squeezed, and the barrier between those on universal credit actively looking for work and those who had been told that they were unable to work was hardened. We have seen a steady rise in the number of people on the highest tier of health benefits, where there are no requirements to look for work or to get any help to make the steps on that journey, and no support to find jobs when many people actually want to work. All the while, there have been more and more conditions and box ticking in a system that has failed. Social security was designed to smooth people’s incomes over time and to take account of life events that could happen to any of us, but the result of all the changes is that either by design or mismanagement—probably both—the previous Government created a social security system that segregated people away from work and forgot about them. There was no helping back to work, and only the promise that they would be left alone. The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that “the wider benefits system—in particular the conditionality and generosity associated with incapacity benefits relative to other parts of the system—has affected incapacity benefits flows over time”. Unfortunately, that situation, created by the last Government, is far from the only problem, because social security will only ever function where the Government take their wider duties seriously.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for allowing me to intervene briefly to say that the child poverty taskforce’s work is ongoing, and that it regularly engages with parliamentarians and others to update them. I know that many parliamentarians have been pleased to involve themselves in that work, given the importance of tackling child poverty.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That, pursuant to the Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn 2022 update, which was approved by this House on 6 February 2023 under section 1 of the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011, this House agrees that the forecast breach of the welfare cap in 2024–25 due to higher forecast expenditure on Universal Credit and disability benefits is justified and that no further debate will be required in relation to this specific breach.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  Before this Government were elected, we said that we would change this country, and we will. To get change done, any Government have to stand on firm foundations, which is why, as we have just heard from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, we promised to be responsible with the public’s money. We know that every penny counts in this mission, because if we fail to protect the public purse, we fail to protect the purses of the public. Family finances can never withstand fantasy economics. That was supposed to be the whole point of the welfare cap. It was designed to help better control public spending, counting the cost of the rising price of failure. I will come to some of the failures we are now seeing and the people thrown on the scrapheap as a result of the failure of 14 years of economic policy, particularly on the labour market. The welfare cap was intended to ensure that the cost of important parts of the social security system, such as universal credit—though not counting those actively looking for work—the personal independence payment and pension credit, remains predictable and affordable. Only the state pension and benefits for unemployed households were excluded. What was the result of a decade of Conservative welfare caps? Repeated breaches of the cap, with ever higher limits. The latest cap is now on course to be breached by an £8.6 billion overspend. This is not tolerable, given the state of our economy and the public finances. [ Official Report , 12 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 5WC.] (Correction) Worse still, there is the human cost for every single person who could be enjoying the benefits of work but has been denied the choices and chances they deserve. I regularly meet people in that position. There is the young person who has not recovered from the dreadful legacy of the pandemic—not in college, not starting their first job, barely even able to go out with friends, and bearing the burden of the mental health crisis that our young people face. I believe the pandemic generation was completely let down. There are our older relatives who have been pushed out of work before their time with hip or knee pain. The NHS is just not able to help them at the moment, and they are not even getting advice about how to make ends meet. That is the legacy we inherited, and it is not good enough for anybody. It is also the legacy of low growth, the higher cost of living and high inactivity, with employment and social security systems ill equipped to meet the requirements of an older, sicker nation. That is the Conservative party’s record. Unfortunately, this breach—forecast as far back as March 2023 but ignored—is now wholly unavoidable in this fiscal year, given the scale of failure we have inherited. We will not duck the difficult decisions needed to restore economic stability, and we will deal with the failure we see before us. Before I say how we will do that, I want to reflect on exactly how we ended up in this situation. The sad truth is that, in way too many parts of the country, too many people are denied the opportunity to have a good job so that they can support themselves and put a roof over their family’s heads. The benefits bill only reflects that failure, with 2.8 million people locked out of the workforce due to poor health, and 3.4 million more working-age people reporting a long-term health condition than 10 years ago. We have large numbers of people turning up to a social security system that is not geared up to meet what has become the greatest unemployment challenge of a generation.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I think I am being asked whether we stopped the extensive work that the previous Government were doing on rising inactivity. I have to say that when I got into the Department for Work and Pensions, there was not an extensive plan available. That is why we have had to embark on fundamental reform, which we set out in a White Paper in November, and that is why we will shortly be bringing forward a Green Paper on health and disability reform. The idea that somehow there was an instruction list left in the Department that we could just crack on with is a fantasy.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Lady. Can we just take this moment to thank the DWP team in St Albans? They sound like they are doing a great job and they are also briefing their local MP, which is really good of them. I encourage all colleagues in the House to ensure that they have a regular catch-up with their jobcentre colleagues so that they know the kind of things that our work coaches have to deal with. Often, Members of Parliament can be quite helpful in putting people in touch with other organisations, so I encourage all colleagues to do as the hon. Lady has done. On the point that the hon. Lady makes about SEND, she is absolutely right: this is a major barrier. If Members want to understand what a struggle to get to work and to stay in work looks like, they should ask the parent of a disabled child. This issue of where the effect of poverty and the SEND crisis can compound is being considered by the child poverty taskforce in particular. The hon. Lady is absolutely right: good public services and a good, strong economy go hand in hand. It is not “public services or a strong economy”—we called that ideology “austerity”, and it did not work. The two go hand in hand. We need to look in that rounded way to see how we can help people, and that is the approach that we are taking. We want to make every jobcentre in the country a place that people who are looking for work, and employers, will actually want to use. We know that what happens early on in a career echoes down the years; as I have said, our young people—the pandemic generation—were failed. That is why our youth guarantee will give every 18 to 20-year-old access to quality education, training or employment. On top of that, we are working with local leaders who know their towns and cities best, supporting them to produce their own local “Get Britain Working” plans that join up work, health and skills to support their communities. I have mentioned the major fractures still in the UK economy following previous economic events that were not managed properly. That is how we know that the same thing just will not work everywhere. The DWP will reform itself so that we are able to localise support services, and we will work with local leaders to do that. All of that will ensure that we help people to enjoy the benefits that good work brings to wellbeing—and I do mean “good work”. The choice in this country should never be between the scar of unemployment and the scar of poor work that does nothing but keep people poor. Poor work does not reduce the pressure on our social security system; it just means more people working too hard for their poverty. That is why we will improve the security and quality of work through our plan to make work pay. We will create more good jobs in every part of the country with a modern industrial strategy and local growth plans. Together, they will help us to meet our long-term ambition for an 80% employment rate. We will create the conditions for success in social security. As I have outlined, the changes made to social security were ill-thought through. A fresh approach is needed to make our social security system sustainable, and we will build that system to give people the help that they need to find great jobs and feel the benefit of work. We want to tackle poverty and target support at those who need it most. We will set out our proposals in a Green Paper on reforming the health and disability system in the spring. We will work with disabled people and their organisations to get that right. A strong social security system needs the confidence of us all. Anyone might suddenly find themselves unwell or with the extra costs that children bring, and we all hope one day to enjoy the benefits of the state pension, so we must protect the social security system now and in the future. Not only did we confirm at the autumn Budget that we would keep a welfare cap in place with a margin of 5% to account for the volatility of recent forecasts, but later this year we will publish a new annual report on social security spending across Government, setting out the DWP’s plan to ensure that it is on a sustainable path. The days of setting spending targets without a proper plan to meet them are over.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I am glad that my hon. Friend is proud to be a Labour MP, as am I, and I am glad he is proud of the approach we are taking on employment, because so am I. We cannot afford this failure any longer in the cost to our public finances. We will never tolerate the failure in hope, dignity, ambition and opportunity that the levels of unemployment in this country now represent.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Welfare Cap · Hansard source

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  I thank every Member who contributed to the debate. My hon. Friends the Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher), for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky) and for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), the hon. Members for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) and for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman), and the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) all made important contributions. All of us have pointed out that our social security system should be a safety net and a springboard, and should help people be and do all the things they might wish. However, when we look at what we have inherited, it is a mess and it does not serve the purpose it is supposed to serve. That presents a crisis for this country, because each and every one of us knows that one day it could be us that gets sick and needs help, and that one day, hopefully, we will receive a state pension. We need the social security system to do its job. We are not in a good place, but we will move on. We are all impatient to get the change we need. We have already set out plans that are being discussed. We need big, fundamental reform, because the scale of the challenge is huge. There is an £8.6 billion breach this year; the OBR saw the breach coming for over 18 months, but the previous Government did absolutely nothing to prevent it. That is not a number that you get because of one or two— One and a half hours having elapsed since the commencement of proceedings on the motion, the Deputy Speaker put the Question (Order, this day). Question agreed to. Resolved, That, pursuant to the Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn 2022 update, which was approved by this House on 6 February 2023 under section 1 of the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011, this House agrees that the forecast breach of the welfare cap in 2024–25 due to higher forecast expenditure on Universal Credit and disability benefits is justified and that no further debate will be required in relation to this specific breach. Welfare Cap Resolved, That the level of the welfare cap, as specified in the Autumn Budget 2024, which was laid before this House on 30 October 2024, be approved.— (Alison McGovern.)

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Employers · Hansard source

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  I am not entirely sure that the issues the hon. and learned Gentleman raises are completely within my responsibilities. However, DWP colleagues in Northern Ireland work closely with business, and I am sure that they will continue to do so, whatever the prevailing economic circumstances.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Employers · Hansard source

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  We have all been there, Mr Speaker. Businesses are crying out for staff, yet only one in six employers uses jobcentres. Our “Get Britain Working” White Paper will revolutionise employment support to give employers the workforce they need. The support will include a new jobs and career service, designed around employers’ needs. We are also launching an independent review of the role of employers in promoting healthy and inclusive workforces.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Employers · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend describes exactly why we need a local tailored service: so that all employers can properly engage with jobcentres and work together to find the skilled members of staff that they need. I agree with him that Edinburgh offers so many opportunities to our young people. I know that all my DWP colleagues in Edinburgh will work with him to get business the skilled staff that they need.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the OBR report that says that overall, employment will go up.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We still have more than 800,000 vacancies in this economy, and businesses are crying out for staff. That is why, through our reform programme, we are determined that the DWP will serve business better. I look forward to working with Members across the House to make that happen.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The child poverty taskforce is considering all children across the UK in all aspects of our child poverty strategy. We recognise the distinct challenges of poverty faced by children in particular groups, such as migrant children, disabled children and others. We are engaging directly with families affected by poverty. We recognise that the causes of child poverty are deep rooted and we will look at all levers to make change.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right to raise the condition of children living in poverty in this country. That is why, as I mentioned earlier, the child poverty taskforce is doing extensive work on the issue.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  That question demonstrates the quality analysis I would expect from recently engaged economists on the Labour Benches. The Minister for Skills and I have been working closely on the youth guarantee, because we know that it is only by colleges and jobcentres working in hand in hand that we will get young people the skills that they need to succeed.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I have brought forward proposals to get Britain working, together with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Secretary of State for Education, and Secretaries of State right across Government. That is how we will plot a course towards our ambition of an 80% employment rate. I thank the shadow Secretary of State for being kind enough to refer to our “Get Britain Working” plans as “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”. It was very brave of her to acknowledge that the last Government’s legacy for us was a sinking ship.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. I know she met my colleague the Minister for Social Security and Disability recently, and I am sure that their conversations were productive on this important point.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I have just given the OBR’s assessment. It is worth noting that there are still a significant number of vacancies in the economy. We are determined that the Department for Work and Pensions will be reformed to serve employers better, so that they can fill those vacancies.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  The Budget made the choices needed to fix the foundations of our economy. Taking those into account, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that unemployment will fall to 4.1% next year and remain low until 2029. We are taking action to support jobs and growth, and to transform employment support to get Britain working.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Budget 2024: Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I make no apologies for having ambition for people in our labour market. The figure was always an ambition, because Labour Members want our jobcentres to shift away from pointless admin towards real ambition for everybody who steps through the door.