Deirdre Costigan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I wonder whether the hon. Member has told her constituent, Sarah, that under these proposals, nobody who is currently on PIP will have a single penny of their income cut, and they will be protected for time immemorial.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I know that many hon. Members were concerned that support would not be put in quickly enough. However, my constituency of Ealing Southall already has £8 million of funding from the Government’s get Britain working trailblazer programme. Does she welcome that the new proposals include £1.3 billion for investment in that programme and that that help will be rolled out to every disabled person who wants a job?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the Minister’s statement. This announcement will mean that over half a million more Londoners will benefit from a £150 discount on their energy bills this winter. Does she agree that along with our free breakfast clubs, the £1,400 per year increase in the minimum wage and free childcare in schools, today’s announcement shows that Labour is putting money back into the pockets of working people in Ealing Southall and across the country?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Street Parking on Estates: Bracknell Forest · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for raising these very important issues, and his constituents will be delighted that he is doing so on their behalf. In Ealing, electric vehicle charging points have been a major concern for the council to ensure they meet the need. There are currently 900 electric vehicle charging points throughout the borough, but we need 1,800 by 2030. The council has been consulting on an electric vehicle roll-out strategy to take a strategic approach to the issue. Does he agree that other areas would benefit from taking a similar strategic approach to the roll-out of electric vehicle charging points?

• 22 May 2025 · UK-India Cultural Co-operation Agreement · Hansard source

  More

  The Liberty cinema in my constituency of Ealing Southall, now the Himalaya Palace shopping centre, was the first cinema in the country to regularly show Bollywood films, and Southall has formed the backdrop of many a Bollywood movie since then, so I welcome this agreement to increase co-operation between the UK and Indian film industries for the benefit of both economies. What more can the Government and the Minister do to encourage cultural partnerships, so that the next generation of the British Indian diaspora in Southall can continue to enjoy their vibrant heritage?

• 20 May 2025 · Reasonable Adjustments (Duty on Employers to Respond) · Hansard source

  More

  I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about a deadline by which employers must respond to requests for reasonable adjustments from disabled workers; and for connected purposes. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my proud membership of Unison. I thank the Minister for Social Security and Disability, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Sir Stephen Timms), for being present today. Before being elected, I was the national officer for disability equality at the country’s biggest trade union, Unison. I was also a shop steward for many years, where I represented workers who were having problems at work, and it was disabled workers more than any others who were facing problems. In fact, disabled workers made up about two thirds of my cases as a union rep. By law, employers have to make changes to help disabled people stay in their jobs. These are called reasonable adjustments. They can include changes such as a special keyboard to reduce arthritis pain, IT software to help workers with dyslexia, or a start time of 10 o’clock instead of 9 o’clock, after tablets have kicked in. Unison’s research found that almost three quarters of disabled workers are turned down for such reasonable adjustments, and even where the employer has said yes, about a quarter of disabled workers wait a year or more to have the changes put in place. The most common story I heard from disabled workers was that they were just ignored by their employer—they never got a reply at all. For many, that meant that they had to do their job while in pain, or they were set up to fail, because they did not have the right equipment. Their manager would start to criticise their performance, because it is hard for someone to hit their targets when they are in constant pain. They would end up having to take time off sick. Before they knew it, they would be pushed out the door. Others just resigned because the pain or stress was too much. That was all because their employer refused to make those small changes that would have kept them in work. Employers can get away with this because there is no legal deadline by which they have to reply to disabled workers’ requests for reasonable adjustments. That contrasts with other employment rights, such as flexible working requests, where the employer has to reply within eight weeks. There is no such rule for reasonable adjustments. That serious gap is leading to disabled people being pushed out of good jobs and on to benefits. My Bill would set a clear deadline for employers to reply to disabled workers making a request for reasonable adjustments. There are already more than 5 million disabled people in work, but that represents less than 52% of disabled people, compared with 80% of non-disabled people being in work. That 29-point difference between the percentage of disabled people in employment versus non-disabled people is called the disability employment gap, and Governments have tried and failed to crack it for years. This Labour Government are finally offering disabled people a chance at equality. We have already passed the Employment Rights Bill, which gives everyone the right to flexible working, but that will especially help disabled people, who could benefit from more breaks or part-time working to manage pain or fatigue. On top of that, our pathways to work plan will invest £1.8 billion into employment support for disabled people. A recent Learning and Work Institute report found that two in 10 disabled people on benefits want to work, but at least half of them are getting no help to find a job. When I visited West Ealing jobcentre in my constituency last August and asked staff who a disabled person could speak to about finding a job that met their needs, they had no answer—there was no help available. Imagine what it must be like for someone who wants to work but is stuck in a system that will not let them, and that forces them to live on benefits when they do not want to and do not have to. This Government are investing in new trailblazer schemes to support disabled people who want to work. As part of that, the West London Alliance, which covers Ealing Southall, did a simple thing. It sent an email to local disabled people on long-term sickness benefits due to musculoskeletal conditions and asked whether they wanted help finding a job. More than 200 of people replied straightaway to say yes, they wanted help. That is 200 disabled people who had been sitting on benefits with no help at all under the previous Government. Labour’s plan will give disabled people who want to work the help they need. Our Employment Rights Bill and our increase to the national living wage will ensure that those are good-quality, decently paid jobs, too. This Labour Government’s plan to get Britain working also offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to radically transform the workplace so that it finally works for disabled people. Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former John Lewis boss, has been asked by Government to come up with ideas to make work more accessible and to ensure that employers take more responsibility for supporting disabled workers to stay in their jobs. My Bill would give a right to a response to reasonable adjustment requests to the 5 million disabled people already in work, and it would help open up jobs to hundreds and thousands of disabled people who want to work, but I look forward to seeing what other ideas the report identifies. I hope that the Mayfield review will look at some of the demands of the disability employment charter, of which I was a founding member when I worked for Unison. It includes ideas such as a stronger right to paid disability leave for assessment, rehabilitation and training. The Learning and Work Institute report found that, taken together, the investments that the Labour Government are making could lead to up to 165,000 disabled people moving from benefits to decent jobs—what an achievement that would be. Too many disabled people face losing jobs they love because employers simply do not give them the help they need to thrive at work. The Government’s record £1.8 billion investment in employment support will help disabled people who want to work, but we must ensure that those jobs are long-lasting. That is why employers must be held to a clear deadline to agree to the small changes that disabled workers need in order to get on at work. The Government’s Get Britain Working plan is an opportunity to transform the workplace so that it fits around the needs of disabled workers. My new Bill would support that aim by giving more disabled people the chance to enjoy good-quality jobs, which are the best route out of poverty and can unleash their many talents. I hope that the Government will consider taking it forward. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Deirdre Costigan, Katrina Murray, Mark Ferguson, Anneliese Midgley, Laurence Turner, Sarah Russell, Chris Bloore, Lee Barron, Tom Rutland, Uma Kumaran, Natasha Irons and Dr Marie Tidball present the Bill. Deirdre Costigan accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 13 June, and to be printed (Bill 247).

• 27 Mar 2025 · PIP Changes: Impact on Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source

  More

  Like many Members, I have had emails from constituents who are worried about these changes. Can the Minister confirm that the most disabled people, who will never work, will be protected; that he is consulting on a new higher rate of universal credit for those who are most severely disabled; and that the Chancellor’s £1 billion investment in employment support will help those disabled people who could work to find good-quality jobs, which are the best route out of poverty?

• 19 Mar 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

  More

  Will the shadow Minister be honest with the House, and honest with pensioners: how many would be affected, and by how much, by the means-testing of the state pension, to which the Leader of the Opposition is committed?

• 19 Mar 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

  More

  Will the shadow Minister tell the House how many pensioners would be impacted by the Leader of the Opposition’s plan to means-test the state pension, and by how much?

• 17 Mar 2025 · Employment Rights Bill: Employment Rates · Hansard source

  More

  Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit—a happy St Patrick’s day to you, Mr Speaker, and all your team. The disability employment gap stands at 30% and countless disabled workers end up out of work because their employers refuse to make simple changes that would help them to do their jobs. Does the Minister agree that the default right to flexible working in Labour’s Employment Rights Bill will help many disabled workers to keep the jobs they love? What else can the Minister’s Department do to help more disabled people to find and keep work?

• 11 Mar 2025 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

  More

  No, because many Members are waiting to speak. I welcome Government amendments 80 to 85, which specify the level of sick pay that low-paid workers will now be able to expect from day one. I know that some employers wanted to pay a bit less and trade unions wanted a bit more, but 80% is a compromise. I certainly do not support the delaying tactics of the Opposition, who have sought impact appraisals that already exist and show that these changes will lead to an increase in productivity and growth if we can get disabled people working when they want to do so. This transformative Bill responds to a key demand of the disability employment charter for a default right to flexible working. For many disabled workers, the ability to organise their hours around taking medication and dealing with pain or fatigue will mean being able to keep their job rather than ending up sick or being marched out of the door. In line with the charter, this new law also introduces paid time off for trade union equality representatives, a subject that I know we will discuss tomorrow. Negotiating reasonable adjustments can take time, and input from a trained person, whose priority is to keep the worker in his or her job, will make all the difference. However, Unison research has established that nearly a quarter of disabled workers who asked their employers for reasonable adjustments waited a year or more for help, and some never even received a reply. You cannot do a job that causes you pain, or sets you up to fail, so it is no wonder that disabled people end up out of the door. The disability employment charter calls for a new right to a two-week deadline for at least receiving a reply to a reasonable adjustment request. Currently there is no deadline for such a response, although in the case of flexible working requests the employer must respond within eight weeks. I have had constructive discussions with the Minister for Social Security and Disability, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Sir Stephen Timms), and I am hopeful that we may see such a deadline included in the “Get Britain Working” plan, which complements the Bill. Many good employers already support disabled workers, and I pay tribute to the 240 who have backed the disability employment charter and rights for those workers. The Bill and the Government amendments will ensure that there is a level playing field, so that bad employers cannot undercut those who want to do the right thing. They will ensure that more disabled workers can keep jobs that they value, and can contribute to the growth that we need to get our economy working again.

• 11 Mar 2025 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my Unison membership. I welcome the Bill, which is a once-in-a-generation chance to give more power to working people—including those in Ealing Southall—and I support the Government amendments to provide decent sick pay to 1.3 million low-paid workers. I do not support the Opposition’s amendments, which attempt to tie us up in knots in an effort to block working people from getting the rights they should be entitled to. I particularly want to consider the impact of the Bill and the Government amendments on disabled people. Currently, almost 3 million people are off work long-term sick—a record high. Of course, some of those are disabled people who are unable to work. However, there are also many disabled people who desperately want to work, but who have been kicked out of their job because their employer refused to make simple changes that would allow them to succeed. In my previous role as national disability officer for the country’s biggest trade union, Unison, we worked with Disability Rights UK and Scope to develop the disability employment charter. That charter is a list of improvements to help disabled people get, and keep, employment. Over 240 employers, both large and small, signed up to say that they backed the ideas in the charter—they backed disabled workers’ rights—but the previous Conservative Government saw it all as red tape. They did not listen, and they refused to introduce those changes. They left millions of disabled people who want to work stuck on benefits, and the Opposition’s amendments today are just more of the same. Those 240 employers that signed the disability employment charter, and the many disabled workers who have been pushed out of their jobs, will be heartened to see the changes being introduced in the new Employment Rights Bill. Many of those changes implement the demands of the charter, including allowing flexible working, more support for trade union disability reps, and strengthening sick pay. Those 240 employers would reject the Opposition’s many amendments whose aim is to frustrate this support for disabled workers. People are often surprised to learn that low-paid workers are not entitled to statutory sick pay, and that unless the employer company has its own scheme, they can claim statutory sick pay only after three days of being ill. During the pandemic, that led to social care staff, in particular, feeling forced to work when they had covid, potentially passing the illness on. Lack of access to sick pay is a public health issue, and this new law will ensure that low-paid workers no longer have to choose between not being paid and going to work sick. It will also give disabled workers time off to recover from illness rather than struggling into work., becoming sicker, and potentially falling out of employment for the long term. Being paid to take a few days off to recover could save them, and the economy, a lifetime of being left on the scrapheap.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Workplace Pay Gaps · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for securing this important debate. I declare an interest as vice-chair of the Unison group of MPs. We have had gender pay gap reporting since 2017. Although it was a very welcome first step, it has proved to be too weak on its own to fully level the playing field between men and women at work. Women are still being paid significantly less than men on average. Gender pay gap reporting relies on a name-and-shame approach that means that employers can continue to report paying women less, year after year, without having to take any action at all to change this. It is great news that the new Labour Government have already taken decisive action by bringing forward the new Employment Rights Bill. The new law will mean that employers have to publish an action plan setting out how they will take tangible steps to reduce gender pay gaps and discrimination in the workplace. Finally, employers will be held to account to ensure that they pay women fairly. Today, I want to focus on disabled people in particular. Disabled workers are paid an average of over £2 an hour less than non-disabled workers. That is thousands of pounds a year that disabled workers are losing out on. Disabled women experience one of the worst pay gaps as a result of double discrimination: not only do they suffer the gender pay gap, but they experience the disability pay gap, which has barely moved over the past decade. There was no progress at all under the previous Government, and disabled workers are still losing out. I am delighted that the new Labour Government announced straight away in the King’s Speech that we would bring forward a new equality Bill that will ensure a full right to equal pay for both disabled and black and Asian workers. The new law will finally extend pay gap reporting to disabled workers and will mean that employers with more than 250 staff must publicly account for the difference in how much they pay their disabled staff. However, as the gender pay gap has shown, we will still need to do more, and the groundbreaking disability employment charter outlines some of the solutions. The disability employment charter is a list of nine demands of Government that will break down the barriers for disabled people at work. It was put together by organisations such as Scope, Disability Rights UK and Unison. Over 220 employers have already backed the disability employment charter but the previous Government failed to act on any of its recommendations. One of the charter’s key demands is for disability pay gap reporting alongside employment gap reporting, because too many employers just do not employ disabled people in the first place, let alone pay them properly. I hope that the Minister will consider mandatory publication of the level of disabled staff at larger employers so that an employer’s commitment to treating disabled people fairly can be properly assessed. Disabled workers are twice as likely to be unemployed than non-disabled workers. That is caused by discrimination in recruitment, but also by workers being hounded out due to bullying and harassment, or a failure to provide reasonable adjustments. Disabled workers are entitled by law to reasonable adjustments—often small changes that can help them do their job—but research by Unison found that a quarter of disabled workers have waited over a year for adjustments to be put in place and many never hear back from their employers at all. They get ignored and the current law is not strong enough for them to do anything about it. No one can do their job properly if they do not have the tools to do it, so of course those disabled workers lose out on promotion and get stuck on the bottom rung of the pay ladder. That is a key cause of the disability pay gap. Without the right help, many disabled workers are in pain each day at work, or struggle to perform. The next thing they know, they are out of the door: an outcome that could have been avoided with changes to hours, additional breaks, or with, for example, speech-to-text software. That is a massive waste of talent, which has led to a disability employment gap of 30% and nearly 3 million people stuck at home on long-term sick leave when many of them want to work. The disability employment charter calls for a new right to a two-week deadline to get at least a reply to requests for reasonable adjustments. Currently, there is no deadline for a response—unlike, for example, flexible working requests, to which the employer needs to respond in eight weeks. I gave evidence on that point to the Lords Public Services Committee in my previous role with Unison and I welcome the Committee’s recommendation of a four-week deadline for responses to requests for reasonable adjustments. I know the Minister will consider that issue as she works with colleagues, including the Minister for Social Security and Disability, on proposals to help to reduce the disability employment gap and the pay gap. Disabled people are full of talent and creativity. For too long they have been pushed out of jobs that they love because of discrimination, bullying and a simple refusal to give them the basic help that they need to thrive at work. The solutions outlined in the disability employment charter, including mandatory publication of the disability pay gap and the employment gap, and a deadline for responses to requests for reasonable adjustments, will help to finally unleash that talent. I look forward to this transformative Labour Government taking forward this vital work.

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

  More

  Many disabled people in Ealing Southall are unnecessarily unemployed purely and simply because their employer refuses to respond to their request for the reasonable adjustments that they need to do their job. Will the Minister consider strengthening the right to reasonable adjustments, so that workers receive a response within a specified number of weeks, in line with the recommendations in the groundbreaking disability employment charter?

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

  More

  Does the shadow Secretary of State agree that if a local council had run its finances into the ground, in the way that his party did to the country’s finances with a £22 billion black hole, he would have called in the commissioners in the morning and instigated swingeing cuts? Can I ask him— [ Interruption. ] Given that that is the case, and that he now seems to have decided that his party no longer cares about balancing the books, will he apologise—