Liz Kendall MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 16 Dec 2024 · Low-paid Work · Hansard source

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  Our plan to get Britain working is crucial to tackling low pay and increasing living standards in every corner of the country. When only one in six people ever fully escape low pay, the Labour party believes that is not good enough, so our new jobs and careers service, backed by £55 million of additional funding next year, will kick-start our reforms to help more people get work and get on in their work so that they boost their living standards, too.

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

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  I congratulate organisations such as the one that the hon. Lady mentions for their brilliant work, not only to keep energy costs down but to support people into work. I will work closely with the Minister for energy consumers, and others in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, to support those organisations, including through jobcentres. More jobs and lower bills are key to improving people’s living standards.

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

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  Our ambition is an 80% employment rate over a decade of national renewal. We will get Britain working by creating a new jobs and careers service in our overhaul of jobcentres. We will bring forward a new youth guarantee, so that every young person is earning or learning, and will give local areas the power to join up work, health and skills support to help the 2.8 million people who are out of work due to long-term health conditions.

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

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  I am not sure where to start. If the Conservatives’ programmes were so successful, why do we have a record 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term health problems, and 1 million young people not in education, employment or training? I love the 15 WorkWell pilots, but we want to join up health, work and skills support in every corner of the country, not just a few places. There will be a different approach for young people under our youth guarantee. There will be the opportunities people need, but also a requirement to take them up, not only for those on unemployment benefit, but for those young people who can work but are out of work due to a health condition. That is the difference a Labour Government make: there is work for those who can, and proper opportunities.

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

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  If you can work, you must work, and if you repeatedly refuse to, sanctions will remain, but I know from young people in my constituency that they are desperate to get the skills and opportunities that they need. Unlike the Conservative party, that is what our youth guarantee will deliver.

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

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  In the Vale of Glamorgan, the economic inactivity rate is almost one in four people. That is higher than the rate for Wales as a whole, and certainly higher than the UK average. From spring next year, we will launch eight trailblazers to support more people with long-term health conditions into work, including in Wales. That is backed by £125 million of additional funding. We will design the programme jointly with the Welsh Government, and we aim to launch it in the spring. We are determined to boost jobs and growth in every corner of this great country.

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

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  My hon. Friend is exactly right: we have to deliver better jobs in every part of the country, including coastal communities like hers. We need to give young people the skills that they need, and job opportunities, so that they can build a better life. I look forward to working with her as we deliver our youth guarantee and “Get Britain Working” plans.

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

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  I absolutely join in the hon. Gentleman’s comments. It was a great joy to see that victory at the weekend. We want to see Access to Work working better. We want to get the backlogs down, and for that support to be available to more people. Labour Members believe that disabled people have the same rights as anyone else to work, socialise and take part in life. That is what we are determined to achieve, not just through the Department for Work and Pensions, but through every part of Government. The hon. Gentleman will know that we recently announced lead Ministers for disability in every Department. That shows how important we take this issue to be.

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

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  The hon. Member is laughing at his own chutzpah. I am happy to talk about the past 14 years, but the work capability assessment is not working. It needs to be reformed or replaced. That is what we said in our manifesto, and we will bring forward our proposals in a Green Paper in the spring. That has to be part of a bigger programme to help people with long-term health conditions and disabilities into work. That is what our “Get Britain Working” White Paper does, and I am happy to discuss it with him more in future.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We intend to ensure that everybody who is entitled to pension credit, and therefore the winter fuel payment, claims it and gets it. We have seen a 145% increase in claims—far more than was ever achieved under the last Government. If the hon. Lady was so concerned about that, perhaps she should have taken action during her party’s 14 years in government.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady talked about the winter fuel payment, but she failed to mention our determination to ensure that the 880,000 pensioners who do not claim pension credit, but are eligible, claim it so that they can get their winter fuel payment. The £4.9 million allocated from the household support fund to West Sussex, which covers her constituency, can be used precisely for those pensioners just above the pension credit threshold who have worked hard all their lives but need extra support with the cost of heating.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  If the hon. Lady cared so much about pensioners in the cold, why did her Government leave 880,000 not claiming pension credit? Why did they first promise to bring together housing benefit and pension credit in 2011 and never deliver it? This Government are taking action—42,500 more people are receiving pension credit now than when she left government. We are determined to act; perhaps she should apologise for her failure.

• 16 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As a lifelong champion of family carers, dealing with the problem of carer’s allowance overpayments is a priority for me and for my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability. Last week we set out the next steps in our independent review led by Liz Sayce, the former chief executive of Disability Rights UK. It will report by the summer and will look at how and why overpayments were built up, the changes we can make for the future and how best to help those affected. Along with the biggest ever cash boost to the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance announced in the Budget, it shows our determination to give family carers the support they need and deserve.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Long-term Health Conditions · Hansard source

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  Yes, I think it is disgusting that some people think it is all right to steal the blue badges that so many disabled people rely on to work, but also to socialise and to see family and friends. I know that the Minister for Future of Roads, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), who is responsible for this issue, is a strong supporter of the campaign by my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon). I will contact her to stress my support and that of my entire Department.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Long-term Health Conditions · Hansard source

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  I believe that sport, as well as art and culture, can play a huge role in engaging and inspiring people, helping them on the pathway to skills, confidence and jobs. I want to see that provision enhanced in future, because we are determined to have that at the national partnership level, and it needs to happen locally, too, to get people working and earning again.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Long-term Health Conditions · Hansard source

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  Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions deserve the same rights as everybody else, including the right to work. Many of the 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness say that they want to work, if they can get the right help and support. That is what our “Get Britain Working” plan will deliver.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  We will certainly speak to the RNIB to ensure that those points are included as we take our “Get Britain Working” White Paper forward.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  The whole point of devolving responsibility and accountability to mayors and local leaders is that they will know best the organisations that they need to involve in tackling economic inactivity, delivering the youth guarantee and embedding jobcentres into local communities. There is an additional £900 million in the shared prosperity fund for 2025-26, and that is a key element that we need to join up with the rest of these measures, but if the hon. Lady will write to me with more detailed information, I shall be happy to look at it.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  One hundred per cent. I could not agree more with the hon. Lady. We need to get more women into manufacturing, engineering and all those STEM subjects. I met many apprentices yesterday on a visit to Peterborough college, including young women who said, “This is for me.” More women need to do this. They are great jobs and great careers, with great pay—100%.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend will know, that is why the manifesto on which we were all elected said that we would reform or replace the work capability assessment. People wait for that assessment, and for the personal independence payment, for an average of between 14 and 18 weeks, and about 70% of decisions on the WCA and PIP can be overturned at tribunal. We need a system that gets the decision right first time, because that is what disabled people need and deserve.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  If I have time.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  The Government believe that disabled people have the same rights as everybody else, including the right to work. Our mission is to break down the barriers. Many disabled people would want to work if they could get the right help and support and a job that fits their needs and concerns, with greater flexibility. This is a really important challenge. I do not blame disabled people for often being frightened and worried when they hear about these discussions after what happened over the past 14 years, but we will work with disabled people and the organisations that represent them to get the world of work and the employment support system right and get a better-functioning system of disability benefits. This is a really big challenge for our country, but with these proposals we are taking an important step forward.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  It is hugely important that we deliver these new opportunities in every part of the country, including to people of all ages in Scotland. We will work with the Scottish Government on that, but also, really importantly, with local councils, who have a huge role to play. Our jobcentres really need to change. They need to meet the needs of employers and future employees in every part of the country. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend, to get his ideas on what will work best. Perhaps we could do a joint visit to his jobcentre.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  Sanctioning people because they use the NHS to make themselves as fit and healthy as possible is completely the wrong approach. I understand why disabled people are worried when they hear talk about helping people into work or reforms of sickness and disability benefits—they are worried because of what has happened over the past 14 years—but we are determined to break down those barriers to work. I think that many disabled people, given the right help and support and the right flexibility to work, could work and would want to work. That is what we are focusing on, and that is what we are determined to deliver.

• 26 Nov 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper · Hansard source

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  I am very sorry to hear that Diana’s daughter has not received the level of support that she had before. It is clear that with the right support she will be able to engage with the world of work as well as leading an independent life, which is what she wants. Our reforms are intended to ensure that such support is available everywhere. If the hon. Lady wishes to forward the details of that case, I shall be happy to take a look at them.