Liz Kendall MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 7 Oct 2024 · Child Poverty Taskforce · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a very important point about learning the lessons from the last time we were in government and lifted more than 600,000 children out of poverty, and looking at similarities and differences, not least that there are more children growing up in poverty in households, whether in the private rented sector or in social housing, and that there are more children growing up poor in a household where somebody works. Getting and creating more good quality jobs, and helping families into those jobs, is absolutely a crucial part of our child poverty plan.

• 7 Oct 2024 · Child Poverty Taskforce · Hansard source

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  Tackling child poverty is a top priority for the new Government, and a personal priority for me. Children cannot fulfil their potential without food in their belly or a decent roof over their head, and we cannot fulfil our potential as a country when the talents of so many are left behind. That is why our new child poverty taskforce will drive action across every area of government to drive up family income, drive down family costs and give every child the best start in life.

• 7 Oct 2024 · Child Poverty · Hansard source

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  Yes, we have already met Kim McGuinness, on 19 September, when she set out the actions she is already taking. Let me say to Members on both sides of the House that our strategy will be out in the spring, but we will not be waiting until then to act. Nationally, we have put £421 million into the household support fund to help the poorest families, and mayors such as Kim McGuinness are doing amazing work: they are working with schools to ensure that people claim the benefits to which they are entitled, and, crucially, working with businesses to help them to do all that they can to tackle in-work poverty and ensure that working families receive the money for those children.

• 7 Oct 2024 · Child Poverty · Hansard source

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  The last Labour Government lifted 600,000 children out of poverty. Under the Conservatives, the number went up by 700,000. There are now more than 4 million children living in poverty in the UK in the 21st century. In one of the richest countries in the world, that is a complete disgrace. That is why the work of the child poverty taskforce, which I co-chair with the Education Secretary, is so urgent and so important.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  I will not. But the truth we had to confront coming into office was that up to 880,000 of the very poorest pensioners are not even claiming the pension credit that they are entitled to. That is a national scandal, and we are determined to make that change. The previous Government did nothing to tackle this issue properly. Indeed, in 2012 they promised to merge housing benefit and pension credit, which we know would significantly increase uptake, yet when I arrived in the Department I learned it would not happen until 2028—a decision that was taken on their watch. That is completely unacceptable and, unlike the Conservatives, we will change it.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  I know the right hon. Gentleman will care about the increase in uptake in pension credit that we need, and that he will also care about those just above the threshold, which I will turn to later on. That is a really important issue and I will address it head on, but first I want to spell out the principle underlying the approach we have taken, which is the most help going to those who need it most and significant support for all pensioners through the pension triple lock, backed by extra help available for those on low incomes. Pension credit goes to 1.4 million of the poorest pensioners and is worth on average £3,900 a year.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  This has been a really important debate about a serious issue, with many heartfelt contributions. My hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier), the new Chair of the Treasury Committee, forensically set out the delayed and deferred decisions by the former Government that have put such pressure on the public finances. My hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) rightly spoke about pensioners, children and disabled people in poverty, and the need to do much more to support them. The hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) talked about the crucial issue of pension credit uptake and what we will do differently. I will say more about that later, but I reassure her that the Treasury is fully behind the action that we are taking. My hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon), who has huge experience in health and social care, talked about the need to work with those in supported accommodation, housing associations and the NHS to ensure that pensioners get the help that they are entitled to. I will spell out some of that action. My hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) made a strong case for targeting help to the poorest pensioners and the need to tackle the root causes of poverty, including insulating homes and bringing down energy costs. My hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) mentioned, among many things, the very long and complicated pension credit form, which I have asked the Department to reduce to make it as simple as possible. I would like to start by setting out why we have taken the difficult decision to means-test winter fuel payments so that they are no longer available to all pensioners whatever their income, but are focused on those in the greatest need. Put simply, it is because we must fix the foundations of our economy as the first step to rebuilding Britain and making the changes that our country desperately needs, and because when money is tight, our priority must be to target resources at those who need them the most. Opposition Members do not want to be reminded of their record and the state they left the country in, but their economic failure and reckless decisions left a £22 billion hole in the public finances this year, with a £6.4 billion overspend on the asylum system, a £2.9 billion overspend on the transport budget, and new roads, hospitals and train stations announced but not budgeted for. There was one unfunded commitment after another, and the reserves were spent three times over—spending like there is no tomorrow, with no thought for the consequences today. That is before we even begin to deal with the challenges we already knew about: NHS waiting lists at 7.6 million, more than 1 million waiting for a council home, a totally broken prison system and more than 4 million children growing up poor. Opposition Members want to deny that is the case, but the Office for Budget Responsibility is crystal clear: it was made aware of the true extent of the pressures on the public finances only after we were elected—pressures it says constitute one of the largest overspends outside the pandemic. Faced with that reality and the need to get the public finances on track this year, we took the difficult decision to focus winter fuel payments on those in greatest need.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  I will give way to the former Chair of the Treasury Committee.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  I could not have put it better myself: there is faux outrage from Conservative Members about those just above the pension credit threshold, when it was their former Tory Chancellor, George Osborne, who took a red pen to it, meaning its value decreased, creating some of the problems we are now having to deal with. There is much more we are doing to help low-income pensioners, including those just above pension credit: the £150 warm home discount; the household support fund, which we have just extended, with £500 million of additional funding that councils can use to help low-income pensioners; our warm homes plan to tackle the root causes of fuel poverty; and the fact that, because the only way to really control energy bills is through cheap home-grown energy, we have already legislated for Great British Energy. That is the difference a Labour Government make: fixing the foundations, taking the long-term decisions our country needs, prioritising help for those who need it most, helping all pensioners with the pension triple lock, and providing more help for low-income pensioners too. We will not shy away from our responsibilities, as Members now on the Opposition Benches did. We were elected on a platform to deliver economic stability, rebuild the country and make the changes that our country needs; making it better and giving it its future back. Pensioners deserve better than the faux outrage of Opposition Members. Question put.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  I will come on to extra help for those just above the threshold in a moment, but I want to spell out what we are doing on pension credit. We have done more to increase pension credit uptake in the last two months than Conservative Members did in 14 years. We have written to all local authorities to ask them to identify eligible pensioners, including by sharing data. We are joining forces with Age UK and Citizens Advice to ensure pensioners check and apply. We launched a major awareness campaign, to continue right up to the deadline to apply on 21 December—and yes, pension credit will be backdated by three months—backed by 450 extra staff to ensure claims are processed as quickly as possible. The Deputy Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), is working with housing associations and supported accommodation providers so that their residents know what they are entitled to. I am working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), to ensure that frontline NHS staff can signpost older patients who may be housebound because of disabilities and chronic conditions. For the very first time, we are writing to all pensioners on housing benefit who are potentially eligible to encourage them to claim, something the Conservatives never did. In the longer term, because the only way to guarantee uptake is to make the whole process more automated, we will bring forward the merger of housing benefit and pension credit, which Conservative Members never did. That is the extra help for the poorest that we are determined to deliver, but it is built on a bedrock of support for all pensioners through our commitment to the pension triple lock, which has seen the new state pension increase by £900 this year and £970 the year before. Our continued commitment to the triple lock means that the new state pension is forecast to increase by a further £1,700 over the course of this Parliament, including, if today’s Office for National Statistics figures are confirmed next month, an extra £460 from next April.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I would make that point in response to the faux outrage of Conservative Members, who left 880,000 pensioners, the very poorest, not getting the pension credit they are entitled to. I urge all hon. Members to work with us that their local councils to ensure pensioners get the money to which they are entitled. As my right hon. Friends the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have said, this is not a decision we wanted or expected to make, but when we promised we would be responsible with taxpayers’ money we meant it, because we know what happens when Conservative Members play fast and loose with the public finances: working people and pensioners on fixed incomes pay the price with soaring interest rates, mortgages and inflation.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Social Security · Hansard source

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  Is that the reason why Conservative Members never took the action needed to increase pension credit uptake? We take a different approach. All the savings the Chancellor has announced take into account the increased uptake that we want and intend to achieve. When money is so tight, it cannot be right that all pensioners, including some of the wealthiest pensioners, receive a payment worth £200 to £300 a year regardless of their income.

• 22 Jul 2024 · Economy, Welfare and Public Services · Hansard source

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  I have never seen the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Mel Stride) do a comic turn quite like that. Opposition clearly suits him, but if he wants to lead his party out of its catastrophic defeat, he will have to do a lot better. I am honoured to close today’s debate, not only as I am speaking from this side of the Dispatch Box for the first time, but after so many truly wonderful maiden speeches. Members from all parts of the House talked about the social, cultural and economic heritage of their constituencies and about the real challenges that their constituents face, but also their talents and potential for a brighter future, given that they have a Government who are on their side. There are too many Members to go through individually, especially on the Government Benches, but let me just say this: your constituents will be very proud of you, as will your friends and family. I say that especially to the hon. Member for North Down (Alex Easton). Members have spoken with passion and conviction, especially on the Government Benches, about the need for change and to make true on our manifesto promises, and that is what this Government will deliver. This King’s Speech turns the page on the last 14 years of chaos and decline, and it takes the first steps towards national renewal, delivering growth in every part of the country, tearing down the barriers to opportunity and repairing our public services through investment and reform. Growth is this Government’s No. 1 priority, because it is the only way that we will improve prosperity, put more money into people’s pockets and transform our public services. Our plan starts with economic stability through the fiscal lock and our Budget responsibility Bill, so that we never again repeat the mistakes of the last Conservative Government, who crashed the economy, leaving working people to pay a heavy price. Our planning and infrastructure Bill will get Britain building again to deliver the homes and other infrastructure that our country needs. Our national wealth fund will unlock billions of pounds of private investment to support good jobs in clean energy and other growth industries of the future. The Department I am now privileged to lead is central to our growth and opportunity missions, through unlocking the potential of our pension system, getting people into work and on in their work and driving down poverty in every part of the country. First, on pensions, people who have worked hard and saved all their lives deserve a decent income in retirement. Although the previous Government talked about the need for pension reform, in reality there was little action. In contrast, we have acted immediately. Our new pensions Bill will bring together all the different pension savings that people build up across their working lives and drive better value for money in pension schemes. These measures could help improve incomes in retirement and boost pension pots by more than £11,000. Our landmark pensions review, announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, and led by the Minister for Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Emma Reynolds) will go even further in unlocking investment in British businesses and improving outcomes for British pensioners. The second way we will boost growth and unleash opportunity is by getting Britain working again. Last week’s labour market statistics underline the truly dire inheritance we face. Britain is the only G7 country whose employment rate has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Some 9.4 million people are now economically inactive—either not in work, or not looking for work. That is one in five of the entire working age population. Of those people, 2.8 million are locked out of the workplace due to poor health. That includes over-50s, often women with bad hips, knees and joints—I know about that only too well—and young people with mental health problems, often lacking basic qualifications. One in eight of all our young people are not in education, employment or training. What a damning indictment of the last Government. But behind those statistics are real people, with real hopes and dreams, who were written off by the Tories, denied opportunities and support, and then blamed for the position they are in. Let me tell the House now that, under the new Labour Government, that will change. Our plan to get Britain working will be a cross-Government effort to drive change and unleash opportunity in every corner of the country. We will create more good jobs in clean energy and through our modern industrial strategy. We will make work pay and improve the quality of work through our new deal for working people. We will cut NHS waiting times, improve mental health support and transform skills and childcare to tackle the root causes of the problem, and fix the foundations for work, not just paper over the cracks. We will deliver fundamental change in the Department for Work and Pensions, too. First, we will overhaul jobcentres, bringing together Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service to create a new jobs and careers service to help more people get to work and get on in their work. Secondly, we will drive down economic inactivity through new local work, health and skills plans led by mayors and local areas, devolving responsibility and resources to provide the right support in one place, because the man—or even the woman—in Whitehall will never know what is best in Leicester, Lowestoft or Leeds. We will also deliver our youth guarantee to ensure that every young person is earning or learning, because unlike Conservative Members we will never accept almost a million young people being written off before they have even begun. Under this Government, there will be obligations to engage with support, look for work and take jobs when they are offered, as there always have been since the original Beveridge report, but there will be no more divisive, derogatory rhetoric or claiming that people just think that they are too bluesy to work. I am in politics to solve problems, not to score cheap points and grab empty headlines that do nothing to tackle the problems in people’s lives. Alongside our plan to get Britain working again, we have taken immediate action to deliver our manifesto commitment for an ambitious strategy to tackle child poverty. I am proud that the last Labour Government lifted more than half a million children out of poverty. The contrast with the Conservatives could not be greater, with 700,000 more children growing up poor during their time in office. The fact that 4 million children are now living in poverty is a stain on our society. That is why, within a week of taking office, I called in child poverty experts and campaigners to help start work on our plans. It is why the Prime Minister announced our new ministerial taskforce to drive action across Government, underpinned by a new child poverty unit in the Cabinet Office. I will lead that work with our Education Secretary. As the Prime Minister announced, we will look at how to use all the levers at our disposal, including household income, employment, housing, children’s health, education and childcare so that we drive up opportunity, drive down poverty and give all children the best start in life. The Government were elected on a mandate for change, to change our economy so that it works for working people, to get our public services back on their feet and to transform opportunity by tearing down the barriers to success in every corner of this great nation. The King’s Speech takes the first steps to rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off, delivering real change to people’s lives, giving them the chances and choices they deserve and to begin—finally—the task of restoring faith that politics can once again be a force for good. Question put, That the amendment be made.