Contributions
303 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Child Support (Enforcement) BillI agree with my right hon. Friend. It is really distressing when we see these cases. After separation, often, families will find themselves in financial stress. Even so, many…17 Mar 2023HANSARD Health and Disability White PaperNo one will mourn the passing of the work capability assessment; Labour has been calling for reform of that for a long time. It needed to change, because people’s lives do not fit…16 Mar 2023HANSARD Local Housing AllowanceI absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman that homelessness is a cost on the central Government budget and on local authority budgets as well. We have seen homelessness soar.…15 Mar 2023HANSARD Local Housing AllowanceOn the point about people moving to alternative accommodation, in London just 4.2% of available private rented properties are below the local housing rate, and other examples have…15 Mar 2023HANSARDEngagementsQ3. The Government promised the 40 new hospitals three years ago and the Prime Minister has just expressed again his intention to proceed. Two years ago in St Mary’s Hospital in…15 Mar 2023HANSARD Local Housing AllowanceIt is a pleasure to respond for the Opposition under your chairmanship, Ms Elliott. I congratulate the hon. Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams) on securing this important debate.…15 Mar 2023HANSARDLondon Zoo LeaseI congratulate the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on securing this debate and setting out the argument with great clarity and substance. Indeed, I think the argument…14 Mar 2023HANSARDIllegal Migration BillThe Home Secretary must have been shocked to discover that she and her party have been in charge of the Home Office for the past 13 years, during which time the backlog of asylum…07 Mar 2023HANSARDSingle-parent employment levelsFigures published today by the Centre for Progressive Policy show that the lack of affordable childcare prevented a quarter of parents of children under 10 from working more…06 Mar 2023HANSARD Social Security (Additional Payments) (No. 2) BillI, too, welcome you back to the Chair, Dame Eleanor. We continue to support the additional payments covered by this Bill because they will deliver much-needed support to…06 Mar 2023HANSARD Voter IdentificationMany people who do not carry ID tend to be in already marginalised demographics, and now they will be disenfranchised. The Tories are “trying to gerrymander”. I do not always…21 Feb 2023HANSARDSocial Security (Additional Payments) (No. 2) BillThese continue to be some of the hardest times in recent living memory for so many of our fellow citizens. Few have been entirely immune. Millions are struggling, but for far too…21 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsI am slightly baffled by that. Although we have heard confirmation of the uprating this year, the point is that it comes on the back of years and years of that annual uprating…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsThis freeze in local housing allowance, which is such a critical element of people’s income, is causing such hardship for hundreds of thousands of families. That is not only…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsI have given away enough for the moment. The Government deserve no praise for refraining from a deliberate action that they should never have contemplated taking in the first…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsThe fact of the matter is that poverty is rising —pensioner poverty is rising, child poverty is rising, and the local housing allowance and the childcare element are not keeping…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsI could not agree more. The Labour Government demonstrated what could be done with will, policy and investment; they brought about a dramatic reduction in pensioner poverty and…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsThe Government have decided to refer to the absolute poverty figures only, which we would expect to go down as the years go by. However, under the standard measure of poverty, the…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsThe hon. Gentleman should go back to the original plans for universal credit, and to what the taper rate was intended to be at the very beginning, before a former Chancellor got…06 Feb 2023HANSARD Social Security and PensionsIn a few weeks’ time, we will have the latest figures on households below average income. They are likely to confirm what we already know: that poverty will soar as the measures…06 Feb 2023