Monday Volume 552 5 November 2012 No. 63 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 5 November 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 571 5 NOVEMBER 2012 572 compensation. Does my hon. Friend agree that the House of Commons position is unfair and should be reviewed by HMRC? Monday 5 November 2012 Steve Webb: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that case. I have corresponded with Treasury The House met at half-past Two o’clock colleagues about the issue, and, subject to their consent, I shall be happy to share with him the reply that I have PRAYERS just received. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Disability Strategy 2. Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con): What progress he Oral Answers to Questions has made on the Government’s disability strategy. [126299] WORK AND PENSIONS The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey): Fulfilling Potential, our The Secretary of State was asked— disability strategy, is being co-produced with disabled people. We published “Fulfilling Potential—The Discussions UK Pension-holders So Far” and “Fulfilling Potential—Next Steps” on 17 September. Our key themes, which we intend to 1. Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab): What steps he make a real difference, are early intervention, choice is taking to ensure that foreign conglomerates carry out and control, and inclusive communities. their responsibilities to UK pension-holders. [126298] The Minister of State, Department for Work and Stuart Andrew: Can the Minister explain what the Pensions (Steve Webb): As this is the first session of role of the disabled people’s user-led organisations will DWP questions since the announcement of the untimely be in the strategy? death of Malcolm Wicks, I hope that you will allow me, Mr. Speaker, to place on record, on behalf of the whole Esther McVey: I can indeed. User-led groups will be a ministerial team, our appreciation of Malcolm and all key element in everything that we do. It is essential for that he contributed to our debates on pensions and disabled people and their organisations to be at the welfare. heart of that. We have also created a £3 million fund, The Pensions Regulator has “anti-avoidance” powers and I was delighted to be in Redbridge last week when to take action against employers when they have acted we delivered £1 million of it. to avoid supporting the scheme. That includes taking action in foreign jurisdictions when necessary.For example, Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab): An important four financial support directions were issued last year part of the disability strategy is to get people into work. against companies in north America in the Nortel case. Can the Minister tell us what proportion of the people in the work-related activity group who have been mandated Dan Jarvis: I thank the Minister for his response, and to join the Work programme have actually found work? for meeting my constituent Alan Hunton and me to discuss the matter. He is aware of my concern about Esther McVey: The figures have not been published foreign companies that have purchased and asset-stripped yet, but as soon as they are published, I will give the businesses in the United Kingdom. In some cases, those hon. Lady the information. firms have discarded their pension responsibilities in such a way as to endanger the pensions to which their Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con): There are many excellent employees are entitled. Will the Minister explain how disability organisations in the Bradford district, notably he is working with the Pensions Regulator, and with his the Bradford and Airedale mental health advocacy group. colleagues in the Government, to curtail such predatory Can such groups join the disability action alliance to behaviour? help with the Government’s strategy, or will they be excluded from it? Steve Webb: This is indeed an important issue. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the Pensions Regulator has engaged during the last 12 months, and continues to Esther McVey: We are trying to reach out to as engage, with more than 1,100 schemes that are linked to many user-led groups as possible. Those who want overseas employers. Between April 2010 and August to become part of the alliance should visit 2012, it has exercised its powers on at least 10 occasions [email protected]. Everyone is welcome: in relation to such schemes. we want the strategy to be embedded in all our local communities. Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): The Minister is aware of a case in my constituency in Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and which the BMI pension fund was placed in a pension Lesmahagow) (Lab): Given the cumulative impact of protection fund by Lufthansa. In this case, Lufthansa welfare reform on disabled people and the criticism of voluntarily paid over £84 million in compensation to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, can the Minister the fundholders. However, under current HMRC rules explain how the disability strategy will comply with the the money is being treated as income, and the lifetime United Nations convention on the rights of persons and annual allowance rules are being applied to the with disabilities? 573 Oral Answers5 NOVEMBER 2012 Oral Answers 574 Esther McVey: It fully conforms with the UN rights. Jobseekers (Barriers to Work) In fact, we are a world leader in that regard. It has been noted that we are—as I have said—reaching out to all disability groups and disabled people, and I have given 5. Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): What recent the House the address of the website. assessment he has made of the barriers that prevent jobseekers getting back into work. [126302] New Enterprise Allowance The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith): Jobseekers can face a number of barriers 3. Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con): What recent steps to work, about which my hon. Friend has spoken to me he has taken to expand the new enterprise allowance. on a number of occasions. Those include a lack of work [126300] experience, a lack of essential computer skills, an incomplete education, which leaves them ill qualified, or coming The Minister of State, Department for Work and from a family where worklessness is entrenched across Pensions (Mr Mark Hoban): Because self-employment generations. We are taking cross-Government action to is the right option for many unemployed people, on tackle all those barriers, and reforming the benefit 22 October we expanded the new enterprise allowance system so that it more closely resembles life in work, so that additional jobseekers could take part. We have rather than people having to face those huge barriers. also extended it so that jobseekers can take part from the first day on which they claim jobseeker’s allowance, Robert Halfon: Since 2011, the Department has through rather than having to wait for six months. procurement encouraged its private suppliers to hire apprentices, and 2,000 apprenticeships have been created Karen Lumley: In Redditch, more than 40 people as a result. Will the Secretary of State share his success have taken up the opportunity to be mentored under with other Departments, so that we can roll out this the enterprise allowance scheme. What else can be programme across Whitehall and remove barriers to done to encourage more jobseekers to start their own work? businesses? Mr Duncan Smith: I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Hoban: My hon. Friend has made a good point. I my hon. Friend on the huge work that he has done in think that we should try to give good examples to encouraging apprenticeship starts. I know that he is jobseekers about where they can start businesses. Under particularly keen on that and I take a real steer from Get Britain Working, we can set up job clubs to encourage him. I also remind him and the House that, since we people to see self-employment as an option for the brought in our changes, over the past two academic future. I think that that is a good route out for many years more than 950,000 apprenticeships have been people with great skills. offered by over 100,000 different employers. On top of that, the youth contract offers 160,000 wage incentives Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): Self-employed for those who wish to start apprenticeships. Therefore, people in my constituency are experiencing increasing the scheme has been a major success for this Government. difficulty in finding work because of the Government’s The coalition has done far more than the previous austerity measures. Does the Minister accept that the Government. bureaucratic requirement for self-employed people to produce two forms of evidence relating to their income Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC): Will the Secretary of is making it very hard for them to claim benefits and to State concede that the greatest barrier to returning to find a way back into work? work is the lack of jobs locally and that that is particularly the case for people with long-term sickness and disability? Mr Hoban: We try to do as much as we can to reduce the burden of red tape on businesses. That is why the Mr Duncan Smith: The hon. Gentleman is right—those Government set the red tape challenge and introduced people face particular difficulties. The Under-Secretary the one in, one out rule. All those measures lift the red of State for Work and Pensions, my hon.