Andrew Western
MP for Stretford and Urmston · Labour · United Kingdom
“My hon. Friend has made an important point. The Child Maintenance Service is committed to ensuring that separated parents support their children financially, and to ensuring that the assessment reflects the parents’ true income. I am not familiar with the specifics of the case that my hon.”
“If the hon. Gentleman has specific concerns about how benefits are being administered and fraud is being investigated through the powers of the Scottish Parliament, I would very much appreciate it if he could write to me.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for raising what is an incredibly important case to highlight. I appreciate that it will have been a deeply distressing experience for her constituent and I apologise for that. I can confirm that all payments, thanks in part to my hon.”
“The hon. Member raises an important point. BSP is reviewed annually as part of the wider uprating process, so it would not be appropriate for me to make that commitment today. BSP is limited to 18 months because it is designed to support the acute period following bereavement.”
“Losing a loved one is deeply distressing. DWP provides support through the bereavement support payment—a tax-free lump sum with up to 18 monthly payments for eligible partners. Help with funeral costs is available through the funeral expenses payment for those receiving income-related benefits.”
“The Government are committed to improving data sharing with local authorities, as part of our endeavours to improve services. We are taking forward work with local authorities on the “identifying local vulnerability” project, and that work will support enhanced data sharing across local and central Government.”
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“The Government are committed to improving data sharing with local authorities, as part of our endeavours to improve services. We are taking forward work with local authorities on the “identifying local vulnerability” project, and that work will support enhanced data sharing across local and central Government. Work has already taken place to establish customer needs and ways of working, and future stages will focus on ensuring that the best technological solution is deployed.”
“The hon. Gentleman is correct to recognise the importance of this work. Data sharing with local authorities is essential, particularly working on homelessness prevention, on young people not in education, employment or training and on supporting families. There is a rich seam here if we get this work right, and we expect to see early benefits from the roll-out of the scheme by 2027.”
“I share my hon. Friend’s shock and horror at that particular episode. If he sends me further details of that specific case, I will ensure it is fed into that work. From the data sharing that will be available, I envisage that there will be an ability to recognise where there is a particular and urgent need for access to services, such as the crisis resilience fund. If he writes to me in more detail, I will ensure that any lessons that can be learned are fed in.”
“Losing a loved one is deeply distressing. DWP provides support through the bereavement support payment—a tax-free lump sum with up to 18 monthly payments for eligible partners. Help with funeral costs is available through the funeral expenses payment for those receiving income-related benefits. Additional support that may be available includes the bereavement run-on in universal credit, which extends support after the death of a partner, child or another adult in the household.”
“I recognise the strong interest in this issue. I was aware of the petition, as well as the campaigning work that my hon. Friend has done in this space. I am very happy to receive any information that that organisation wishes to send to me in advance of the debate on the petition, and I look forward to participating in it.”
“The hon. Member raises an important point. BSP is reviewed annually as part of the wider uprating process, so it would not be appropriate for me to make that commitment today. BSP is limited to 18 months because it is designed to support the acute period following bereavement. Longer-term financial support is delivered through the wider welfare system to those who are eligible, including universal credit and child benefit, and through other forms of local support where appropriate.”
“Overall levels of fraud and error are the lowest since the pandemic at 3.2%, compared with the peak of 4.3% in financial year end 2022. That reduction of a quarter demonstrates sustained progress with our fraud and error measures. Building on that success, we have set a new ambition to reduce the rate to 2.8% by 2028-29, which would be the lowest cross-welfare overpayment rate since tax credits were introduced in 2003.”
“If the hon. Gentleman has specific concerns about how benefits are being administered and fraud is being investigated through the powers of the Scottish Parliament, I would very much appreciate it if he could write to me. In some instances, the way in which the Department and our Scottish Government counterparts will be investigating fraud means that we are now teed up to intervene at an earlier stage, where a number of the issues can be less serious. We can detect and act at a much earlier stage. That is beneficial in reducing fraud and for claimants.”
“My hon. Friend has made an important point. The Child Maintenance Service is committed to ensuring that separated parents support their children financially, and to ensuring that the assessment reflects the parents’ true income. I am not familiar with the specifics of the case that my hon. Friend has raised, but my general view is that while enforcement powers are adequate, case complexity is often the challenge when it comes to proving where money is owed. If my hon. Friend wants to write to me about that specific case, I would be happy to look into it further on his behalf.”
“I appreciate the point the hon. Lady is making. I am not in a position to confirm an uprating from the Dispatch Box, but this will be considered in the usual way as part of the annual uprating process. There is a forthcoming debate in Westminster Hall in response to a petition on the adequacy of bereavement support payments, and I am sure she will participate fully in that debate, if she is able to, to make the case further.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for raising what is an incredibly important case to highlight. I appreciate that it will have been a deeply distressing experience for her constituent and I apologise for that. I can confirm that all payments, thanks in part to my hon. Friend’s ministrations, have now been fully restored and any arrears owed have been issued. Given the seriousness of the investigation, the case remains under active consideration so that we can look into the circumstances that allowed it to arise and ensure that nothing like it happens again.”
“We have narrowed the gap between the health element and the standard allowance—a perverse incentive of the last Government’s making—and we are investing in genuinely personalised employment support. We have made a good start, but last week’s interim report is a call to action. That is why this Government are putting work and opportunity at the heart of everything we do, and we will go even further as Alan Milburn comes forward with his final report and recommendations.”
“We are making opportunity for young people a national cause. We have begun with the youth guarantee, more work experience, workplace training and apprenticeships, hiring bonuses for employers who take on young people in regular or apprenticeship roles, and subsidised employment for young people who remain out of work for 18 months. That means, in total, half a million opportunities for young people to work, train or undertake apprenticeships. We have undertaken welfare reform to remove barriers in the benefits system that trap young people. We have changed the law so that claimants on sickness and disability benefits have the right to try work without the fear of automatically triggering a benefit reassessment.”
“Last week, Alan Milburn produced a powerful report on the crisis of opportunity facing young people. The Secretary of State asked him to lead this work because it is a crisis that has been ignored for far too long. Far too many young people are leaving education and not getting the chance to work. The human and financial impact on individuals can last a lifetime, and the economic costs are significant. It is clear that this is not a feature of the last year or two but a deep-seated and long-term issue. Unlike the Conservatives, we will not stand back and abandon young people in the face of this crisis. During their last few years in power, the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by a quarter of a million—a shameful legacy. Rather than holding young people in contempt, we believe in them.”
“Let me direct the House’s attention to paragraph 268, which says “the UK’s NEET crisis is much more long-term and deep-seated than any decisions taken in the last few years.” Specifically on NICs, paragraph 266 says, “it is worth remembering that those under 21 remain exempt from employer NICs and, as the review has already highlighted, the increase in youth inactivity long precedes any recent changes”. [ Interruption. ] The hon. Lady chirps that I am in denial—this is the Conservatives’ record, their problem, and a mess that we will solve. On that very point, there was no explanation— [ Interruption. ]”
“That was a predictable set of questions from the hon. Lady, who has the audacity to label the NEETs of this country “Labour’s lost generation” when the number of NEETs increased by 250,000 in the Conservatives’ last few years in office. She tells us that there were no solutions in this report—that is hardly a surprise for anybody paying attention, given that it is an interim report, with further recommendations to follow. The hon. Lady mentioned national insurance contributions. What does Alan Milburn actually say in his report?”
“He has said that we have to change the question and the system from “What benefits are you entitled to?” to “How do we help you change your life?” That is what matters and it is exactly what this Government are doing: fixing the broken welfare system that we inherited from the Conservative party, rebalancing universal credit, implementing right to try, tackling the Conservatives’ backlog on access to work, and, of course, providing our £2.5 billion investment in the youth guarantee. That is the welfare reform that this Government are delivering, with opportunity and work, especially for young people, at its heart, and the guarantee of a safety net for those who need it.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Of course, there was no explanation or apology from the hon. Lady for the fact that her party left almost 1 million young people not in education, employment or training. That was a predictable omission, but an unacceptable one none the less, because discussing the rise in NEETs in recent years without discussing the actions of the past Conservative Government is rather like staging “Hamlet” without the Prince of Denmark. On the Secretary of State’s comments, what he has said has been the same ever since he was appointed.”
“I thank my hon. Friend not just for her question but for the work that the Select Committee has done on its inquiry. Indeed, I know that Alan Milburn was before her Committee recently, speaking to the work that he is doing. She is absolutely right to call for a focus on disabled people too. Our Connect to Work agenda provides significant support. There is, of course, always more that we can do, but on this—as with those not in employment, education or training aged 16 to 24—we are determined to act, we have a programme to do so, and we take this extremely seriously.”
“The Liberal Democrat spokesperson will have heard the Prime Minister’s recent intent to work more closely with European colleagues, because of the economic benefits that working in partnership can yield. Further, the hon. Gentleman is right to recognise that this is a problem many years in the making. I welcome the broad support from Liberal Democrat colleagues for the interim review and I hope that will be the same when the final review comes forward with recommendations. On plans to bring forward jobs for young people, I point the hon. Gentleman to recently announced interventions by the Secretary of State to provide £3,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises that hire apprentices and £2,000 to any employer who hires a young person who has been on universal credit for more than six months.”
“My hon. Friend knows that I met an employment support provider in her constituency recently, and I was grateful for her welcome. She is absolutely right to say that young people do not lack the ambition to find work. This is a failure of the state’s making, not a failure of young people. If she has specific concerns about cuts to employment support in her area, I would very much welcome a letter from her setting out those challenges, and I will raise those issues on her behalf.”
“The hon. Gentleman has elevated me to Cabinet level—something that is at least premature, if not unlikely ever to happen, I suspect. I refer him to the Milburn report, because it sounds as if he has not read it. It states that “the UK’s NEET crisis is much more long-term and deep-seated than any decisions taken in the last few years.” Making particular reference to national insurance, it states that “it is worth remembering that those under 21 remain exempt from employer NICs and, as the review has already highlighted, the increase in youth inactivity long precedes any recent changes to NICs.””
“My hon. Friend is entirely right to highlight the value of work experience, in particular for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who perhaps do not have the connections that others benefit from. He will be pleased to know that the Government are committed to reforming work experience to break down barriers to opportunity, so that every pupil will have access to two weeks-worth of multiple, meaningful and varied workplace experiences throughout key stages 3 and 4, progressively increasing their work-readiness as they move through secondary education.”
“I can understand the hon. Gentleman’s trepidation, but I fear that he has not been made aware of the full range of activity before the 18-month intervention kicks in. This includes the addition of a reframed employment and skills review at two weeks and the maintenance of weekly appointments from weeks 3 to 12, with increased focus on personal support to address barriers to work. After three months, the specialist youth guarantee gateway kicks in, whereby young people are referred to one of six options, including sector-based work academy programmes, training, work experience and apprenticeships. At six months, the £3,000 youth jobs grant for employers recruiting young people kicks in. This is one part of a range of holistic interventions that we consider will make a significant difference to the challenge we face.”
“I certainly agree with my hon. Friend about the power of devolution—it is something that he and I know only too well from our roles as leaders within the Greater Manchester combined authority—but I hope he will recognise that this Government are taking a very different approach on apprenticeships and technical education. That is underpinned by the Prime Minister’s revised target, not of 50% of young people going to university, but of having two thirds of young people in either an apprenticeship or higher education.”
“I understand the right hon. Gentleman’s point, but I have to say that I have rather more faith in young people in the workforce than he seems to. The Employment Rights Act is an important, once-in-a-generation opportunity to level up rights in the workplace, and this Government remain committed to it.”
“My hon. Friend makes the important observation that, for us to make successful change in this space, we need to work with a range of partners and providers. I am very happy to propose, on the terms that she has outlined, that Hackney be put forward to test some of the initiatives that we are looking towards in this space. We need to work not only with charities and employment support providers, but to work more holistically across Government, with Health, Education and other Departments, and we are determined to do that work.”
“The 0.55% increase in 16-to-19 funding rates is only one aspect of 16-to-19 funding. In the academic year 2026-27, we will provide nearly £9 billion in 16-to-19 funding, and overall funding per student will rise by 1.66%, meeting the White Paper commitment by reflecting inflation at the time that the spending review was settled.”
“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. If she has any ideas about how we can extend the knowledge and availability of such information, I would be happy to hear them.”
“The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that incentives are needed to encourage employers to hire young people. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently announced the incentives that I have already laid out: supporting young people who have been on universal credit for six months by financially incentivising employers to hire them, and incentivising small and medium-sized enterprises to hire apprentices under the age of 25 earning less than £50,000.”
“I do agree. I hope that my hon. Friend heard what I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) earlier about the need to work holistically, across Government and outside Government, with partners in the charitable sector, employment support companies and so on, to ensure that a range of interventions are available so that young people do not—exactly as she outlines—see a life not in education, employment or training as their future. That is something we must stop.”
“I would not put it quite in the terms used by the right hon. Lady, but jingoistic rhetoric is a feature of her new place in this House. As I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon), this Government recognise that it should no longer be a target of any Government to send 50% of young people to university. That is why we have revised the target, so that this Government’s aspiration is for 66% of young people to be either in higher education or undertaking an apprenticeship.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to recognise that many of the challenges faced by young people not in education, employment or training start at school or even preschool. We need to ensure that there is early intervention in schools, with more mental health practitioners available to children and young people, and that they can receive the support needed at the first possible opportunity, because mental ill health blights and affects their future, not just in academic terms with exams, but often for many years beyond that. I absolutely agree with her. That point underpins many of the proposals put forward in the Department for Education’s special educational needs reforms. We need early intervention and greater mental health support for children.”
“I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that, in the current climate, incentives are required to encourage employers to hire young people, and I have set out the measures that we have taken to do that. However, he is one of a number of Conservative Members today who have raised the Employment Rights Act, which is the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. This Government are steadfast in continuing to support working people and ensuring that the Act is fully implemented.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely correct about the damage caused by the previous Government to a range of services on which children and young people rely. Child and adolescent mental health services—pertinent to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell)—are one example, but there are a range of others. A recent report highlighted the difference that Sure Start, which was ravaged by the Conservative party, had made to young people. He is absolutely right that we need root-and-branch reform, and this Government are committed to delivering it.”
“The sweeping range of this Government’s interventions means that we will deliver more than 500,000 opportunities for young people. The hon. Lady asked specifically about training for younger people. This Government have pivoted funding from older apprentices—level 7 and above—to younger ones, and introduced foundation apprenticeships so that we can better support people aged 16 to 24.”
“My hon. Friend asks an important question and underpins it with an extremely important statement: this is not the fault of young people. They are not lazy. They have been let down for years by a system that does not serve their needs. The Government are putting in place £2.5 billion for the youth guarantee. We continue to work with employers and employment support providers to talk about how we can tailor support to the specific needs of young people to get the number of young people not in education, employment or training down.”
“The right hon. Member is absolutely right to highlight the importance of that point, and the Department of Health and Social Care is undertaking a review of mental health provision, the causes of poor mental health and so on. I agree that 40% of young people citing mental health conditions as a driver for their not being in employment, education or training is a concerning increase—it has almost doubled in recent years. That is clearly unacceptable. That is why some of the interventions being led by the Department for Education are so important: more mental health support in schools, getting those CAMHS waiting lists down and ensuring that children and young people get early intervention when they need help, because, as we see in those numbers and this report, poor mental health blights them not just at school, but in later life.”
“Friend the Member for Bristol North East (Damien Egan) about our intention to revolutionise work experience to ensure that it is not the opportunities that someone’s parents can provide them, but the opportunities that we can arrange that make a real and tangible difference and level the playing field.”
“If it is okay with my hon. Friend, I will write to her specifically on the point about child trust funds, because it is not specifically in my domain. She is absolutely correct, though, to highlight the issue of school readiness and the link that that has to the likelihood of a child becoming a NEET when they turn 16. That is why, as I said in an earlier answer, the loss of Sure Start is such a tragedy, and that is why I am so pleased that this Government are reintroducing family hubs. On the bank of Mum and Dad, I hope that she heard the question that I answered earlier from my hon.”
“I spend a great deal of time talking to young people about what they need to support them into work. Clearly, at the moment, we are waiting for the recommendations of the Milburn review, but she will have seen the intent on co-production from the Timms review. I do not know what will be recommended in the Milburn review as yet but, if co-production is in there, I am sure that it is something the Secretary of State will look at.”
“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of place-based interventions. Of course—she sits next to my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb)—I am aware of the particular challenges facing coastal towns, and I will feed that request in. Whatever interventions we make, it is incredibly important that they are bespoke where needed and that they tackle this crisis in all parts of the country.”
“Where I disagree with the hon. Gentleman is that I am here to answer questions about the interim report from Alan Milburn, who himself points to a problem that is longer and more deep-rooted than the changes that have been made in the last couple of years. I remind him, as I have already said in response to other colleagues, that under-21s do not pay national insurance. A range of incentives have been put in place for under-25s seeking apprenticeships with small and medium-sized enterprises and for young people who have been on universal credit for more than six months.”
“The hon. Lady will be aware that business rates are a question for the Treasury, but we are looking at a range of interventions through the youth guarantee and other interventions that I have already outlined that will help to provide more opportunities for young people, including in work experience, in first jobs and in training and apprenticeships.”
“I refer the hon. Member to the rest of paragraph 268, because his selective quoting does not cover all that was in there. It also says: “the UK’s NEET crisis is much more long-term and deep-seated than any decisions taken in the last few years.” Milburn is very clear that action is needed, that there are a range of reasons for that and that he will bring forward a set of recommendations on which he expects the Government to act. We await those and stand ready to act.”
“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and I know that the Secretary of State is interested in what we can do to increase the support available to self-employed people of all ages.”
“I do accept that, and the hon. Member will be aware of our work with Charlie Mayfield. He may also be aware that we have recently appointed Marc Bolland, a former chief executive of Marks & Spencer, as the lead non-executive director in the Department. We are incredibly interested in how we can work in partnership with retail to deliver more job opportunities for young people.”
“The causes of those 1 million young people being NEET are deeper than the advent of jobs being lost to AI. None the less, the hon. Member makes an important point, and that is why the Government are undertaking a review of the impact of AI on the labour market.”
“My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point. As I have said in a number of answers, we need to work creatively and holistically with colleagues in the Department for Education and elsewhere to make sure we are joined up, so that there is an opportunity for all young people to find employment—whatever their background or their level of need. I look forward to working with him to deliver that.”
“The current deal that this Government have with young people is that we will give them opportunities after the Conservative party did not. We will make sure they can find education opportunities, employment opportunities or training opportunities. We will not allow a lost generation to continue based on the failings of the Conservative party.”