Oeddech chi'n golygu child benefit can?
Viscount Younger of Leckie: ...just round up some of the themes. There were a lot of wide-ranging themes this afternoon: the importance and value of marriage, including same-sex marriage and in the traditional sense; a focus on children; views on single-person households and lone parents; relationships generally, and relating better, and how much this matters; a focus on the elderly from the noble Lord, Lord Davies; the...
Jo Churchill: It is not possible to produce robust estimates of the effect of the impact of uprating the household benefit cap by inflation on the number of children in child poverty or similar impacts of the removal of the household benefit cap on the same group. There was a significant increase to the benefit cap levels following a review last year. The benefit cap continues to provide a strong work...
Baroness Andrews: ...Lords who have put their name down to speak this afternoon, despite the hour and the weather. In the spring Budget, the Government made £4.3 billion of new investment to expand entitlement to childcare. For children between nine months and three years, who will be offered 30 hours of funded—not free—childcare per week from April 2024, this was extremely welcome. I want the Minister...
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: ...increase in the past decade. We are going to see a huge spike in pensioners living in private rental homes that they cannot afford. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation figures show that 1 million children experienced destitution last year—a number that has almost doubled since 2019. What is in the Green Party’s alternative Autumn Statement, released before the Chancellor stood up, for...
Gillian Martin: ...drivers of people not being able to eat, which relate to poverty. The Scottish Government has tried to identify meaningful and efficient measures that we can take to alleviate poverty. The Scottish child payment of £25 a week has been hailed as making a “significant difference” by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations in the report that it published this week. I recommend...
Bob Doris: ...in the wider advice sector in Glasgow to spot victims of economic abuse, ask them about it and provide them with support. The team have secured £857,000 in financial gains for clients through benefit gains or debt write-offs. Significantly, the team has also identified and supported seven women who have been subjected to gender-based violence and who were losing out on welfare support...
Jon Cruddas: ...would effectively freeze all non-statutory spending. There is obviously also a wider national story here. Councils continue to face increasing demands for statutory services, especially adult and children’s social care, the provision of temporary accommodation, and homelessness support. Demographic forces are driving up demand for those services, and that affects some councils more than...
Richard Thomson: ...waited to see what the Chancellor would drop. The backdrop is certainly about as far removed as anyone could ever have hoped it would have been going into such a crucial period. Not only is GDP per capita still not above 2019 pre-pandemic levels, but the UK is expected to suffer the biggest fall in living standards since records began in the 1950s. Most people are expected to be worse off...
Marion Fellows: ...energy bills. It is a top priority for them. At the outset, I would like to thank the many organisations that sent me briefings for today’s debate: Sense, Scope, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Mencap, Marie Curie, Age UK, and Kidney Care UK, as well as Citizens Advice, National Energy Action, Warm This Winter and Centrica—a record amount of briefings for me. Yesterday’s disappointing...
John Martin McDonnell: ...the day before, and it is not a novel playbook—it is one they have used consistently. It is the same old Tory strategy. First, there are tax cuts as a pre-election bribe, then it goes on to the scapegoating of some vulnerable group, before making ludicrous claims about Labour’s plans to try to petrify people into not voting for change. Even with the media that we have, I do not think...
Rachael Maskell: ...we have 14.5 million people on the edge, in poverty, in debt, struggling with heating, rent and food. And of course there was no promise of additional help today. We must remember that 4.3 million children in York and across the country now live in poverty; 18% of pensioners are counting the pennies to get by and we have a harsh winter ahead of us, with the energy price cap due to go up...
Jonathan Gullis: ...he wants to see us skilling up and levelling up the opportunities for young people here. The fall in the number of apprenticeship starts suggests that apprenticeships in their current form are not benefiting young people and helping them get into the workforce. We require businesses to invest in their existing workforce. Increasing the flexibility of the apprenticeship levy would help...
Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask His Majesty's Government why, from the next release of the benefit cap statistics, information on the youngest child in capped households will be suspended; and whether they propose to resume publication of those data in later releases.
Shona Robison: ...to recognise that and to change course. Our public finances have continued to face significant challenges from inflation, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the increased costs of public sector pay and a capital budget that does not come close to what is required. Despite those challenges, I am pleased that, last week, the Auditor General for Scotland gave the Scottish Government’s accounts for...
Jenni Minto: ...I visited the exhibition. There were levels of serenity and acceptance, as well as the colourful clutter of Liz’s flat. All the other speakers have mentioned Max’s dog, Lily, and his great escape to be home with her. The other thing that really struck home for me was Andy’s Post-it notes and the connection that they gave him with his daughter and granddaughter. That was very, very...
Viscount Younger of Leckie: The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children, and around £152 billion on pensioners. Of this, around £79 billion will be spent on benefits to support disabled people and people with...
Ross Greer: ...was launched. Every local council in Scotland signed up almost immediately, thereby making it clear that they were ready and willing to take in far more Syrian refugees, particularly unaccompanied children, than the Home Office would allow. However, the immigration debate at Westminster has been defined by a race to the bottom. Since 2010, the Tory party has become increasingly...
Wendy Chamberlain: Figures from the Trussell Trust show that food bank usage is at its highest ever level, and over the summer months a record 41,878 parcels of food were provided to 21,000 children in Scotland alone. Meanwhile, child poverty costs the Government £39 billion per year in poor health and educational outcomes. In order to tackle child poverty properly, will the Government commit to keeping...
the Bishop of Durham: ...-term decisions to build a better future for the country. I confess that I am struggling to see much evidence of that plan. To think truly long-term about our country’s future, it is vital that children and families and the environment are at the heart of every policy, particularly from the Treasury. Without prioritising investing in children, what hope is there of moulding citizens who...
Baroness Twycross: ...the Government are “continuing to roll out our mental health support teams in schools and colleges across the country so that 50 per cent of pupils are covered by 2025”. Place2Be, a leading children’s mental health charity in schools, is clear that by intervening early we can help prevent problems becoming more serious. How, then, is 50% cover by 2025 acceptable? Pupil absences are...
