Results 1-20 of 1,728 for speaker:Diane Abbott
- Written Answers — Home Department: Asylum: Families (12 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 1 September 2009, Official Report, column 1871W, on asylum: families, what assessment has been made of the reasons for the reduction in the number of visas issued to overseas nationals under the age of 18 years in the family reunion category between 2004-05 and 2008-09; and if he will make a statement.
- Written Answers — Work and Pensions: New Deal Schemes (11 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps her Department is taking to ensure the local relevance of help and advice given to jobseekers under the Flexible New Deal programme; and if she will make a statement.
- Written Answers — Work and Pensions: New Deal Schemes (11 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps are being taken under the Flexible New Deal programme to get people into work lasting 12 months or more; and if she will make a statement.
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: I respect the hon. Gentleman and his party's position on no sanctions of any kind. However, is not the case against sanctions for women with children under five that such sanctions affect not only the adult, who is arguably conscious of making their own decisions, but children who are already living on the breadline? Those are the people whom my hon. Friends on the Treasury Bench want to sanction.
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: I rise to speak in support of Lords amendment 2, but let me first nail the idea, which seems to emanate from my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Treasury Bench, that single mothers as a group do not want to work and that they have to be coerced and threatened into doing so. The majority in my circle of friends are or were single mothers—some had children as early as 15—but they...
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: No. Given the right support and help with child care, the majority of single mothers will go back to work. However, we are talking about a residual group of women who, in practice, go back at the very bottom of the work pyramid, to do jobs that none of us would want to leave our three-year-old children to do. The second point is that the Government's proposal is based on fantasy figures about...
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: Given that the staff working at the sharp end do not want to be involved in mandatory sanctions for women with children up to the age of three, why does my hon. Friend think that Ministers are so wedded to those mandatory sanctions? They have not explained themselves and my hon. Friend might be able to shed some light on this issue.
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009) has video
Diane Abbott: Where is he?
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009) has video
Diane Abbott: I do not want to sound cynical, but affirmative resolution procedures are invariably not worth the paper that they are written on. By the time the matters in question come back to the House, people have forgotten the details of the original debate and the votes are whipped, so they are worthless undertakings. They should not be allowed to deflect Members from the issue at stake today, which...
- Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 2 — Work-related activity: income support claimants and partners of claimants (10 Nov 2009) has video
Diane Abbott: My right hon. Friend talks about making things uncomfortable for people who will not do the right thing. Do not most Members find that the real problem is that it is the children of that mother who are made uncomfortable? However feckless or undeserving the mother is in his terms, it is the children who will suffer when he imposes his financial sanctions.
- Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Unemployment Benefits (10 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether her Department plans to provide transitional payments to jobseekers who have found work; and if she will make a statement.
- Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Carer's Allowance (9 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans her Department has for the future of the carer's allowance; and if she will make a statement.
- Written Answers — Home Department: Detainees (3 Nov 2009)
Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were held in each immigration removal centre in 2008-09.