Results 1-20 of 4,531 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Angela Eagle

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Angela Eagle: Have a sip of water.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Pensioners (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: This winter, pensioners will again receive an additional payment on top of the winter fuel payment and be entitled to increased cold weather payments as part of a wider package of measures to provide real help to pensioners in the current downturn.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Pensioners (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: I am always happy to consider any suggestion made by my hon. Friend. During the pre-Budget report period I will ensure that the Chancellor has his attention drawn to my hon. Friend's question.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Pensioners (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: I am happy to make inquiries as a result of the hon. Gentleman's question. Although this sounds like an issue for the Department for Communities and Local Government, rather than for the Department for Work and Pensions directly, I shall look into it and drop him a line.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Pensioners (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: My hon. Friend is quite right. I hope that he will give this Government credit for increasing the cold weather payments last year and this year to £25 a week, because fuel bills have been high. I point out to him that, as I am sure he already knows, a mere £60 million a year was spent on winter fuel payments when we came into office. We now spend £2.7 billion a year.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: We are currently consulting on secondary legislation and remain on track for implementation from 2012.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: The proposals on which we are consulting and putting into effect were a result of the Turner commission, which began its deliberations in 2004, and the subsequent political cross-party consensus, which I thought we had, has led us to the implementation phase. The hon. Gentleman appears to indicate that the consensus is over. Is that the case?

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: It seems to me, then, that the consensus is ending. I have not announced a four-year delay. What I have done is agree with the considered advice from the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, which has looked at the sheer scale of the auto-enrolment that will see up to 10 million people saving for the first time into workplace pension schemes, with a guaranteed employer contribution. It would...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr. Vaizey) a little while ago.

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: The real issue is that two thirds of people who work in the private sector have no opportunity of a workplace pension at all. That is why Members on both sides of the House agreed to introduce automatic enrolment in the 2008 legislation on pensions. The hon. Gentleman seems to be arguing, much as the Conservative party argued when we introduced the minimum wage, that if there is a minimum...

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Personal Accounts (19 Oct 2009) has video

Angela Eagle: We will design the information for employers and employees to ensure that we make the case positively for those who are automatically enrolled to stay in personal accounts. It is important that they contribute to pension saving to build the second tier of pensions on top of the improvements to the basic state pension that we are introducing next year, which will make it more universal, fairer...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and add: "welcomes the steps taken since 1997 to tackle increasing pensioner poverty; notes that policies delivering real help to pensioners include free bus passes, free TV licences, winter fuel payments and Pension Credit which ensures no pensioner lives on less than £130 a week; notes that the Government...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: It is quite clear that the approaches to social policy that Beveridge developed, essentially, when our life expectancy was much shorter and a man could look forward to barely one year of life in retirement, involved a different society from the one in which we will routinely enjoy 20 to 25 years of retirement. It is quite clear also that we have to evolve our structures, our system and the...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: I am more than happy to agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Gentleman. I do not think that we, certainly on the Government Benches, refer to older people as a burden. It is quite clear that they offer a great opportunity for economic development and for handing on many of their life experiences to the younger generation, and that there is a great deal of opportunity in developing older...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: My experience of meeting older people in many areas around the country is not that they reflect the approach that the hon. Gentleman wishes for in respect of next week's by-election. Time will tell.

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: When Conservative Members see a woman, they often think that she is a secretary. I have to tell the House that I am not the Prime Minister's secretary, so I do not know about his intentions in respect of visiting the constituency. We have laid the foundations for a better future for older people, focusing on planning and saving for later life. We are committed to doing more. We are not just...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: That is why we are working with the process set out in our document "Putting people first", which is about personalising care. It is absolutely clear that we should be transforming services for older people by having them at the centre, making choices about how their care is delivered, rather than having one-size-fits-all care policies under which there is a compulsory bed time in a person's...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: It is important that the approaches that are being developed now become the norm in time. We are in the middle of an approach that moves away from the old mass care packages that are delivered for the convenience of the organisation that is delivering them rather than for the convenience and comfort of the people receiving them. That is a major theme that this Government have begun to develop...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: I think there might be some sort of approach on which we can agree in terms of philosophical change in this regard. What I am trying to do instead of having this rather juvenile exchange— [ Interruption. ] Well, there is a lot of consensus in pensions policy. Conservative Front Benchers seem to think that "consensus" is a dirty word. That is interesting, and I will bear it mind when I...

Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day]: Caring for the Elderly (15 Jul 2009)

Angela Eagle: A carers strategy is being developed. It is important that we begin to move further along the road of valuing and rewarding the work that millions of carers do, which keeps our society going but is often unrewarded. The changes that we are making to crediting into the basic state pension in 2010 are a reward for that, as are the changes announced in the Budget about crediting grandparenting....