Results 1-20 of 158 for in the 'Westminster Hall debates' speaker:Esther McVey

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: It is a pleasure to be serving under your chairmanship today, Mr Hollobone. I congratulate the hon. Member for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) on securing the debate on behalf of her constituents. I am under no illusion about the strength of feeling of many about the removal of the spare room subsidy, but we are not introducing the change lightly. A number of important principles lie behind the...

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: That example is taken completely out of context; one measure is about a business and ensuring that it remains, as well as about how people spend their money, but the measure we are discussing is about one set of finances that doubled in cash terms under the hon. Lady’s Government to £23 billion and about what we should do about it. We cannot pick and mix and move the finances...

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: I will proceed a little further, so that I can answer the hon. Lady’s questions. We need to improve use of the housing stock, and doing nothing is not an option, because we have 1 million spare rooms but 250,000 people living in overcrowded accommodation. The situation will not be easy to change overnight, but we have to start on the process of getting things right. It is about...

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: I can correct the hon. Lady. The size criteria applied to the social rented sector are exactly the same. If a private landlord is charging below the median market 30(th) percentile, a couple can do that. Equally, should local housing associations want to regroup or make a change from a three-bedroom to a two-bedroom property, they are entitled to do so. People can do such things, and that is...

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: The hon. Lady is right to talk about housing stock and how so many councils got their housing stock wrong for so many years. Why was it not reallocated? Why were conversions not carried out? Why did they not use the money? If they realised that so many people were in three-bedroom properties when they should have been in two-bedroom properties, why did they not do something about that work?...

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Wigan) (23 April 2013)

Esther McVey: We must get it right, and we are getting it right. I do not believe the hon. Lady’s description to be the case. We are working together to ensure that we support people now and in future. We never get a reply from Labour on spending commitments, but will the party—it introduced its policy in 2008—in addition to opposing what we are doing today, put on the record the fact...

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: It is a pleasure to take part in a debate on such an important issue, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on securing it. It is also a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Caton. I believe that it is the first time that I have done so. As we have heard, there is considerable interest among hon. Members in all parts of the House in housing...

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: I am not being specific about what people should or should not do. I am saying that there is an array of options, for which someone will find their best solution. The hon. Gentleman will, like me, have met people at surgeries who have said that they have come together as a family to work on the best solution for everyone. It is not a question of one person in isolation but the whole family....

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: I will proceed a bit further, and then if the hon. Gentleman wants to ask a further question he can. There are always specific cases where the options in question may not be sensible or appropriate, and that is why we have trebled funding—a considerable amount—for discretionary housing payments, to give local authorities more flexibility to help people affected by the changes....

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: The hon. Gentleman is speaking hypothetically. We have put in extra discretionary funds, because local councils will know exactly who those individuals are. We have put in extra money, and we have said that it is possible to move between the social and private sectors. With all the options that we have put in place, we believe that we will find solutions for all cases.

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I will come on to that a little bit later and explain in detail what we are doing. He will also appreciate that I cannot make spending commitments into the next Parliament. None the less, with regard to the discretionary housing payment, the Government are committed to ensuring that the reforms are well implemented. We are working closely with local...

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: That is precisely why we are monitoring and evaluating the scheme, and we will continue to do so for two years to see what extra support might be needed. Of course we are watching and observing what is going on. [Interruption.] I will complete my comments here. However, we are committed to undertaking the independent evaluation of all housing reforms. The first report on the private sector is...

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. Of course, we have to monitor the situation, and I have confirmation from colleagues that the monitoring and evaluation will be made public. At the moment, there is much speculation about what might happen, but that is hypothetical. We do not know about that, but by monitoring closely, by introducing a discretionary fund and by working in a common-sense...

Housing Benefit and Disabled People (23 January 2013)

Esther McVey: Again, my hon. Friend asks a key question. The heart of the matter is that we do not want children to suffer. Children must have what is right for them, but where a tenant has non-residential children, housing benefit may already pay for a room for the child or children in the place where they usually reside. Funding an additional room in both parents’ properties could be a double...

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: I congratulate the hon. Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) on securing the debate on such an important issue and welcome all the contributions that have been made. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Dr McCrea. The UK remains a world leader in rights for disabled people, and we currently spend almost £50 billion a year on services and benefits for them. Those...

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: I will indeed congratulate the RNIB and other charities and organisations that have represented the needs of blind and partially sighted people. The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. The approach taken in the DLA to recognise the mobility difficulties of blind and severely visually impaired people does not look at people as individuals; it looks at their conditions. What we are...

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: The hon. Gentleman may not know that the people seeking the award can say how they would like the form delivered to them and in what context. If people so wish, they can be accompanied by someone from a charity or organisation or by a friend to help them with the assessment. The process is about finding out as much as we can about the individual to help with the assessment and the decision so...

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: That will be recognised, because what an individual can do inside the house with a magnifying glass might be significantly different from what they can do outside the house, such as following a journey, reading signs or reading labels in a shop, all of which have now been taken into consideration and will lead to points being accrued during an assessment. The final draft of the assessment...

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: I will give way, although time is running out.

Personal Independence Payments (22 January 2013)

Esther McVey: Again, the benefit is based on the individual, so I cannot give an all-encompassing answer. We have taken on board all the factors that have been raised today, and they have been reflected in the assessment. We have made that very clear, and each person will be viewed on how they are affected by their condition. The likelihood is that the answer is yes, but we have to view people as...