Stephen Timms: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation points out that raising social security benefits not only helps hard-pressed families, but boosts the economy because the increase is likely to be spent. Does the Chief Secretary recognise that raising legacy benefits in line with the £20 a week increase he has referred to that has already been introduced in universal credit would boost the economy while also...
Stephen Timms: The Minister is making it clear that he and his Department find it irksome having to comply with the current requirements of the law. Thank goodness they do, because the law is there to protect everyone, and I get the impression that a number of Government Members do not approve of that. What access have those who were due to be on this flight had to legal advice prior to the flight’s departure?
Stephen Timms: The number of households affected by the cap has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic, to 170,000. In addition, 160,000 households will come to the end of their nine-month benefit cap grace period in the coming month. So will the Secretary of State consider extending the grace period, to avoid cutting the benefits of hard-pressed families in the run-up to Christmas?
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 31 January 2019 to Question 213168, what plans his Department has to bring the former East Ham police station building back into use.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 November to Question 106891 on Free School Meals: Immigrants, what plans he has to publish the outcome of the review being undertaken by his Department with the Home Department.
Stephen Timms: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks. Does he think the staff should get a pay rise?
Stephen Timms: I beg to move, That this House notes the First Report of the Work and Pensions Committee, “DWP’s response to the coronavirus outbreak”, HC 178; and calls on the Government to increase relevant legacy benefits in line with increases to universal credit, to take steps to return people who have been inadvertently left worse off under universal credit compared with their previous benefits,...
Stephen Timms: The Churches played the key role in the 20-year cross-party consensus on aid, and I pay tribute to their achievement since Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History. We all realised what abolishing DFID really meant. Why did the Secretary of State not realise it?
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2020 to Question 114047 on Immigrants: Coronavirus, if she will issue guidance to local authorities to clarify that families with No Recourse to Public Funds are eligible for help from Government funds provided for supporting disadvantaged families.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people with No Recourse to Public Funds are eligible to apply for the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2020 to Question 106891 on Windrush Lessons Learned Review, what data on ethnicity she plans to collect to inform the review and evaluation of the public funds stream to the compliant environment.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November to Question 105275, whether the figures for Leave to Remain with No Recourse to Public Funds extensions in that Answer include applicants on the five year route.
Stephen Timms: Local authorities all over the country are the frontline in this public health crisis. As a recent all-party parliamentary group on faith and society report shows, councils have set up imaginative partnerships with faith groups to provide food and care to struggling families. I support the call made recently by the hon. Member for Devizes (Danny Kruger) in his report to the Prime Minister...
Stephen Timms: Will the Minister set out much more clearly the criteria for the much-needed grant funding? Residents at Waterside Park in my constituency are worried that their management company wants to apply to the building safety fund, even though the development recently received a B1 rating so remediation is not required. Would such an application be appropriate?
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to tackle financial crime in his forthcoming legislation on online harms; and if he will make a statement.
Stephen Timms: Kenyan Government pensions in respect of service often decades ago have not been paid since early last year. A cross-party group with constituents affected has just written to the Minister for Africa—the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge)—about this. Will the Minister meet us to...
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Kenyan authorities on the non-payment since January 2019 of pensions to former Kenyan Government employees now living in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to The Response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review: A comprehensive improvement plan, published in September 2020, CP293, what the scope is of the review and evaluation being undertaken of the public funds stream to the compliant environment; and if she will make a statement.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2020 to Question 105275, for what reason the figure provided for in-country family extensions in the Immigration statistics referred to in that answer does not equate with the figure provided for the proportion of people with no resource to public funds.
Stephen Timms: I want to raise just two points: first, the current epidemic of online frauds; and, secondly, the online sale of the illegal weapons used on our streets in gang violence. First, the Pension Scams Industry Group has told the current Work and Pensions Committee inquiry that 40,000 people have suffered the devastation of being scammed out of their pension in five years. Much of that is online....