argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Baby Loss — House of Commons, 2016-10-13
Topic: Social Welfare
William James Quince (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, of course I agree. I will come to that point later. After the debate in November on bereavement care in maternity units, my hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury and I were taken aback by the number of people across the country who got in touch and shared their stories with us. We sat down—this was during proceedings on a Finance Bill, so it was about 1.30 am —with the then Minister with responsibility for care quality, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer), my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Victoria Prentis), who is not quite in her place, and the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson). We thought, "This is a far bigger issue than just bereavement suites. The whole subject of baby loss needs addressing." We were pretty surprised that there was not already a group looking at the issue The all-party parliamentary group was formed in February, and I am very proud of the work that we have done so far, working with amazing charities across this country. I cannot name some of them, because I would have to name them all. From large charities that do the most amazing work and fundraising, through to the groups made up of just a handful of people who get together in a local pub or village hall and knit really small pieces of clothing for babies who are premature and sadly stillborn, it means so much that so many people across this country want to play their part and make a difference I cannot let this speech go by without referring to the support of Mr Speaker, who is not in the Chamber at the moment, not just for this campaign, but in kindly allowing us to use his apartments for the reception yesterday, and during baby loss awareness week. Yesterday, which would and should have been my son’s second birthday, he called me to ask a Prime Minister’s question on this subject, and so raise the issue in front of millions of people and the country’s media.
Baby Loss — House of Commons, 2016-10-13
Topic: Law and Crime
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for letting me intervene during her impressive and important speech. On the back of that comment, I want to inform the House that my colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee), announced last month the formation of a national cremation working group. It is now working with all interested parties, and it intends to take evidence from Members of the House. I strongly encourage all hon. Members with such an interest to participate.
Hormone Pregnancy Tests — House of Commons, 2016-10-13
Topic: Government Operations
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this incredibly important debate, and I reiterate and agree with what she says. When at the heart of the matter there is a regulator who took eight years to act between 1967 and 1975, and many years later is investigating what it had done, it is crucial that that inquiry is seen to be independent and full.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): On the day that the country is celebrating our Paralympic athletes, I am sure the whole House will want to join me in thanking them for a summer of thrilling and inspirational sport It is right that we continually review the way support is offered to and accessed by disabled people. That is why I was pleased to announce an end to stressful and bureaucratic employment and support allowance reassessments for people with the most severe lifetime conditions. We are also transforming the way disabled people access support through our new digital Access to Work platform and providing help to budding disabled entrepreneurs to set up their own business.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Kevin Paul Hollinrake (Conservative, Centre-right): I am holding a round-table event on 31 October for those with disabilities, parents and employers, to try to remove the barriers to employment. Does the Secretary of State agree that for some the barriers are simply too high? Will he welcome the positive response from Disability Rights UK to his recent announcement that those with long-term and severe disabilities will not have to undergo regular repeat assessments of their condition?
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on the round table. He is right that there are too many barriers to work for disabled people, and this Government are determined to do everything possible to break down those barriers. Like him, I was pleased that a number of disability groups welcomed the announcement that I made on 1 October. I was particularly pleased to see the chief executive of the MS Society, Michelle Mitchell, say that it was a victory for common sense. She went on to say: "We are therefore delighted that the Government has listened to our concerns and have agreed to stop reassessments" I am pleased that the sector was so pleased with the announcement.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not at all aware of officials actively acting to thwart mandatory reconsideration. As the hon. Lady will know, the Social Security Advisory Committee supported the mandatory reconsideration, but there are a number of recommendations on the table that we are looking at and that will improve the process. With all these processes, there is a need for continuous improvement, and that is what we will seek to do.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for the support for my announcement from those Benches, even though I sense it came through slightly gritted teeth. As I have said to previous questioners, we are constantly looking at ways of improving the work capability assessment, and of course that work will carry on.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): As I am sure the hon. Lady knows, no one who is already claiming ESA in that group will see a cash loss. What we are seeking to do is to make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to get into work, because doing a job is, for most people, the best route out of poverty. The various changes announced by my predecessors were all aiming at that end, which is the best one for the vast majority of people receiving these benefits.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): Because the work capability assessment, which was, of course, introduced by a Labour Government, has been reviewed five times since 2010, and each time we have improved it. I am glad that the hon. Lady has welcomed the recent improvements that we have introduced. [Interruption.] I would be grateful if she waited for her next question before she asks it. One thing I would particularly take issue with her over is her implied link between suicides and the work capability assessment. I do think that that is an unhelpful use of what is always clearly a deeply tragic situation for political ends. I think she will have known that there is no direct evidence to support that, and I do not think it is a very constructive way to seek to improve the work capability assessment.
Disabled People: Government Support — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not at all ashamed of the introduction of PIP or the fact that many more people are eligible to receive PIP than were eligible to receive disability living allowance. It is a better benefit, and most of the disability support groups recognise that it is a better benefit, so I simply do not recognise the hon. Lady’s characterisation of PIP.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): Work is the best route out of poverty. There are 557,000 fewer children in workless households than in 2010. The Prime Minister is clear that tackling poverty and disadvantage, and delivering real social reform, is a priority for this Government. To that end, I will be returning to the House with a number of announcements over the coming months.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): I simply point out to the hon. Lady that since 2010 there are 100,000 fewer children in poverty in this country, and, overall, 300,000 fewer people in poverty. I have already said that work is the best route out of poverty. I am sure that she, like me, will welcome the fact that we have far more people in work in this country than most other advanced countries. That is the best long-term way to ensure that children do not suffer poverty.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Ben Howlett (Conservative, Centre-right): As the Secretary of State will know from his recent visit to my constituency, earlier this year I worked with local Bath charity St John’s Hospital to set up the Action Against Child Poverty group in Bath, bringing together over 50 charities and £100,000 of funding to tackle the issue of the one in five children who live in poverty in my constituency. Will he agree to meet Action Against Child Poverty in Bath, this time in London—don’t worry!—to learn about the group’s work and extend his congratulations on its work?
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Alan Mak (Conservative, Centre-right): Helping parents on jobseeker’s allowance or income support to start their own business is one way of reducing child poverty. Will the Secretary of State support the new enterprise allowance, which helps unemployed people to start their own business and raise household incomes?
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government are certainly committed to reducing child poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group made a number of specific demands. One demand was to expand childcare support, which the Government have done, extending the 15-hour offer to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds. Universal credit now reimburses up to 85% of childcare costs, up from 70%. CPAG also demanded support to progress in low-paid work—it is absolutely right about that—and we are undertaking a number of trials to deliver evidence on in-work progression, which will be delivered by Jobcentre Plus, because I agree with CPAG that that is an extremely good step forward.
Child Poverty — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): Universal credit, which is now being paid to more than 300,000 people, has already shown that people will get into work and progress in work faster and that they are more likely to seek work. If the Opposition accept, as I think they do, that work is the best route out of poverty, they will welcome universal credit because, when it is paid to more parents it helps children in those families to be in households where there is work. That will be the best way to get them out of poverty.
State Pension Age: Women — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Questions: Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Richard Harrington (Conservative, Centre-right): Transitional arrangements are already in place. We committed £1 billion to lessen the impact of the state pension age changes on those who were affected, so that no one would experience a change of more than 18 months. In fact, 81% of women’s state pension ages will increase by no more than 12 months, compared with the previous timetable.
State Pension Age: Women — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Questions: Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Richard Harrington (Conservative, Centre-right): I can only reiterate to the hon. Lady what has been said many times before. The Government made transitional arrangements that came to more than £1 billion. [Interruption.] She is chuntering at me from a sedentary position. I could not hear, but will try to imagine what she was saying. The Government have made the transitional arrangements, and no further moves will be made to assist those women, all of whom will benefit in time from the significant increase in the new state pension.
State Pension Age: Women — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Richard Harrington (Conservative, Centre-right): Those women, or indeed those men, under the state pension age who are in the position of destitution the hon. Lady mentions are fully entitled to a comprehensive benefits system, of which I am sure she is aware.
State Pension Age: Women — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Questions: Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.; Whether his Department plans to take steps to introduce transitional protection for women adversely affected by the acceleration of increases in the state pension age.
Richard Harrington (Conservative, Centre-right): As the hon. Gentleman is aware, I have said many times, as have other Ministers, that the transitional arrangements have cost more than £1 billion and there are arrangements in place for those people in destitution. It becomes a question of the public money that is spent. At the moment, the new state pensions are costing £89 billion a year, plus pension credit and everything else, and there is no further money available.
Personal Independence Payments: Applications — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Caroline Fiona Ellen Nokes (Conservative, Centre-right): Department for Work and Pensions visiting officers can assist people with the completion of their PIP forms in their own homes, as can family and friends. Claimants can also authorise another person or organisation to help them handle their PIP claim.
Personal Independence Payments: Applications — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: As chair of the all-party parliamentary groups on Parkinson’s and on motor neurone disease, I met the Minister’s predecessor, the hon. Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson), many times. The problems of people with motor neurone disease and Parkinson’s are such that, often, by the time the form is in, their condition has progressed excessively. Will the Minister meet me and the charities associated with those conditions to discuss the issue?
Caroline Fiona Ellen Nokes (Conservative, Centre-right): There are opportunities in the Green Paper for exactly that sort of information to be fed back, and my hon. Friend the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will be delighted to provide as much support as is needed.
Benefit Eligibility Assessment: People with Disabilities — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The Department is committed to improving continuously assessments for all our benefits, and we have responded to a range of recommendations from a number of independent reviews. As part of our continuous review of the work capability assessment, we will be consulting on further possible improvements in the forthcoming Green Paper.
Benefit Eligibility Assessment: People with Disabilities — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a sensible suggestion, and I thank my hon. Friend for making it. If we can use all the data that Government hold—for example, care plans or evidence for someone’s war pension—better to reduce stress and bureaucracy for individuals and arrive more quickly at a good result on the assessment, we should do so.
Benefit Eligibility Assessment: People with Disabilities — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sorry to hear of the circumstances of the hon. Lady’s constituent. Enormous numbers of decisions are made on ESA, PIP and on all sorts of other benefits. In some cases, the wrong decision is taken and it is overturned on appeal. We need to concentrate on ensuring that we arrive at the right decision in the first place. That has been our focus over the last few weeks, and we are doing a lot of work to ensure that medical and other evidence is submitted earlier in the process so that such circumstances do not arise. I would be very happy to look at the situation of the hon. Lady’s constituent.
Personal Independence Payments: Assessments — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I start by pointing out that PIP is a vast improvement on what went before. It is a more targeted benefit and it takes into account a whole raft of other conditions, such as mental health and sensory conditions, not just physical disability. It is a vast step forward in that respect. We cannot rest on our laurels, however. We must continually improve, and there is a robust improvement process, based on user and claimant feedback, which looks at the assessment and also at record keeping and a raft of other areas.
Personal Independence Payments: Assessments — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that the hon. Gentleman will write to me with further details of that case. Under PIP, more people are entitled to use the Motability scheme, but clearly we want to make sure that any decision taken on a PIP assessment is the right one. A key part of that, as we know from looking at cases that have been overturned on appeal, is getting the evidence submitted earlier in the process.
Personal Independence Payments: Assessments — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Law and Crime
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her question because it gets to the heart of what I have just described. If we do not have a good-quality assessment and good quality in all the evidence needed early in the process, we will end up causing distress to an individual who has to go to mandatory reconsideration or an appeal. We are doing work in the Department to address this, including giving a bit more flexibility for certain cases at that early stage, with the hope that the evidence we need will then be submitted at that stage. That is recent work, and we are rolling it out at the moment.
Personal Independence Payments: Assessments — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): Most Members in this House will have someone come along to their advice surgery every week with a problem about PIP. The area that worries me most is Motability, because people come to my surgery who are clearly going to win at the tribunal stage, but their Motability is removed right at the beginning of the process. Can we not look at a change of policy, whereby the Motability stays until all the appeal processes have been concluded, which would be a great help to many people?
Personal Independence Payments: Assessments — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Social Welfare
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for that question. Historically, we have not paid benefit during an appeal. The key to cracking this is to ensure that the assessment is done correctly. I would point out to him that the mandatory reconsideration process would be over before the person had to return the vehicle.
Disabled People: Recruitment and Retention — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that important point. We quite often talk about getting people into work, but we clearly also want them to have a career: we want them to develop, reach their full potential and pursue all their talents. The Green Paper, which we will publish shortly, will look at some of these issues, but the beefed-up Disability Confident scheme will also be very effective in doing that.
Disabled People: Recruitment and Retention — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Questions: Scope’s research shows that 85% of disabled people feel that employers’ attitudes to employing them have not improved during the past four years. Should not more employers follow the lead of employers such as Waitrose, John Lewis, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer in my constituency and put practical support in place to help disabled people, particularly when they are applying for jobs in the first place?
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with my right hon. Friend. We need to do more to ensure that the support we offer is understood by employers. Disability Confident will help with that. We also need to raise employers’ awareness of what they are missing: huge talent and huge insight in their workforce. We will shortly bring forward schemes which will do just that.
Disabled People: Recruitment and Retention — House of Commons, 2016-10-17
Topic: Labor
Questions: Scope’s research shows that 85% of disabled people feel that employers’ attitudes to employing them have not improved during the past four years. Should not more employers follow the lead of employers such as Waitrose, John Lewis, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer in my constituency and put practical support in place to help disabled people, particularly when they are applying for jobs in the first place?
Penelope Mary Mordaunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely; part of the solution is ensuring that our own staff are fully aware and able to encourage employers to take on these people. There are many other things we can do to highlight the positive contribution they have made. We are doing a huge amount of work with Hidden Impairment, including training our staff and our ongoing communication with employers.