UK Parliament / Open data

Lone Parent Employment

Adjournment debate on Thursday, 2 March 2006, in the House of Commons, led by Baroness Hodge of Barking. The answering member was Lord Boswell of Aynho.
Westminster Hall debate on a motion for the adjournment on lone parent employment

About these Parliamentary proceedings

Reference

443 c151-92WH 

Session

2005-06

Department

Department for Work and Pensions

Chamber / Committee

Westminster Hall

Related items

A new deal for welfare: empowering people to work.
Tuesday, 24 January 2006
Command papers
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c166WH (Link to this contribution) : I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has read the welfare reform Green Paper carefully, but may I dra...
David Laws | 443 c166WH (Link to this contribution) : I do support the long-term aim, and I certainly think that the Government should be looking into t...

Show all contributions (66)
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c164-5WH (Link to this contribution) : Does the hon. Gentleman agree, particularly in the context of incapacity reform as well as benefit...
David Laws | 443 c165-6WH (Link to this contribution) : I agree. The Government deserve some credit for recognising that, in areas such as incapacity bene...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c166WH (Link to this contribution) : I cannot immediately identify the relevant diagram in the Green Paper, but although I respect the ...
David Laws | 443 c161-4WH (Link to this contribution) : It that is accurate, it is encouraging—but I would be interested to hear whether the Minister has ...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c161WH (Link to this contribution) : I acknowledge that the economy has been in a flattened period in the past year, but would the hon....
David Laws | 443 c161WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about how the Government will financially support get...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c180-1WH (Link to this contribution) : I am happy to respond to that. The buzz that I put around my colleagues in the Conservative resear...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c180WH (Link to this contribution) : In his analysis of the labour market, will the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that nearly 2.4 million ...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c179-80WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman is seductive. He tempts me, but I shall follow only to the extent of saying tha...
David Laws | 443 c174WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Lady has raised extremely important issues about people's concerns as they move from bene...
Kali Mountford | 443 c174-7WH (Link to this contribution) : It is true that they are matters of concern, although I have not really understood the hon. Gentle...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c177-9WH (Link to this contribution) I genuinely welcome this opportunity to discuss these serious issues in a relatively calm, objective...
David Laws | 443 c179WH (Link to this contribution) : Can I tempt the hon. Gentleman to indicate his party's view on one point? The age of the youngest ...
Kali Mountford | 443 c168-70WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, especially with the hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Bosw...
David Laws | 443 c167-8WH (Link to this contribution) : I thought we were making progress towards agreeing that we needed a single benefit. Now the Minist...
Kali Mountford | 443 c171-4WH (Link to this contribution) : According to Helen Bee's book, ““The Developing Child””, there would never be a right place. I stu...
David Laws | 443 c170-1WH (Link to this contribution) : If those measures were in place, what would be the hon. Lady's view of the right age at which the ...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c167WH (Link to this contribution) : I simply pose a question back to the hon. Gentleman, in his role as the Liberal Democrat spokesman...
David Laws | 443 c167WH (Link to this contribution) : I am mildly cheered, but I am not entirely persuaded that the step is a logical one. The Governmen...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c184-5WH (Link to this contribution) : I accept that entirely, but I would go further: there is not only a business case, but a social ex...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c184WH (Link to this contribution) : I shall try to respond to the key issues that have been raised in the debate, but I start by sayin...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c184WH (Link to this contribution) : To emphasise the positive, or areas on which we might agree, rather than re-fight the past, this d...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c182-4WH (Link to this contribution) : I have not the slightest wish to distort because it is important that we have a better understandi...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c182WH (Link to this contribution) : Hidden behind those figures are all the lone parent personal advisers, which are counted as part o...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c181-2WH (Link to this contribution) : I am not trying to belittle anything that the Government have done. What I am saying is that the c...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c181WH (Link to this contribution) : I am astounded by that remark because I think that that figure is jolly good. If the hon. Gentlema...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c185WH (Link to this contribution) : Does the Minister agree that there is great value in trust and that if there is any suggestion tha...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c185-6WH (Link to this contribution) : That tends to be my view. I have looked a little at the experience in America, where the system in...
David Laws | 443 c186WH (Link to this contribution) : Does the Minister therefore rule out a change in the age limit in relation to which lone parents c...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c186WH (Link to this contribution) : I was going to develop that thought. The evidence from America, where there is much more compulsio...
David Laws | 443 c186WH (Link to this contribution) : Is not the Minister underestimating the contrast between her policies and those of the United Stat...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c186-7WH (Link to this contribution) : Not at all. We have built an infrastructure to make work pay through the tax credit system and we ...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c187WH (Link to this contribution) : I will not take another intervention because there are only five minutes left and I want to deal w...
David Laws | 443 c187WH (Link to this contribution) : I feel very uncomfortable outflanking a Blairite Minister on some kind of responsibility agenda. S...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c187WH (Link to this contribution) : In that case, I will take another intervention, but just let me finish the point. Bringing lone pa...
David Laws | 443 c187WH (Link to this contribution) : There is another half an hour.
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c189WH (Link to this contribution) : I am so tempted that I cannot resist saying that, as long as we have a Labour Government, I am com...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c187-9WH (Link to this contribution) : The proposals in the Green Paper suggest that we should lower the age in relation to which we star...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c189WH (Link to this contribution) : The conditional has been omitted—I said that the proposals ““could”” be pie in the sky. I was simp...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c189WH (Link to this contribution) : I thank the Minister for that helpful formulation of the Government's position. Does she agree tha...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c189-92WH;443 c190-2WH (Link to this contribution) : All the new deals involve private and voluntary sector participation, because often the services t...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c151WH (Link to this contribution) : I am delighted to have the opportunity to debate, in this elite group, an important issue—lone par...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c151WH (Link to this contribution) : I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman that the number of people at the lower end of the scale is ...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c151WH (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to intervene so early on the Minister, and I hope that that will not be characteristic of...
David Laws | 443 c151-2WH (Link to this contribution) I think that I heard the Minister say a moment ago that the Government remain committed to abolishin...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c152-4WH (Link to this contribution) : I am somewhat bewildered by that intervention, because we remain as committed as we have ever been...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c154WH (Link to this contribution) : My hon. Friend talks about the pressure on women who work part-time and flexible hours, and to som...
Kali Mountford | 443 c154WH (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend rightly points to the financial and other benefits that accrue to families when...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c154-5WH (Link to this contribution) : I am delighted that the Opposition spokesman supports that progressive move. As someone who has ca...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c154WH (Link to this contribution) : May I thank the Minister, on behalf of the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Kali Mountford), for that...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c155WH (Link to this contribution) : That is an issue on which we concur across the Chamber, and I welcome that. I have talked about m...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c155WH (Link to this contribution) : I thank the Minister. For the avoidance of doubt, I should declare an interest. I have a daughter ...
David Laws | 443 c155WH (Link to this contribution) : The Minister mentioned the improvement in the lone parent employment rate, which has been quite ma...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c157-8WH (Link to this contribution) : Yes. I was about to say that we need to do more if we are to remain on track. We reckon that if we...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c157WH (Link to this contribution) : The honest answer is a bit of both. We want to continue learning, and we are dealing with such an ...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c157WH (Link to this contribution) : Would the Minister like to confirm that in order to fulfil that target by 2010, it would be necess...
Baroness Hodge of Barking | 443 c155-7WH (Link to this contribution) : We have done research on the impact of such measures, but it is of course difficult to quantify an...
David Laws | 443 c157WH (Link to this contribution) : The Minister mentioned the expansion of the pilots to incentivise lone parents to return to work, ...
Kali Mountford | 443 c160WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman has advanced those arguments before. I recall his previous statements about the...
David Laws | 443 c159-60WH (Link to this contribution) : That is what I am telling him, anyway. There are three huge challenges for the Department for Wor...
David Laws | 443 c158-9WH (Link to this contribution) As the Minister said, this is an extremely important debate. It is a pity that there are not more ho...
David Laws | 443 c160-1WH (Link to this contribution) : Unless I misunderstand the hon. Lady's point, there are two issues to address. First, what measure...
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 443 c161WH (Link to this contribution) : I had come to rather the same conclusions as the hon. Gentleman, but—to muddy the academic waters ...

Subjects

Children
Advisory services
Employment
Poverty
Part-time employment
Lone parents
Social security benefits
Welfare tax credits
Deprivation indicators
New deal for lone parents
Labour market

Link

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