The Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) lost 75% of the £12 billion it spent on personal protective equipment (PPE) in the first year of the pandemic to inflated prices and kit that did not meet requirements – including fully £4 billion of PPE that will not be used in the NHS and needs to be disposed of.
There is no clear disposal strategy for this excess but the Department says it plans to burn significant volumes of it to generate power – though there are concerns about the cost-effectiveness and environmental impact of this “strategy”.
In a report today the Public Accounts Committee says that as a result of DHSC’s “haphazard purchasing strategy” 24% of the PPE contracts awarded are now in dispute – including contracts for products that were not fit for purpose and one contract for 3.5 billion gloves where there are allegations of modern slavery against the manufacturer.
The Committee says this only exacerbates DHSC’s “track record of failing to comply with the requirements of Managing Public Money even before the further exceptional challenges of the pandemic response”. It also raises concerns about “inappropriate unauthorised payoffs made to staff by health bodies”, with the planned large-scale NHS restructuring “increasing the risk of this happening again.”
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The story of PPE purchasing is perhaps the most shameful episode the UK government response to the pandemic.
“At the start of the pandemic health service and social care staff were left to risk their own and their families’ lives due to the lack of basic PPE. In a desperate bid to catch up the government splurged huge amounts of money, paying obscenely inflated prices and payments to middlemen in a chaotic rush during which they chucked out even the most cursory due diligence.
“This has left us with massive public contracts now under investigation by the National Crime Agency or in dispute because of allegations of modern slavery in the supply chain.
“Add to that a series of inappropriate, unauthorised severance payoffs made by clinical commissioning groups in the first year of the pandemic and the impression given falls even further from what we expect.
“DHSC singularly failed to manage this crisis, despite years of clear and known risk of a pandemic, and the challenges facing it now are vast, from getting the NHS back on its feet to preparing for the next major crisis. There are frankly too few signs that it is putting its house in order or knows how to.”
Concerns over parallels emerging in the UK’s response to Ukraine crisis
The UK Government failed to work effectively or quickly enough to provide support for aid workers and the Afghan people, says a new report from the International Development Committee – Afghanistan: UK support for aid workers and the Afghan people.
The Committee is also concerned about the pace at which the UK Government has disbursed pledged UK aid to Afghanistan and whether it will act swiftly enough to disburse pledged UK aid to Ukraine.
MPs say that the UK Government, in its response to Afghanistan and now Ukraine, has:
been inflexible in its response to an acute humanitarian situation by only making limited concessions to pre-existing UK immigration routes;
failed to provide sufficient clarity on what routes are available; and
dragged its feet in setting up new or variations to existing routes.
The UK Government has a moral duty towards aid workers who helped to deliver UK aid projects in Afghanistan, asserts the report.
This moral duty also extends to the people of Afghanistan, impacted over decades by the UK’s military and political interventions.
Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said: “We are deeply grateful to aid workers – be they British, Afghan or of other nationalities – for all they have done for the people of Afghanistan. The work that they do is phenomenal.
“But we are ashamed that the Government did not give them the support that they needed during the UK’s withdrawal, or now, during the complex task of delivering an aid programme under Taliban rule.
“More than 23 million people, over half the population of Afghanistan, are facing starvation. The Government must provide the support and the clarity that people working in the aid sector in Afghanistan have told us that they need.”
The Chair draws parallels with the developing situation in Ukraine. She said: “By only making limited concessions to pre-existing UK immigration routes, the response from the Home Office to the situation in Ukraine shows an inflexible and begrudging approach to an acute humanitarian situation.
“As in Afghanistan, there has been a lack of clarity – and agonizing slowness of pace – in explaining what UK immigration routes are available. The UK Government should be significantly more agile in establishing or adapting existing UK immigration routes in response to acute humanitarian crises. The safety of countless people and their families depends on it.”
UK and allied forces left Afghanistan in August 2021. The Taliban takeover was rapid. The scale of the humanitarian response required, had – to that date – been unprecedented. The humanitarian jeopardy has been extreme.
At the same time, the safety of aid workers has been compromised. Today, the cross-party Committee thanks aid workers for all their work, past and present, and reveals ‘shame’ that the UK Government has not given them the support or clarity that they need.
The Government’s contingency plans for the evacuation of aid workers from Afghanistan were neither apparent to the aid sector, nor scaled adequately. Government schemes have not adequately supported those aid workers seeking safe passage to the UK.
The report reveals that some Afghans who worked on projects funded by the UK Government are reporting that their lives are at risk of reprisals from the Taliban authorities.
The UK Government has pledged significant sums of aid since its withdrawal from Afghanistan, but the release of that aid to the people who desperately need it has been excruciatingly slow. A cash liquidity crisis is strangling the remaining life out of the country. Sanctions against the Taliban have stifled the provision of aid and women, children and minority groups are suffering disproportionately.
The Committee concludes that the Government should have worked faster to disburse the UK aid it pledged to Afghanistan in 2021. It should also have liaised more effectively and swiftly with the aid sector, international allies and financial institutions to help to resolve the challenges of sanctions to the aid sector; address the collapse of the banking system in Afghanistan; and free up the nominated funds frozen in the World Bank’s Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.
Some of the Committee’s key recommendations in respect of aid workers and the Afghan people are:
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should take steps to better identify and assess the particular risks facing aid workers so that it can respond more effectively to those aid workers when they are in need of support in countries or regions where there is acute instability or signs of a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
The Government should accelerate without further delay all pathways of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and ensure that aid sector staff are explicitly recognised and prioritised for protection under the ACRS.
The UK Government should be taking more urgent steps to collaborate with its international counterparts, economists, representatives of the banking sector and aid organisations to find ways to help address more rapidly the banking crisis in Afghanistan to ease the humanitarian suffering of, and enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance to, the people of Afghanistan.
The UK Government should do more to encourage the World Bank to swiftly release the remaining funds from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund so that aid organisations can use that money to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
The Government should maintain its focus on working to try and ensure that the Taliban adopts a moderate position whereby it commits to behaving pragmatically towards the inclusion of women, girls and other minority groups in Afghan society.
The UK Government should further step up its efforts on working with the UN to ensure that aid organisations can effectively operate under the exemptions that UN resolution 2615 (and consequent UK law) permits. It should also urge the UN Security Council to extend those exemptions beyond their initial 12 months review period.
The UK Government should consult with representatives of aid organisations to ensure that it has issued adequate guidance on how to operate further to the adoption of UN resolution 2615 into UK law. Furthermore, the UK Government should press for UN resolution 2615 to be extended, or further resolutions to be adopted, to provide exemptions for development assistance, closely linked to the performance of the Taliban on upholding human rights and international law.
Environmental campaigners and trade unionists have called for MPs to back the creation of an Offshore Training Scheme, as a key solution to removing barriers for oil and gas workers transferring into renewables.
The idea is backed by offshore workers and MSPs from all parties expressed support for an Offshore Training Passport when it was debated in the Scottish Parliament in October 2021.
The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill is making its way through the UK Parliament, with the final vote to take place tomorrow – Monday 21st February. Caroline Lucas MP has tabled three amendments which would require the UK Government to publish a strategy for the creation of an Offshore Training Scheme within a year. Other parties are being urged to back these amendments.
A 2021 survey of 610 offshore workers by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and Greenpeace UK found 97% of workers said they were concerned about training costs. On average, each worker paid £1800 every year to maintain the qualifications required to work in offshore oil and gas. For any worker looking to move into renewables, they are expected to duplicate much of their existing training, at even greater cost.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Just Transition Campaigner Ryan Morrison said: “The skills and experience of offshore workers are vital to enable a rapid shift to renewable energy, but workers cannot be expected to fork out thousands of pounds from their own pocket to duplicate qualifications they already have.
“It is time for MPs to listen to these workers by creating a regulated training passport to ensure a just transition for offshore workers. They have a golden opportunity to do exactly that this week by supporting these amendments.”
94% of workers surveyed supported an Offshore Training Passport to standardise training in the offshore energy industry, removing duplication where possible and significantly reducing the burden of costs faced by often self-employed workers. The amendments put forward by Caroline Lucas would achieve the demands of workers in the industry.
RMT Regional Officer, Jake Molloy said: “The urgency of this issue cannot be overstated. The Trade Unions have been banging this particular drum since the oil and gas downturn of 2014 and the industry and their standards bodies have collectively failed the workforce.
“We need an intervention now; we need the political will and support of MPs across the country to address the injustice of having to pay for work, which is the situation faced by thousands of UK workers! All of the talk about a “Just” transition will continue to be nothing more than ‘talk’ if MPs fail to support this initiative.”
+++ Workers case study (Jack is a pseudonym) +++
Jack*, 39, has worked in the industry for 12 years. He works as a LOLER Focal Point for rigs, having worked his way up from being a trainee rigger.
Jack said: “The companies used to pay for your training costs. So you’d have to cover your first lot of training yourself but after that, once you were established with a company, they would pay for your training because they want you to work for them.
“Now it’s very different. You’ve got to cover all these costs yourself, and they need redoing every couple of years so you’re in this constant cycle, and often the courses do overlap. And some of these agencies are making you pay for your own Personal Protective Equipment that you need to work on an oil rig.
“I have thought about working in renewables, but that’d be thousands of pounds you’d have to pay to work in both industries. It’d just be too much, it costs an absolute fortune just to stay in one sector.
“I was paid off last year, so my certificates lapsed. I ended up having to pay £3,000 for training to only get four months of work.
“Shelling out all this money does cause stress, and it does have an impact on your family and your living costs. There’s lots of people worrying about how they’re going to pay the mortgage. I know people who’ve packed it in altogether because working offshore is just too expensive.”
The Speaker urged people to “learn the lessons of the past” as he hosted a special commemoration for Holocaust Memorial Day in the House of Commons.
The international date remembers the six million Jews murdered under Nazi persecution, and the victims of subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
‘One Day’ is the theme chosen by the Holocaust Memorial Trust – which focuses on a moment in time that changed forever the lives of those affected by genocide.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who was joined by faith leaders, MPs and the parliamentary community to light candles and read personal accounts from victims of past atrocities, urged colleagues “to remember, to learn and to hope there may be One Day in the future with no genocide.”
“Holocaust Memorial Day prompts us to learn the lessons of the past and recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own – it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented,” he said.
“As we have heard, so much can happen in one day. Lives can be changed; they can be ended, but they must never be forgotten.”
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, former minister Dame Margaret Hodge and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers and Laura Marks, chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, were among those taking part in the ceremony in Portcullis House led by Speaker’s Chaplain Revd Tricia Hillas.
The House of Commons was among iconic buildings and landmarks across the country to be lit up in purple last night to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Four years after the Windrush scandal first emerged, the Home Affairs Committee has found that the vast majority of people who applied for compensation have yet to receive a penny.
The report published today concludes that instead of providing a remedy, for many people the Windrush Compensation Scheme has actually compounded the injustices faced as a result of the Windrush Scandal.
As of the end of September, only 20% of the initially estimated 15,000 eligible claimants had applied to the scheme and only 5% had received compensation. Twenty three individuals have died before they received any compensation for the hardship they endured at the hands of the Home Office.
The Committee found a litany of flaws in the design and operation of the scheme including an excessive burden on claimants to provide documentary evidence of losses, long delays in processing, poor communication and inadequate staffing.
The report concludes that it is a damning indictment of the Home Office that the design and operation of the Compensation Scheme contain many of the same bureaucratic insensitivities that led to the Windrush Scandal in the first place.
The report welcomes the changes made to the Scheme by the Home Office in December 2020 to accelerate payments and make improvements to the Scheme but says that these changes do not go far enough.
The Committee urges immediate action to increase the number of people applying for the Scheme and to ensure that every individual affected is granted some compensation quickly, including immediate, preliminary payments of £10,000 within two months for all those who the Home Office have acknowledged were wrongly subject to immigration enforcement measures or wrongly denied proof of their lawful status.
It also calls for an increase in the general award tariff, guaranteed access to legal assistance for all claimants, an independent appeal process and greater support for grassroots campaigns and community outreach work to increase confidence in the Scheme.
The Committee found that by keeping the Compensation Scheme within the very Department that caused the scandal in the first place, the Government has undermined confidence in the Scheme.
In order to increase trust and encourage more applicants, the Committee calls for the Scheme to be transferred from the Home Office to an independent organisation.
Publishing the report, Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP said: “It has been four years since the Windrush scandal emerged and it is truly shocking how few people have received any compensation for the hardship they endured at the hands of the Home Office.
“It is particularly distressing that twenty-three individuals have died without receiving any compensation. Urgent action is needed to get compensation to those who have been so badly wronged.
“The Windrush Compensation Scheme was designed to right the wrongs of the Windrush scandal and yet delays and difficulties in applying for the Scheme have compounded those injustices. It is staggering, given the failures of the Windrush Scandal, that the Home Office has allowed some of the same problems to affect the Windrush Compensation Scheme too.
“We are calling for urgent changes to improve the Scheme and speed up payments to those who have been so badly treated by the Home Office in the past. The treatment of the Windrush generation by successive governments was truly shameful. The Government should implement these changes to the Scheme immediately to ensure that injustices are swiftly compensated instead of compounded”.
The House of Commons will next meet on Monday at 2.30pm, following the announcement of the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Scottish Parliament will also reconvene on Monday.
The Scottish Parliament’s flags are flying at half-mast following the death of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.
Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh said: “On behalf of the Scottish Parliament I would like to extend our sincere condolences to Her Majesty The Queen and to the Royal Family following the death of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.
“The Duke of Edinburgh accompanied Her Majesty The Queen on each of her visits to the Scottish Parliament since 1999. Their unwavering support for this institution and The Duke’s unwavering support to Her Majesty were clear for all to see and his loss will be deeply felt.”
Westminster’s Women and Equalities Committee has published its report on coronavirus and the gendered economic impact. The report has found that the economic impact of coronavirus has affected men and women differently. This is because of existing gendered economic inequalities, the over-representation of women in certain types of work and the actions the Government has taken.
Conduct an Equality Impact Assessment of the Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme. This should draw on existing inequalities and would better protect those already at a disadvantage in the labour market, including women. It could also inform more effective responses to future crises.
Assess the equality impact of the Industrial Strategy and the New Deal, and analyse who has benefited from the industrial strategy. Priorities for recovery are heavily gendered in nature, with investment plans skewing towards male dominated sectors.
Conduct an economic growth assessment of the care-led recovery proposals made by the Women’s Budget Group. (Treasury)
Maintain increases in support, including the £20 increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance. (Department for Work and Pensions)
Review the adequacy of and eligibility for Statutory Sick Pay. Women are over represented among those who are not eligible.
Legislate to extend redundancy protection to pregnant women and new mothers.
Review childcare provision to provide support for working parents and those who are job seeking or retraining.
Reinstate gender pay gap reporting and include parental leave policies, ethnicity and disability.
Provide better data to improve reporting and analysis on how gender, ethnicity, disability, age and socio-economic status interact to compound disadvantage.
Ensure that the Government Equalities Office and Minister for Women are more ambitious and proactive.
Committee Chair Caroline Nokes said: “As the pandemic struck, the Government had to act quickly to protect jobs and adapt welfare benefits. “These have provided a vital safety net for millions of people. But it overlooked the labour market and caring inequalities faced by women.
“These are not a mystery, they are specific and well understood. And yet the Government has repeatedly failed to consider them.
“This passive approach to gender equality is not enough. And for many women it has made existing equality problems worse: in the support to self-employed people, to pregnant women and new mothers, to the professional childcare sector, and for women claiming benefits. And it risks doing the same in its plans for economic recovery.
“We heard evidence from a wide range of organisations, including Maternity Action, the National Hair and Beauty Federation, the TUC, the Professional Association of Childcare and Early Years, the single parents campaign group Gingerbread, the Young Women’s Trust and the Women’s Budget Group. And written evidence from many more.
“The message from our evidence is clear: Government policies have repeatedly skewed towards men—and it keeps happening.
“We need to see more than good intentions and hoping for the best. The Government must start actively analysing and assessing the equality impact of every policy, or it risks turning the clock back.
“Our report sets out a package of twenty recommendations for change and a timescale. Taken together, these will go a long way towards tackling the problems and creating the more equal future that so many women—and men—want to see.
“The Government should seize this opportunity.”
Responding to today’s report by the Woman and Equalities Committee, which sets out how women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady (above) said: “Women have been put in an impossible situation during the pandemic – often expected to work and look after children at the same time.
“Too many working mums are having to cut their hours or being forced to leave their jobs because they cannot manage.
“If ministers don’t act, women will be pushed out of the labour market. And that means women’s and children’s poverty will soar.
“Ministers must give all parents a temporary right to be furloughed now.
“And they must fix the UK’s lamentable support for working parents. That means giving all parents at least ten days’ paid parental leave each year, making real flexible working available to all, and funding childcare properly.
“Unless ministers strengthen rights and support for working parents, women’s equality risks being set back decades.”
On the committee’s recommendation to carry out and publish an equality impact assessment on how government policies have affected women, Frances O’Grady added: “The government must urgently carry out and publish equality impact assessments of all its policies during this pandemic.
“This crisis, and the government’s response to it, is deepening inequalities for women at work.”
A TUC survey of 52,000 working mums published earlier this month revealed that 9 in 10 had experienced higher levels of anxiety and stress levels during this latest lockdown.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of those who had applied for furlough following the latest school closures have had their requests turned down.
The TUC says this situation results from the UK’s failure to help families balance paid work and childcare.
It is calling on the government to introduce:
A new temporary right to furlough for groups who cannot work because of coronavirus restrictions – both parents and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and required to shield.
Ten days’ paid parental leave, from day one in a job, for all parents. Currently parents have no statutory right to paid leave to look after their children.
A right to flexible work for all parents. Flexible working can take lots of different forms, including having predictable or set hours, working from home, job-sharing, compressed hours and term-time working.
Give additional financial support to the childcare sector so that childcare providers can continue to offer support to working parents.
An increase in sick pay to at least the level of the real Living Wage, for everyone in work, to ensure workers can afford to self-isolate if they need to.
Newly self-employed parents to have access the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS).
The Chancellor must maintain for another year ‘at the very least’ the £20 per week increase in Universal Credit (UC) and Working Tax Credit introduced to support families during the coronavirus pandemic, MPs say today.
Work and Pensions Committee calls for year-long extension of increase ‘at the very least’
Removal in April while pandemic still being felt would plunge hundreds of thousands of families into poverty
Any plans to replace rise with one-off payments must be abandoned amid concerns over fraud and impact on vulnerable
The report from the Work and Pensions Committee notes that since March the number of people claiming UC has doubled to around six million, while job vacancies remain far below pre-pandemic levels.
It warns that removing the payment as planned in April, while the effects of the pandemic are still being felt, would ‘plunge hundreds of thousands of households, including children into poverty’ while dragging those already in poverty ‘down into destitution’.
While the Committee recognises that continuing with the increase would come at a ‘substantial cost’, the Committee argues that this should be seen in the context of the Treasury’s own £280bn figure for total spending on coronavirus support measures this year. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has estimated that keeping the £20 rise would cost around £6.4bn in the next financial year.
The report also calls on the Government to abandon any plans for one-off payments to replace the weekly rise. The Secretary of State confirmed to the Committee last week that the DWP had been asked to investigate such an option but said it was not ‘one of the Department’s preferred approaches to providing that financial support’.
Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “Removing the extra payment in March would represent a failure by Government – failure to recognise the reality of people struggling.
“Without regular support, hundreds of thousands of families will be swept into poverty or even destitution. Government must end the uncertainty and commit to extending this lifeline.
“The Chancellor faces difficult decisions about the public finances. He may find it hard at present to make the increase permanent. But the pandemic’s impact on the economy and livelihoods will, sadly, be with us for some time. An extension for a year should be the bare minimum.
“We must also hope that Rishi Sunak will listen to the groundswell of arguments against one-off payments as an alternative, including from his cabinet colleague at our Committee last week. There is broad agreement that a steady income is necessary to support people.”
Report findings and recommendations
Impact of removing the £20 per week increase (Chapter 2)
Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has concluded that withdrawing the temporary increase ‘will risk sweeping 700,000 more people, including 300,000 more children, into poverty’
One-off payments (Chapter 3)
The Committee shares the Secretary of State’s view that a steady income is the best way to support people and is concerned that one-off payments could increase the risk of fraud and about the risks to vulnerable people.
The proposed way forward (Chapter 4)
The Committee has previously called on the Government to make the £20 per week increase permanent with annual inflation-based increases. The report acknowledges however that ‘in the short term, the Chancellor faces some very difficult decisions about the public finances amid a great deal of uncertainty about the future.’
If the Chancellor cannot yet commit to making the increase permanent, he should at the very least extend it for a further 12 months. The Government should then announce its future plans for the rate of Universal Credit no later than the Autumn Statement 2021, to give claimants enough time to plan and budget.
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report ‘Universal Credit isn’t working: proposals for reform‘, calls on the UK Government to make substantial changes to universal credit in order to protect the most vulnerable.
Universal Credit is failing millions of people, particularly the most vulnerable. The Economic Affairs Committee agrees with the original aim of Universal Credit but blames the scheme’s design for soaring rent arrears and the use of food banks.
Cuts to social security budgets over the last decade is causing widespread poverty and hardship. Universal Credit needs urgent investment to catch up and provide claimants with adequate income. The temporary increase in the standard allowance in response to the Covid-19 pandemic shows that the previous level of awards was too low. The increase should be made permanent.
The Government is using Universal Credit to recover debt, mostly £6 billion of historic tax credit debt. Deductions of up to 30% of the standard allowance, and in some cases more, can be taken from claimants. This has left many households with less money than they are entitled, often at no fault of their own. Tax credit debt should be written off as it is unlikely to be repaid.
The five-week wait for the first Universal Credit payment is the main cause of insecurity. This wait entrenches debt, increases extreme poverty and harms vulnerable groups disproportionately. The Government should introduce a non-repayable two-week grant to all claimants.
The way payments are calculated can result in large fluctuations in income month-to-month, making it extremely difficult for claimants to budget. The level of awards should be fixed at the same level for three months. There should be a mechanism to enable claimants to have an early reassessment if their circumstances change.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, Chair of the Economic Affairs Committee, said: “Most people, including our Committee, broadly agree with the original aims and objectives of Universal Credit. However, in its current form it fails to provide a dependable safety net. It has led to an unprecedented number of people relying on foodbanks and not being able to pay their rent.
“The mechanics of Universal Credit do not reflect the reality of people’s lives. It is designed around an idealised claimant and rigid, inflexible features of the system are harming a range of claimant groups, including women, disabled people and the vulnerable.
“Universal Credit needs more money to catch up after 10 years of cuts to the social security budget. It requires substantial reform to its design and implementation, the adequacy of its awards, and how it supports claimants to navigate the system and find work.
“The five-week wait for a first payment must be replaced by a non-repayable two-week grant to all claimants. The monthly payment calculations which can result in big fluctuations to claimants’ incomes should be fixed for three months. Historical tax credit debt needs to be written off.
“The punitive nature of Universal Credit has not worked. It punishes the poorest by taking away their sole source of income for minor infractions. It needs rebalancing, with more carrot and less stick, particularly as large numbers of claimants will have ended up on it because of events completely out of their control.”
The Committee’s other key findings and recommendations include:
The Government must prioritise helping people into work, particularly with the increase in unemployment that the Covid-19 pandemic is causing. All claimants should have a work allowance, at a higher rate than now, to allow them to keep more of their award as they move into work.
The Government should consider reducing the taper rate to ensure that the poorest in society do not pay higher marginal effective tax rates compared to the richest in society.
The conditionality requirements on claimants who can look for, or prepare for work, has been increased significantly over recent years. Less emphasis should be placed on obligations and sanctions. Instead, there should be more support to help coach and train claimants to find jobs or to progress in their current roles. Conditionality should be adapted to accommodate changing labour market conditions, including at the local level, particularly in the light of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UK has some of the most punitive sanctions in the world, but there is limited evidence that they have a positive effect. Removing people’s main source of support for extended periods risks pushing them further into poverty, indebtedness and reliance on food banks. There is a substantial body of evidence which shows that sanctions harm people’s mental health. The Government should evaluate the current length and level of sanctions. It should also expedite its work on introducing a written warning system before the application of a sanction. Sanctions must be a last resort.
The Government is doubling the number of work coaches in response to potential levels of high unemployment. This may not be enough to support people to find work in a stagnant labour market with high levels of competition for jobs. A cap should be introduced on the number of cases for which each work coach can be responsible.
Paying awards on a monthly basis does not reflect the way many claimants live. It causes unnecessary budget and cash flow problems. All claimants should be able to choose whether to have Universal Credit paid monthly or twice monthly.
Including childcare support in Universal Credit was a mistake. Paying costs in arrears has been a barrier to in-work progression and in some cases, it has been a disincentive to work. The Government should remove childcare support from Universal Credit and be made into a new standalone benefit paid in advance.
The UK Government’s “slow, inconsistent, and at times negligent approach” to social care in the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the “tragic impact of years of inattention, funding cuts and delayed reforms”, leaving the sector as a “poor relation” that has suffered badly in the pandemic.
The Public Accounts Commons Select Committee is demanding from Government a “3-point plan” by September, ahead of the second wave, covering health, the economy & procurement of medical supplies and equipment.
This was illustrated early on by the “appalling error” committed when 25,000 patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes without ensuring all were first tested for COVID-19 – even after there was clear evidence of asymptomatic transmission of the virus.
Thanks to the commitment of thousands of staff and volunteers and by postponing a large amount of planned work, the NHS was – just – able to weather the “severe and immense” challenges to health and social care services in England and meet overall demand for COVID-19 treatment during the pandemic’s April peak – “unfortunately, it has been a very different story for adult social care”.
The Committee is particularly concerned about staff in health and social care “who have endured the strain and trauma of responding to COVID-19 for many months” and who are now expected to “cope with future peaks and also deal with the enormous backlogs that have built up”.
Failure to protect staff by providing adequate PPE has hit staff morale and confidence, while a lack of timely testing led to increased stress and absence. These same staff will be called upon in the event of a second peak and the NHS will need extra staff to deal with the backlog of treatment.
As well as its calls for a “second wave ready” plan, for health and the economy, the Committee expects an account to be provided in September of the spending under “policies designed to create additional capacity quickly” which – while necessary, especially in the haste the Government was acting in – have resulted in “a lack of transparency about costs and value for money”.
Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The failure to provide adequate PPE or testing to the millions of staff and volunteers who risked their lives to help us through the first peak of the crisis is a sad, low moment in our national response.
“Our care homes were effectively thrown to the wolves, and the virus has ravaged some of them.
“Vulnerable people surviving the first wave have been isolated for months, in the absence of a functional tracing and containment system. Yet there were bold and ambitious claims made by ministers about the roll out of test, track and trace that don’t match the reality.
“The deaths of people in care homes devastated many, many families. They and we don’t have time for promises and slogans, or exercises in blame. We weren’t prepared for the first wave. Putting all else aside, Government must use the narrow window we have now to plan for a second wave. Lives depend upon getting our response right.”
