Speeches by Dixon.

“Good morning, Sir Peter. I will just declare for the record that my niece works as a work coach in a jobcentre. My background is very much around disability. I want to go into this a little bit further. I don’t really like the term “vulnerable customer”. There are lots of people who have different additional needs thro…”

“That is an issue particularly with PIP. The form is not entirely clear as to what evidence people should be providing at that point. We see that in the tribunals. Of the many people who do go to tribunal, around two thirds are successful. That sounds like the refusal rate is probably too high. It is about that added la…”

“We will come on to that.”

“Okay, but as and when they have been, I would be grateful if you could—”

“There is a very specific group of people who were effectively underpaid. When people were migrated from ESA to universal credit, those under managed migration received some transitional protection so that they did not lose it, whereas others under natural migration actually lost their enhanced disability premium. I hav…”

“It sounds like the review has plenty to look at on that. In the interests of time, I will move on to underpayments, because if claimants are getting less money than they are entitled to, obviously that increases their own financial hardship. The NAO Report suggests that, as you mentioned, official error accounted for £…”

“But would you agree it does not fit the modern way of working? Obviously, universal credit has partly been developed to recognise that people have fluctuating working hours, fluctuating contracts, and even more so if they are juggling care with work—so, noticing when, as a result of being on a zero-hours contract, you …”

“I will leave colleagues to focus on fraud; I am more interested in error and, in a way, DWP error. Obviously you have data on carers, for example. There is data in the system about people, even if it is with HMRC, but they were not being notified. That leaves people in a situation where they then face large bills in a …”

“I will get into the issues of underpayment and overpayment. We talked earlier about one of the key metrics of your customer services being payment accuracy, and yet an estimated £9.5 billion was overpaid. Let us start there. We have heard a lot of publicity about carers and the overpayment of carer’s allowance, with so…”

“This is my last point, Chair. Obviously, we have focused on PIP as a disability benefit, but people with neurodiversity, communication issues and older people with dementia will apply for all sorts of benefits. Are you able to track user satisfaction specifically for those customers across all your benefits? If so, how…”

“I am sure that some of the vulnerable customers—people who are personally experiencing some of the challenges—will feel very frustrated that things take a long time. What can you do to improve the support you are giving people while you are rolling out your transformation programme? To look again at the Sense data and …”

“That is very reassuring, Sir Peter. When you spoke earlier about the health transformation programme, you talked about it as a long journey. Are there timeframes for when it will start to roll out? When will your customers start to see a difference, particularly around PIP?”

“I think the right hon. Gentleman makes a very valid point. Obviously, from my professional background, I see myself as fairly well-informed, but the scale of the damage done by this particular implant—the pelvic mesh—is also a shock to me. It is really timely that new Members are made aware of this issue. Hopefully, we…”

“It is an honour to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I again congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) on securing this important debate and highlighting the trauma caused to many women, such as his constituent Debbie, by the pelvic mesh scandal. Before entering Parliament I spent 20 yea…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. The NHS has a clinical negligence scheme and it spends a lot of money on lawyers. Does my hon. Friend agree that victims of this particular scandal should, like many others, get no-fault compensation? And does he think the NHS should look at its clinical neglig…”

“The hon. Gentleman mentioned tenant farmers, and I know that he will have some in his constituency, as I do in mine in Shipley. Nationwide, a third of all farmland is managed by tenant farmers. Last month, the Department announced the appointment of a new commissioner for the tenant farming sector in England, which I h…”

“I backed British farming ahead of the general election, and I back the farmers in my constituency. I am proud to sit on these Benches with a Labour Government who are backing British farmers with an investment of £5 billion in the recent Budget. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is absolutely essential that we make sur…”

“It is an honour to speak under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate. As a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I have had to scrutinise the National Audit Office’s report on SEND. According to that report, local authorities spent some £…”

“Will the right hon. Lady give way?”

“Will the Minister give way?”