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Monday 2 June
Arrived back
in Westminster after the Whitsun recess. First thing in the afternoon was
Work and Pensions Questions where
I raised the important question of the disproportionate costs of
child care for disabled children with the Minister for Disabled
People.
I spent the
afternoon catching up with the pile of paperwork that had built up
whilst I had been away and then went to meet James Purnell, the Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions, to talk about Incapacity Benefit
issues.
Tuesday 3 June
I was one of
the keynote speakers at a one-day conference organised by Inside
Government on the theme of “A Welfare
State Fit for The 21st Century: The Next Steps”. The audience was made up of
civil servants, academics and people from the voluntary sector and
there was a lively discussion on what further welfare reforms are
needed for more progress on getting people into
jobs.
In the
afternoon I was interviewed by Ipsos Mori as part of a survey
on the Pension Protection
Fund. I think
the interviewer was quite surprised to find someone who actually
knew all the ins and out of the Fund which was set up by the Labour
government to make sure that when a company goes bust, employees
who have paid into the company pension fund will be
reimbursed.
In the
evening I attended the launch of a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development on Line Management Capability and Stress at
Work.
Wednesday 4
June
I was
interviewed for the BBC’s programme “See
Hear” for a piece they were doing on Disability Living
Allowance for deaf people.
I then
attended a reception hosted by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation held
as part of Temporary Workers’ Week. It was a useful opportunity to
talk to the representatives of employment agencies in the light of
the government’s announcement about enhanced rights for temporary
and agency workers – something that I have long been campaigning
for.
Back up to
Bradford in the evening so that I can be in Harrogate first thing
in the morning for the Select Committee visit.
Thursday 5 June
The Work and
Pensions Select Committee spent a very useful and informative day
at the Harrogate Carers’ Resource
Centre. We met
a number of carers and professionals talking about the work of the
centre in terms of employment, education and training and providing
respite opportunities for carers. They also talked to us about
what more the government still needs to do to help
carers. It was a very
worthwhile visit which gave us a lot of useful material for
inclusion in the Select Committee’s forthcoming report on
Carers.
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Week beginning 2nd June
