Happy New Year, Sir Steve Webb!

Our former MP Steve Webb has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List. He was our MP from 1997 to 2015, and Minister of State for Pensions in the coalition government.

Since last year Steve has been the Director of Policy at the large mutual insurer Royal London, a role that allows him to carry on raising issues about pensions and other areas of public policy. He pops up on Moneybox or the Today programme from time to time, but unfortunately because of this role he's not able to engage actively in party politics.

We wish Sir Steve and Lady Helen all the very best for 2017 and the future.

Never mind the TV debates...

... what happened when the candidates for Thornbury and Yate went head-to-head for the first time?

At the start of the General Election campaign the five candidates for this constituency took part in their first ‘hustings’ meeting. Young people attending sixth forms across Yate and Chipping Sodbury, and voting for the first time at this General Election, organised a meeting at Yate International Academy, attended by over 100 sixth formers. What was THEIR verdict on all the candidates for this seat after quizzing them?

Before the hustings, in a secret ballot the Tories were neck and neck with Steve Webb, with the other parties trailing.

But after a two hour head-to-head grilling of all the candidates things changed.

In an exit poll at the end of the event the Tory vote halved from 25% to 12%, while Steve Webb's vote surged from 25% to 43%.

After testing the candidates on all sorts of issues, the young people's verdict was clear. THEY want Steve Webb to win - they see him as the best person to help deliver the future they want for themselves and their world.

You can hear the candidates at the following public hustings meetings:

Tues 14th April – 7pm
Armadillo, Station Road, Yate, Bristol, BS37 4FW
(organised by Federation of Small Business)

Thurs 16th April – 7.30pm
Zion United Church, Woodend Road, Frampton Cotterell, BS36 2HY

Tues 21st April – 7.30pm
Thornbury Baptist Church, Gillingstool, Thornbury, BS35 2EG

Thurs 23rd April – 7.30pm
Cranleigh Court Chapel, Cranleigh Court Road, Yate, BS37 5DQ

When people hear Steve and what he has been able to achieve with residents locally and nationally it strikes a chord.

Now the election campaign really begins

Parliament has now been dissolved, and the election campaign is well under way. Steve Webb was unanimously adopted as the Liberal Democrat parlaimentary candidate for the Thornbury and Yate constituency at a meeting of Lib Dem members in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall this week. Steve will be very busy for the next few weeks because quite apart from campaigning he's still the Minister of State for Pensions - the government doesn't finish until the election result is known.

Meanwhile local Lib Dems have been out on the streets talking to as many voters as possible, though you may well have seen us at other times - we make a real effort to keep in contact between elections, either on the doorstep or via our regular Focus and other leaflets.

If you would like to help Steve's campaign in a practical way you can email Steve on steve@stevewebb.org.uk or click here if you would like to make a financial donation to our campaign.

Steve Webb keeps ministerial role in government reshuffle

It's good to see that our MP Steve Webb has kept his post as Minister of State for Pensions in the major government reshuffle. Steve is now apparently the longest-serving pensions minister ever, as he's been in the post for two and a half years.

The Department for Work and Pensions will be a key area during the rest of this government's term. Some stability in the DWP ministerial team will be welcome, in contrast to the number of changes in other departments.

Pensions boost scheme - a special message from Steve Webb

Steve Webb says:

I am keen to draw the attention of local residents to a special scheme, part of which runs out in a few weeks’ time.   This is designed to enable certain people who have retired in the last few years (or who will retire over the next few years) to boost their state pension on favourable terms.

In brief, it applies to those who reached state pension age after April 2008 and who are not drawing a full state pension.   If this applies to you and you already have at least twenty years of contributions or credits (for time at home with children, for example) then you may be able to buy back extra years of contributions under a special scheme.  

There are two information sheets available, one for those who reached state pension age between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2010, and a second for those who reached (or will reach) pension age between 6 April 2010 and 5 April 2015.   You can find them here:

2008-2010 information

2010-2015 information

There is a wide range of relevant information on this website: www.direct.gov.uk/topupni

I hope that this information is helpful.   If you have any queries about your eligibility for the pension boost scheme do let me know.   If so, it would be helpful if you could let me have your date of birth and NI number so that I can make further enquiries on your behalf if you wish.

With best wishes,

Steve Webb MP

You can email Steve on steve@stevewebb.org.uk, and you can also use the same address if you would like to be put on his list for occasional emails on issues that may interest you.

Steve Webb writes about the Welfare Reform Bill

Steve comments about the Bill and its proposals to radically alter our welfare system.

Steve Webb gets ministerial post

Steve Webb has just become Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Congratulations, Steve!

An excellent appointment - there aren't many people who know more about pensions than Steve does.

Full list of ministers from the Guardian here

Steve Webb writes about the coalition

Steve has written a detailed piece on his blog on the logic that led to the Con - Lib Dem coalition government, and what could have happened if other alternatives had been tried.

Read Steve's blog post in full here: A real rollercoaster

Steve and supporters after the election result is declared at the count

Steve Webb elected with 7000 majority, taking over half the vote

Steve Webb has been elected as the first MP for the new constituency of Thornbury and Yate with a majority of 7116 over the Conservatives, taking just over half the vote.

Full results:

Thomas Beacham (Independents Federation UK) 126
Anthony Clements (Independent) 58
Roxanne Egan (Labour) 3385
Jenny Knight (UKIP) 1709
Matthew Riddle (Conservative) 17916
Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) 25032

Congratulations to Steve and all his team.

A third of tax credit payments are for the wrong amount – Steve Webb

Almost a third of tax credit payments have been for the wrong amount, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

More than 2m families have been repeatedly overpaid in the 5 years since tax credits were introduced, answers to Parliamentary Questions show.

The number of families repeatedly underpaid was up 42% to almost 1m over the same period.

A staggering 50,000 families have been taken to court in pursuit of overpayments in the last three years.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Steve Webb said:

“These figures should shame ministers into making changes to the tax credit system.

“Families are put on a financial rollercoaster when they are forced to repay tax credits after continual mistakes. This is not the kind of help they need when times are hard.

“Families need to know exactly what cash is coming in and when. They should not have to face sleepless nights wondering when the Revenue will come knocking asking for money back.

“Ministers should fix tax credits payments for six months at a time so overpayments could be avoided, but they refuse to admit the system is anything but perfect.”

Steve Webb answers public questions - item in The Independent

The NHS, dealing with unemployment, cutting the deficit - Steve responds to an interesting range of questions from readers of The Independent:
Read the article here

Steve Webb writes in Guardian - Focus remains firmly on redistributive policies and fairness

There's an interesting article by Steve Webb in the Guardian this week. Here's a short extract:

"The Lib Dem policy of raising the tax allowance to £10,000 per year is described by Horton (Tim Horton of the Fabian Society) as "a juicy middle-class tax cut to sell in Conservative marginals around the country". Yet this tax cut, and the progressive tax increases which finance it, are hugely redistributive.  

A £10,000 tax allowance means that people on the minimum wage should no longer have tax taken out of their paypacket – surely something progressives should support? 

And the money for this tax cut comes overwhelmingly from high earners – ending the extra pension tax relief that higher rate taxpayers enjoy, taxing capital gains properly, and taxing those with properties worth over £2m"

When we look around our area, particularly in wards like West Yate and Dodington which have just been declared priority neighbourhoods, it makes sense to help these low-earning but hard-working people. They are the carers, the shop workers, the people who make our towns function. Let's give them a bit of a boost.

Steve Webb praised for work against child poverty

Northavon MP Steve Webb has been shortlisted by charity Child Poverty Action Group for their MP of the Year award.

Speaking in the debate on the Child Poverty Bill he said Parliament should try to do better than reducing the proportion of children in poverty to 10 per cent, because that would still leave a million children in poverty.

He said: "The goal of being about as good as the best European countries is a start but it should not be the end."

More detail from the Evening Post here.

MP urges action on spiralling unemployment

Local MP Steve Webb has called for urgent Government action to tackle the spiralling level of unemployment in this area. Although it remains well below the national average, the number of people out of work and claiming benefit has more than trebled in the last year.

Steve said, "It is a source of great concern that unemployment levels are rising rapidly in our area. There is a danger that the Government concentrates all of its attention on traditional unemployment 'blackspots' and neglects areas such as ours which have had low unemployment in the past but are now being hard hit by the Recession."

"I am urging the Government to ensure that local JobCentres have more resources to assist those who are unemployed. We also need to make sure that the banks lend money to the many viable local businesses who are struggling to raise finance".

If you are a local employer being hit by the recession, Steve would like to hear from you. You can find all his contact details on the front page of his website.