Blomfield challenges PM to protect people who are being overwhelmed by debt

Paul Blomfield today challenged David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions to take action to protect people who are “being overwhelmed by debt” and to tackle payday loan lenders. Mr Blomfield’s question follows today’s publication of a report by the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee on Debt Management which calls on the Government to introduce tougher regulation of debt management and high cost credit companies. Mr Blomfield, who sits on the Committee, has also welcomed the recommendation that Ministers need to provide a clear commitment about the future of debt advice services.

Paul Blomfield’s question to David Cameron was: “Today the Business Select Committee published a major report on consumer debt. Last November, R3 reported 60% of people were worried about debt, and 3.5 million were considering payday loans. In the year since the Government concluded its consultation on the issue, no action has been taken.

“Will the Prime Minister now commit to protect those families who are being overwhelmed by debt as a result of his policies – or will he confirm that he is simply ‘out of touch’ with the financial reality facing ordinary families?”

Speaking after PMQs Paul Blomfield MP said: “In these tough times an increasing number of vulnerable and desperate people are being overwhelmed by debt and are turning to payday loan lenders with their obscene interest rates.

Ministerial meeting about Sheffield Station Bridge “a very positive step forward”

Paul Blomfield MP, with Sheffield’s other Labour MPs, representatives from Sheffield City Council, and Residents Against Station Closure today met with Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening and Rail Minister Norman Baker to discuss the long-running issue of maintaining pedestrian access through Sheffield station.

After the meeting they welcomed her commitment to maintaining pedestrian access through the station, exploring options to barriers and the fact that she had identified a potential £3million towards further bridge solutions. This will include looking at the options of widening the existing pedestrian footbridge, upgrading the goods bridge or building a new pedestrian bridge, into which she has commissioned a 6 month study.

Paul Blomfield MP said: “This is a very positive step forward to resolving this long-running issue. It’s been a long four-year campaign, but we’re hopefully finally close to achieving a solution. We all welcome the Secretary of State’s recognition that we must maintain open pedestrian access through the station and her commitment to rigorously and swiftly explore alternative options to barriers.

“These options include holding more ticket spot checks, ticket inspectors and ticket machines and putting on longer trains.”

Betts challenges Minister to come clean on Council Tax Benefit plans

Clive Betts, Sheffield South East Labour MP and Chair, Communities and Local Government Select Committee has challenged the Local Government Minister, Bob Neill, to come clean about the Government’s intentions on Council Tax Benefit.

It has now been revealed that local government’s software suppliers had advised that it would be ’simply impossible’ to meet the Government’s timetable, meaning that councils could face picking up a £480m bill.

Clive Betts said; “The government’s proposals to localise council tax benefit whilst, at the same time, cutting the overall budget for council tax benefit by 10%, will undoubtedly hit unemployed families and individuals very hard.

“Last October, the all-Party Select Committee said that giving councils only until March 2013 to design and implement new schemes imposed a significant operational risk.

“The Local Government Minister, Bob Neill, in response to the Select Committee and when challenged in recent debates on the Local Government Finance Bill, has consistently assured MPs that the Government’s timetable could be met without risk.

“However, I have now discovered that the biggest software suppliers had confirmed on January 14th 2012 that the Government’s proposed timetable was simply impossible to achieve.

Government adviser warns children’s services cuts will increase health inequalities

Today Professor Sir Michael Marmott has warned that the Government’s austerity programme could have disastrous implications for health inequalities.

Marmott identifies that Government cuts will impact on measures that affect health which identifies as employment, education, income and health, child development and environment. He points to cuts to Sure Start funding as impacting on good services for early childhood and warned that wider austerity measures such as the increase in VAT will increase child poverty and also lead to greater health inequalities with the most disadvantaged being greatest affected by the cuts.

Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation confirmed that government cuts to grants specifically focused towards the needs of the most deprived authorities are resulting in the most deprived authorities facing a much more severe cut than the wealthiest areas in the country.

Last year it was also revealed that the Government plan to redistribute NHS money away from areas with the greatest need by reducing the weighting given to health inequalities when allocating NHS funding.

Labour Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, Councillor Jackie Drayton, said: “The Government are cutting vital funds for children’s services which is hitting the most disadvantaged children and families hardest and impacting on services that tackle both education and health inequalities.

South Yorkshire, the Nation’s heart charity needs you to show your red side

February is National Heart Month and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Angela Smith MP are asking the people of Sheffield and Barnsley to join National Wear Red Day on Friday 24 February 2012 and to follow the BEAT code for simple steps to a healthier heart.

In National Heart Month, the BHF encourages people across the UK to think about their own hearts and the hearts of those around them. The nation’s heart charity also needs people across the UK to get involved with National Wear Red Day, and raise vital funds for the charity’s life-saving work.

By wearing red like Angela on National Wear Red Day and raising money, you will help the BHF to save lives through pioneering research, patient care, campaigning for change and by providing vital information.

Commenting, Angela said; “It is a common misperception that heart disease is more common in men than women when in fact it kills 1 in 3 women, as well as 1 in 3 men and kills three times more women than breast cancer. Funds raised during National Heart Month can support the BHF to help the 2.7 million people in the UK currently living with heart disease.”

As unemployment rises again, Labour tells Clegg to stand up for Sheffield

Labour have hit out at Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg when on the same day as it was revealed that unemployment has risen to its highest level for 16 years, the main concern of the Deputy Prime Minister has been to criticise the Labour council about bin collections.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that unemployment now stands at 2.67 million and increased by 48,000 in the three months to December, with the pain being felt particularly hard in Sheffield and across the north of England.

A string of recent reports confirm that the Governments spending cuts are hitting northern cities such as Sheffield the hardest, whilst at the same time many wealthy areas in southern Tory heartlands are receiving minimal cuts.

Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation confirmed that government cuts to grants specifically focused towards the needs of the most deprived authorities are resulting in the most deprived authorities facing a much more severe cut than the wealthiest areas in the country. The report indicates that urban and deprived areas get the worst deal, with affluent and rural areas receiving the best.

In addition to this Government funds such as the council tax freeze, disproportionately benefit wealthier local authorities, who have a larger council tax base and further shift funding away from areas with the greatest need.

Labour make final plea to Clegg to fund Sheffield’s weekly collections

Labour Leader of Sheffield City Council, Councillor Julie Dore, has written to Sheffield Hallam MP and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to make one final plea for the Government to provide the funding for Sheffield to continue a weekly black bin collection service.

Labour were surprised when Mr Clegg recently intervened in the issue, being quoted in the local media as saying that the Council is “unlikely to save a penny over the next year” from moving to alternate week collections. In addition to this he said that “there may be more available for Sheffield than Labour anticipates.”

Despite the Lib Dem leader’s intervention in the local media, the Government have to date stated that they will not reveal how much Sheffield will receive from the fund until October. However, Sheffield Council is having to move to alternate week collections to avoid greater cuts to other services this year, as Government cuts are forcing them to save £170 million over the next four years, £55 million of which has to be saved in 2012/13.

With the Council’s budget due to be set on 9th March Labour are calling on Mr Clegg to confirm that the Government will provide the funding to protect weekly collections by the end of the month.

Labour Leader of Sheffield City Council, Councillor Julie Dore, said: “Given Nick Clegg’s record on keeping promises I think you can forgive Sheffielders for being more than a bit sceptical about his pledge that the Government will provide funding to keep the weekly black bin collection.

“We do not want to cut this service, but the reality is that we are having to make this decision exactly because of the massive cuts that the Government are forcing on us.

Betts lambasts Lib Dem Minister’s Sheffield “smokescreen” visit

Sheffield South East Labour MP, Clive Betts, today lambasted Liberal Democrat Minister Sarah Teather for using a visit to Sheffield as a smokescreen to avoid voting on cuts to benefits.

The Sunday Times revealed yesterday that Downing Street gave her special permission to miss the debates and votes which cut child care support for thousands of working families, Employment and Support Allowances which will particularly hit people recovering from cancer and mental health conditions, and strip an independent income from young people who have been severely disabled from birth.

The report suggested that Sarah Teather was so opposed to the cuts that, if present, she would have chosen to vote against and would, therefore, have had to resign as a Government Minister.

Clive Betts said: “We all know about ‘being sent to Coventry’. Now, we have ‘gone to Sheffield’.

“It means ‘a Liberal Democrat who chooses a Ministerial salary for herself rather than stopping massive cuts in the income of some of the poorest working families in the country, from disabled children, and from those recovering from cancer’!”

Clive Betts also lambasted Nick Clegg for his role in the cover-up.

Increasing private patient income will mean worse NHS services for Sheffield people

Sheffield South East Labour MP, Clive Betts, has expressed considerable surprise that the Medical Director of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has called for Sheffield hospitals to be allowed to raise up to 49% of their income from private patients.

Professor Mike Richmond, Medical Director, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was one of the signatories to a letter to The Times last week.

Clive Betts said: “I think Professor Richmond is totally out of step with Sheffield people. They are overwhelmingly concerned about the Government’s proposals for the NHS. They simply don’t trust David Cameron and Nick Clegg with our health services. And their view is shared by just about every professional body – including all the Royal Colleges of doctors, nurses and supplementary professions.

Already, nationally and locally:

* the median waiting-time for treatment is higher now than in 2009/10;

* the number of people waiting more than 18 months for treatment has increased by 43% in the last year; and

* twice as many people are now waiting more than 6 weeks for diagnostic tests – including for cancer and heart disease – as were waiting when David Cameron came to power.”

Station Bridge roundtable with Transport Ministers announced

Paul Blomfield MP and campaign group Residents Against Station Closure (RASC) can announce that a roundtable meeting with Department for Transport Ministers will take place on Wednesday 29th February. The meeting will discuss the long-running issue of maintaining pedestrian access through Sheffield railway station. It will take place at the Department of Transport in London and will involve the Secretary of State for Transport, the Minister for Rail, Sheffield MPs, and representatives from RASC and Sheffield City Council.

Paul Blomfield MP said: “In my debate in Parliament on the station bridge the Rail Minister agreed to my demand for a meeting. I’m pleased we’ve now secured a date for a roundtable meeting and that both the Transport Secretary and Rail Minister will be attending.

“Before Christmas the Rail Minister accepted the key point that there must be pedestrian access through the station. This was a significant step forward and I want Ministers to work with me, Residents Against Station Closure and the City Council to find a solution to this long-running issue that maintains open access through our station.”

Keith Hayman and Geraldine Roberts from Residents Against Station Closure said: “Over 4 years, RASC has received, widespread support from individuals, organisations, the media and all local political parties, in its campaign to keep our station bridge fully open to the public.