Department for Work and Pensions

I'd rather see us cut other things, whether that was foreign aid or what we spend on people across the English Channel or many other things.

Well, let's talk to the man who I think can be credited as being the founder of the treble lock, it's Sir Ian Duncan Smith, Member of Parliament and former Conservative Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

So Ian, this is all down to your reforms, which I believe came into being in 2012.

How do you feel about it 15 years on? Well, I can't claim

So there's a lot of...

Everyone wants to talk about the state pension.

The truth is... that the whole of the welfare system, because of COVID, when I was running Secretary of State Work and Pensions, we saved around 24, 25 billion a year out of the welfare bill.

It all went wrong in COVID.

We'll be covering topics from procedural law to Section 15 and Section 19 claims, reasonable adjustments claims, the public sector equality duty and positive discrimination.

Today we'll talk about the case of Bracking and the Secretary of State for Working Pensions decided by the Court of Appeal in 2013.

Now, strictly speaking, James, this is not a housing case.

So why are we including it? We're including it because it is the foundational case about the public sector equality duty, the PSED.

The number of young people on jobless-related benefits in Peterborough rose by 8% last month, according to figures.

Data released by the Department of Work and Pensions shows that 1,025 people aged between 18 and 24 in Peterborough are currently claiming Universal Credit.

It is an increase of 80 people compared with the same month last year.

However, the figures also show that the overall number of people in Peterborough claiming Universal Credit fell by 1% to 5,330 people, which means 65 people left the register last month.

And it also means that our pension industry does not put anything like what it did back into the exchequer and the state that it was.

So our biggest problem, which I was trying to tackle when I was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, having saved this 25 years, billion a year out of the welfare budget.

We were desperately trying to make sure that people saved and that there was a proper system for them to save.

We have got these

Number 10 have been saying that it's actually still a triple.

I've just had a call from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Literally, I tweeted saying, "How on earth will this work?" One of them called me and said, "It's still a triple lock." And effectively what they're saying is that the ratio of pension to earnings will be fixed at the point this policy comes in.

So assuming we have a general election in 2029, the policy will come in if Labor win that general election thereafter.

David is the MP for Hendon.

He's the Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions and previously served in Blair's Strategy Unit and as another Special Advisor in the Home Office and Treasury.

Thank you very much to my wonderful panel.

Sarah, I wanted to start with you and to ask you a bit about What does it feel like as a minister to have to actually lock down your priorities? So I'd love to hear a bit about, you know, what do you want to achieve during this parliament? But also, how does it feel when that bashes up against the reality of being in government?

David is the MP for Hendon.

He's the Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions and previously served in Blair's Strategy Unit and as another Special Advisor in the Home Office and Treasury.

Thank you very much to my wonderful panel.

Sarah, I wanted to start with you and to ask you a bit about What does it feel like as a minister to have to actually lock down your priorities? So I'd love to hear a bit about, you know, what do you want to achieve during this parliament? But also, how does it feel when that bashes up against the reality of being in government?