Live webchat with Rachel Reeves, Labour shadow for work and pensions; THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY 11.30-12.30

[RowanMumsnet]

We’re pleased to say that we’ll be welcoming Rachel Reeves MP to MNHQ for a webchat on Thursday February 26 at 11.30am.

Rachel is the MP for Leeds West, and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions; among other things her brief includes the ‘bedroom tax’ (also known as the ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ or ‘under-occupancy penalty’), which she has said Labour will abolish.

Before becoming an MP, she worked as an economist for the Bank of England, the British Embassy in Washington and at Halifax Bank of Scotland. Her second child is due in June and there was some controversy earlier this week when she announced her intention to take maternity leave should Labour form the government after the General Election in May.

Please join us on Thursday at 11:30 if you can; as ever, if you can’t join us live, then leave your question on this thread in advance. (And please remember our webchat guidelines.)

Thanks
MNHQ

Can you tell me how to turn off the purple reminder that now seems glued to my page? Pressing the X doesn't work.

Then I promise I'll ask a sensible question.

Harriet Harman MP, member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet and Rachel Reeves MP, member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet in the space of fortnight?

@LineRunner

Can you tell me how to turn off the purple reminder that now seems glued to my page? Pressing the X doesn't work.

Then I promise I'll ask a sensible question.

What device/browser are you using, LineRunner? I just hit the 'x' on mine on Chrome (desktop version of the site) and it seems to have gone away...

I'm going to be in hospital on Thursday so won't be able to join in.

I would really like to know what Labour's plans are with regard to the change to the walking distance criteria to qualify for PIP. Under the rules for DLA it was 50m, now it is 20m which means that thousands of disabled people are going to lose their mobility component and as a result become housebound as they won't qualify for a Motability car, bus pass, or be able to afford taxis etc. Will Labour reverse this?

We know the Tories want genuine disabled people off benefits, but Labour have been very quiet on this one.

Rowan, I'm on a Kindle Fire which uses a silk browser. Many thanks.

@WalkingThePlank

Harriet Harman MP, member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet and Rachel Reeves MP, member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet in the space of fortnight?

We're doing our utmost to achieve a balance across all the major parties - we've had Nicky Morgan, Sam Gyimah and Edward Timpson on recently from the Conservatives - it's just panned out this way (two chats with Labour MPs in a couple of weeks) because people's pre-election diaries are already getting very tight and we're having to take people when we can get them!

Watch this space for chats with major figures from at least two other parties in the next couple of weeks, with hopefully a lot more in the pipeline; we've also got requests in for Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa May, Esther McVey and Brandon Lewis (Housing Minister) among others (and that's just from the Conservatives).

Rowan, it's gone. I stabbed randomly at words in the purpleness and it worked.

And thanks for the update on all the Names.

@LineRunner

Rowan, it's gone. I stabbed randomly at words in the purpleness and it worked.

And thanks for the update on all the Names.

That... doesn't sound optimal but glad it's gone

Will alert Tech - Silk's not one of our more common browsers so they might need to test it a bit more

Dear Rachel Reeves,

I will probably vote Labour but I still need some convincing after Harriet Harman's performance on here recently. Which policies ARE Labour going to reverse which have been so damaging to people with disabilities and additional needs (and their carers)?

Thank you.

I would be very interested in your views and in the labour party as a whole reference the American company concentric working on behalf of hrmc targeting hundreds of single parents and accusing them of living with partners .if labour get in is this something that will be allowed to continue ?

Hi Rachel, can you tell me what Labour plans to do to give women choices when they have a baby please? At the moment the announced plans to increase paternity leave still mean that biology is the primary driving force when making decisions about who cares for a baby in the first year of its life. Will Labour be extending shared leave to give every family a choice about who stays at home and who works in the first year after birth? The current proposals exclude many fathers/co-parents and this then limits choices for women by placing the burden on her.

I don't want much, just equality of opportunity and not to have to shoulder most of the burden above and beyond pregnancy when I have a baby! please :)

I know two questions is poor form but as the thread is relatively quiet and I can't join the web chat tomorrow because I'll be working (self employed, not even 0 hours contract - as a direct result of taking maternity leave that I could not share, if you're interested)...

If Labour wins the election will you be restoring any of the employment rights which the current government has removed? For example removing the fees for tribunals that disproportinately punish the poorest workers or reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal back down to one year from two?

The erosion of employment rights is of great concern to me.

hi Rachel.

Are you planing to do any more to encourage employers to allow flexible working? My role is highly flexible but my flexible working request was rfused because 'they can't risk everyone wanting it' . I haven't had the time to appeal because I know they won't budge. as it is I struggle to juggle everything around my rigid office hours.

as a working single parent flexible working would take some pressure off me.

and a sneaky second question about csa charges. will the labour party end them? I have an abusive ex and he will hit the roof when he is asked to pay more . he won't blame the governing, he will come after us.

Thanks.

Apologies for any typo's, am on my lunchtime walk!

Hi Rachel,

I will try to join live, baby permitting, but would like to know what Labour plan to do in regards to tuition fees? Will you reduce / remove them?

Thanks

Rachel,

I have been fascinated watching the Inside the Commons documentary, but also thoroughly depressed regarding how our democracy is run. Men (and some women) jeering at each other across the floor; having to drop one's child with whoever is available in the office to run to vote within the 8 minutes allocated etc etc... There is a fine line between tradition and being stubbornly backwards-looking in my opinion.

If re-elected, what would you be doing to try and drag the way our House of Commons is run into the 21st Century?

Hi Rachel,

The cost of a home student to some universities is already in excess of the £9k they are able to charge. If fees are reduced to £6k, will Labour fund the difference? The difference between £6 and £9k, or between £6 and the actual cost. How? What will you cut, or will there be fewer places for home students?

Thanks you.

Ms Reeves, I am very worried that the little I've heard from you sounds pretty much like the Tories. Do you intend to carry on victimising the under-privileged, limiting people's options through poverty and strangling the domestic money supply? What are your proposals for generating more real economic activity, freeing up people's choices and stopping hunger?

Oh, and now I've got to wait another 7 years for a pension - will I have a pension?

Hi Rachel,

I am currently applying to an employment tribunal and have just had to pay the £250 application fee and will have to pay almost another further £1000 to have my case heard as I barely qualify for a fee remission.

I would like to know (as another poster above does) - if you intend to abolish these extortionate, unfair fees if Labour win the election?

As you can appreciate, losing your job through no fault of your own and then trying to bring your former employer to justice only to be faced with outrageous fees while at your most financially vulnerable is not much fun and only adding more stress to a horrible situation.

I can only assume this scheme was designed to deter 'lowly' employees from ever doing anything about ill-treatment. The whole system seems heavily weighted in favour of the employer at the moment and is an absolute disgrace.

I live in your constituency and certainly won't be voting Conservative in the election..

I want her to answer FairyCaravan's question.

But also to remind her it was Labour which kicked off the disability benefits restructuring in 2006-8.

(And if she describes the restructuring as "offering opportunity to disabled people", I will hunt her down and "offer her the opportunity" to become one. We already HAD opportunities; all the restructuring has done is remove support.)

Mansion Tax Questions - There is no information out there about it!

The £42,000 threshold is that per family or per person?
If your salary is over £42,000 but you make pension contributions to lower it under the threshold can you then defer the tax?

When will properties be valued?
Who will value them? Are they just going to use Zoopla estimates? or recent sold prices in the area?
Who will pay for them to be professionally valued?
If you don't agree with your valuation, can you contest it?
When will the 1st bill arrive?
Who pays the landlord or renter? If it is the landlord what will stop them adding it to the rent?

Hello

So, your maternity leave thing this week... Much as probably most of us here fully support maternity leave and the principle of mothers doing top jobs, do you have some sympathy for those who say being an MP is a bit different in terms of taking leave? How will it work for your constituents? Who will be looking after their interests while you're on leave?

Do you think Parliament as a whole needs to have an overall policy for parental leave so that all MPs have the same rights and everyone knows what the score is? And probably for other sorts of leave as well - eg what happens if an MP needs compassionate leave or sick leave?

Hi Rachel

Can you tell us, as snappily as possible, how your (or Labour's) attitude towards welfare and benefits differs from that of the Coalition?

Because to be honest for the lefties among us it's becoming hard to tell the difference. Lord Freud for instance... didn't he write all of Labour's welfare policies when you were last in government? And now he does that for the Coalition. Do you think that's OK?

Yes, answer the disability questions.

Hi Rachel

Does your party have any plans to rectify the child benefit unfairness, where families on a joint income of 90k keep theirs, whereas families on a single income of 50k don't? I did ask this question to Harriet Harman, but she didn't respond. I would like you to tell me either way what your plans are on this policy.