Ministers
- The Right Honourable Iain Duncan Smith MP – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- Mark Hoban MP - Minister for Employment
- Steve Webb MP - Minister for Pensions
- Esther McVey MP - Minister for Disabled People
- Lord Freud - Minister for Welfare Reform
The Right Honourable Iain Duncan Smith MP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Responsibilities
The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the business of the department and Social Justice. He has direct responsibility for departmental expenditure and departmental management.
Biography
Iain Duncan Smith was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in May 2010 as part of the Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition Government.
He was born in Edinburgh and before entering politics served in the military with the Scots Guards before leaving to join General Electric.
He was first elected as MP for Chingford and Woodford Green in the 1992 General Election and served as Leader of the Conservative Party between September 2001 and November 2003.
In 2004, he founded the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to help tackle poverty and remained chairman of the organisation until taking up the post of Secretary of State.
Mark Hoban MP
Minister for Employment
Responsibilities
- The Work Programme
- Youth unemployment
- Labour market and the economy
- Jobcentre Plus
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Commissioning strategy and providers
- Departmental spending
- Work Capability Assessment and Incapacity Benefit reassessment.
- Employers
- Skills
- Service transformation, Change Programme and departmental IT
- The Health and Safety Executive
- Tell Us Once
- International relations and European issues
- European Social Fund – troubled families
- Labour market conditionality and sanctions
- Lone parent conditionality and sanctions
- Habitual Residency Test, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
- Better Regulation and DWP
- National Insurance numbers
- Departmental management issues
- Employment support for Social Justice groups
Biography
Mark Hoban was born in 1964. He married his wife, Fiona, in 1994 and they live in Locks Heath.
He was born and brought up in the North East of England. He has an economics degree from the London School of Economics. After graduating he qualified as a Charted Accountant. Mark has worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a senior manager.
Outside work and politics, Mark enjoys travelling, reading, cooking and entertaining.
Mark was elected Conservative MP for Fareham in June 2001. In July 2002, he was appointed an Opposition Whip. In November 2003, he became a Shadow Minister for Education.
Since December 2005, he has been a Shadow Minister for the Treasury. In May 2010, he was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury, a post he held until September 2012, when he was appointed Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions.
Steve Webb MP
Minister for Pensions
Responsibilities
- State Pension
- State Second Pension
- Pension Credit
- Automatic enrolment into workplace pensions
- Private pensions
- Winter Fuel Payments
- Cold Weather Payments
- The Pension, Disability and Carers Service
- The Pensions Regulator
- Pension Protection Fund
- Financial Assistance Scheme
- The Pensions Advisory Service
- Pensions Ombudsman
- Extending working lives
- Ageing society
- Method of payment policy
- Social fund
- Departmental transparency
- Reducing regulation
- Child maintenance
- Social Justice – family policy (including flexible working, childcare)
- Flexible parental leave and maternity benefits
- Pensioner poverty
- Single Tier Pension
Biography
In 1997 Steve Webb became the Liberal Democrat MP for Northavon. He lives in the constituency with his wife and two children.
Before being elected, Steve studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Hertford College, Oxford. He worked as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1986 to 1995 before being appointed Professor of Social Policy at Bath University.
Steve Webb’s parliamentary responsibilities have included being the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson on Work and Pensions between 1999-2005. He also worked as the Lib Dem Spokesman on Health (2005), Chair of the Liberal Democrat Manifesto Group (2006), Spokesman on the Environment, Energy, Food and Rural Affairs (2007) and Spokesman on Energy and Climate Change (2008). In 2009 he returned to his previous role as lead Spokesperson on Work and Pensions issues, and became Minister of State for Pensions in May 2010 under the new coalition government.
Aside from his parliamentary duties, Steve is actively involved in the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and cites his hobbies as internet/computing, music, and being an armchair supporter of West Bromwich Albion.
Esther McVey MP
Minister for Disabled People
Follow the Minister for Disabled People on Twitter @MinisterDisPpl
Responsibilities
- Cross-government disability issues including Disability Strategy, Paralympics, Personalisation and Independent Living and Right to Control
- Disability Benefits – Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Attendance Allowance (AA)
- Independent Living Fund
- Carers
- Appeals reform
- Government response to Liz Sayce’s independent review of specialist disability employment
- Remploy
- Access to Work
- Work Choice
- Child poverty
Biography
Esther is Conservative MP for Wirral West and is first Conservative MP on Merseyside since 1997 and the only current Conservative MP in Merseyside. Esther graduated in law before becoming a graduate trainee with the BBC in 1991.
She then went on to work for in media for the next 14 years as a broadcaster and a journalist, presenting and producing programmes such as GMTV, a legal series for Channel 4, a BBC consumer show and a BBC science show.
Esther then left media in 2000 to establish her own business setting up office space for new start-up companies as well as establishing the biggest business women’s network in the northwest.
In 2008, Esther went back to Liverpool John Moore’s university to do an MSc in corporate governance, graduating with a distinction as well as winning the North of England excellence award for her studies. This then became part of her careers book "If Chloe can" which Esther wrote and had sponsored and is being delivered to schools across the country. The book has been turned into a play with the National Youth Theatre and the first performance was in London’s West End in October 2011. Esther is currently working on a boys’ version.
Esther was the first MP to employ an apprentice and got the House of Commons authorities to introduce the scheme. Esther is passionate about issues such as careers, youth unemployment, apprenticeship, investment and business growth. She has also been nominated for the Merseyside Woman of the Year and Cheshire Woman of the Year.
Esther was appointed Minister for Disabled People in September 2012.
Lord Freud
Minister for Welfare Reform
Responsibilities
- Universal Credit
- Benefit cap
- Housing Benefit and Support for Mortgage Interest
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Income Support
- Bereavement Benefit
- Fraud and error (including debt management)
- Health and work
- Sickness absence
- Statutory Sick Pay
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
- Employer liability compensation payments
- Data sharing
- Social Security Advisory Committee
- Devolution issues
- DWP issues in the Lords
- Financial inclusion – credit unions
Biography
David Freud is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lords) for the Department for Work and Pensions.
He was appointed the shadow Minister for Welfare Reform in February 2009 and was also a member of the Economic Recovery Council advising the Conservative leader, David Cameron from February 2009 to May 2010.
Between January 2008 and February 2009 he acted as adviser on welfare reform to the UK Government. This followed publication of his independent report in March 2007 – “Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity” on the Welfare to Work system.
He was the CEO of The Portland Trust in 2005-2008 and remains a trustee and director of the not-for-profit foundation, whose mission is to encourage peace and stability between Israelis and Palestinians through economic means.
He was Vice Chairman of Investment Banking for UBS and Global Head of Transport/Leisure/Business Services, retiring in 2003. He was responsible for two complex restructurings – Nats in 2003 and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 1998. He conducted deals in 19 countries, including floats of Deutsche Post, Autostrade, Eurotunnel, Qantas, easyJet and the Hong Kong metro.
His book “Freud in the City” was published in May 2006 as an insider’s account of what really happened in the City of London through the financial revolution of the late twentieth century.
Prior to his banking career, he was a journalist at the Financial Times for eight years, four of which were spent writing the Lex column.
How to contact ministers
Or write to them at:
Department for Work and Pensions
Caxton House
Tothill Street
London
SW1H 9DA
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