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Monday Volume 656 18 March 2019 No. 271 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 18 March 2019 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2019 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 751 18 MARCH 2019 752 languishing on benefits for a decade with no interventions. House of Commons Now, under universal credit, she is being helped and supported to become job-ready. Will my right hon. Monday 18 March 2019 Friend ensure that we continue this approach, and that we reach out and support the work coaches in jobcentres? The House met at half-past Two o’clock Amber Rudd: I thank my hon. Friend and near parliamentary neighbour for pointing out the excellent work done by work coaches. The defining difference PRAYERS between universal credit and the legacy benefits that it replaces is that tailored, personal approach, which really [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] helps individuals to get back into work. Luke Graham: What support is being given, through not only universal credit but schemes such as Access to Oral Answers to Questions Work, to those who experience mental ill health? Amber Rudd: I thank my hon. Friend for pointing out this important element of universal credit. We are WORK AND PENSIONS determined to make sure that universal credit really supports the most vulnerable. We are piloting a new The Secretary of State was asked— scheme in Milton Keynes in which people with mental health difficulties are given an early referral to make Welfare Support sure that their needs are dealt with early on, so that they can be given the appropriate, personal, supportive care 1. Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con): What that they need. comparative assessment her Department has made of the levels of financial support available through (a) universal Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab): The five-week credit and (b) the legacy system. [909829] wait for universal credit assumed that everybody would have their last month’s pay cheque in the bank, but 3. Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con): What reality is not like that. Most claimants have to take an comparative assessment her Department has made of the advance—a debt to the Department—the repayment of levels of financial support available through (a) universal which often forces people to use food banks, as the credit and (b) the legacy system. [909831] Secretary of State has rightly acknowledged, or go into rent arrears. Will she scrap the five-week delay? 23. Luke Graham (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Con): What comparative assessment her Department has made Amber Rudd: I thank the right hon. Gentleman for of the levels of financial support available through raising this important issue; we have addressed concerns (a) universal credit and (b) the legacy system. [909851] about the five-week wait by putting in additional measures. One measure now in place relates to the receipt of The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Amber legacy housing benefit over two weeks. All universal Rudd): When fully rolled out, universal credit will be credit applicants can get an advance, and we now find £2 billion per year more generous than the support it that 60% of applicants take up that opportunity. That replaces. As a single system that integrates six legacy obviates the need for concerns about the early amount benefits, universal credit will enable 700,000 households of cash that people get. to access approximately £2.4 billion of welfare that previously went unclaimed. Our welfare reforms are Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) (Lab): I spent about targeting support at those who need it most. most of Saturday collecting a third of a tonne of food Bob Blackman: At the Budget, additional funds, which for our local food banks as part of our Winter of are to come into effect in the new financial year, were Compassion campaign. It is already clear that we will allocated to pay for work allowances,. Will my right have to run such food-bank collections all year round. hon. Friend update the House on when those work When will the Secretary of State join us in Birmingham allowances will come in, how much they will be, and to help collect the food needed to end the hunger that how much extra the working people in my constituency her policies are causing? who receive universal credit can expect to receive each week? Amber Rudd: I totally reject the right hon. Gentleman’s assumption and comments. The issue with food banks Amber Rudd: My hon. Friend is right that an extra is partly that the early roll-out of universal credit had £1.7 billion a year will be put into work allowances to some difficulties. We now know that 85% of applications increase them by £1,000 from April 2019. That will provide for universal credit are paid on time and, as I said in a boost to the incomes of the lowest paid that will result answer to an earlier question, 60% of people get advances. in 2.4 million families keeping an extra £630 per year of I hope that that combination will enable people to what they earn. access the cash that they need straight away. Huw Merriman: It is not just the financial support Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) (LD): Despite the that is key, but the support provided by jobcentres in recent funding, the levels of work allowances have still getting people work-ready. One of my constituents was not recovered from the cruel cuts made to them back 753 Oral Answers 18 MARCH 2019 Oral Answers 754 in 2015. Does the Secretary of State recognise that although Mary Robinson: I am grateful to the Minister for that the principle of simplicity behind universal credit is a answer. Will he say what support he is giving to people good one, if universal credit is to have credibility, it in my constituency to help them back into work? needs to be funded properly? Alok Sharma: I thank my hon. Friend and her Amber Rudd: It is because universal credit needs to be parliamentary office for engaging with their local jobcentre funded properly that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor in Stockport. I know that she has visited it and seen the has, since 2016, put another £10 billion into different one-to-one support provided. She asked for a specific areas of it, to ensure that it does what it sets out to do, example; in the past week, Stockport jobcentre has which is support the most vulnerable and help others been working with claimants to prepare them for a into work. sector-based work academy opportunity with the NHS, which will lead to 20 guaranteed interviews. Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP): The UK Government have removed the higher rates in universal Matt Warman: I have seen the positive effect that the credit for lone parents under 25. In answer to a question roll-out of universal credit has had in the jobcentres in from my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and both Boston and Skegness, but it remains the case that Shotts (Neil Gray), the Minister for Employment had some applicants’ assessment is overturned on appeal. the audacity to claim that under-25s have lower living Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to get this right costs, and that first time more often, and can he tell me what he is “this reflects the lower wages that younger workers typically doing to make that happen? receive” as a result of state-sanctioned age discrimination, including Alok Sharma: My hon. Friend makes a very important through this Government. Will the Secretary of State point. He will know that earlier this month, the Secretary tell me in what way it costs a 24-year-old less to be a of State announced a range of measures to better single parent than it costs a 26-year-old? support people with disabilities and health conditions, which of course included exploring whether we can Amber Rudd: I point out to the hon. Lady that we improve the mandatory reconsideration process to reduce have made available more childcare that is both better the volumes of cases going to appeal. and lower-cost. A person can now have 85% of their childcare costs paid under universal credit. We have Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Ind): When I last read the also made sure, as I said in a recent announcement, that claimant commitment, it was like a prison manual. The work coaches have the wherewithal, through the flexible duties were all on the claimants’ side, with none on the support grant, to give that money to people who need it Department’s. Will the Minister meet me and community early on in the process. groups that have designed a fairer commitment, in which there are duties on the Department to make a Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab): Ministers may success of universal credit, as well as duties on claimants? like to claim that nobody will be worse off on universal credit, but people transferring through natural migration Alok Sharma: Of course I am always happy to meet get no protection against loss of income, even though the right hon. Gentleman. I would say, though, that they may just have moved home. Will the Secretary of claimant commitments are agreed with claimants. It is State tell the House what the Government will do to work that is done together; that is what is important. ensure that nobody is left worse off? Amber Rudd: I ask the hon.