Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch) (Lab)]

9. What steps she is taking to support people on universal credit into work.

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

We are building a new jobs and careers service for all, including those on universal credit, as the cornerstone of our Get Britain Working reforms. This new service will build towards an 80% employment rate, closing the gaps between disabled people and others and between parents and those without caring responsibilities, and dealing with the crisis in youth unemployment. We are also changing universal credit to stop people being left on the scrapheap, as per our “Pathways to Work” Green Paper.

[Josh Simons]

Last week, I held an emergency community meeting for 250 workers in my constituency who are about to lose their jobs following the closure of the electric fibreglass site in Hindley Green. It was heartbreaking. Some families have three generations of workers who have powered the blast furnace and produced materials for our energy, defence and housing sectors. I am bitterly disappointed that after the hard graft of the Government, me, the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the GMB union, it has come to this, and another foreign company is closing a blast furnace in our country. What is the Minister doing to get workers like those back into work, so that they can do what they want to do, which is contribute to a strong industrial future?

[Alison McGovern]

Specifically on the business that my hon. Friend mentioned, the Department’s rapid response service has worked with those affected and is keen to do more. I will personally ensure that he is put in touch with my colleagues in the Department so that he can help facilitate that, too.

More broadly, like many industrial communities, my hon. Friend’s constituency deserves more good jobs. Our industrial strategy will help lead the way on that, as will the Chancellor’s investment plans set out in the recent spending review. I know that if my hon. Friend feels that we need to do more for his constituency, he will not hold back in telling us.

[Katrina Murray]

My constituent Tracy is living in local authority temporary accommodation after fleeing domestic violence. She is currently trapped on universal credit because the cost of her accommodation is way beyond anything she could earn locally—by a factor of about 10. As a single young person, she faces years before she is likely to be allocated a flat, and she is rightly concerned that future employers would question her years of unemployment and under-employment. She wants to work full time but has been advised not to do so. Does the Minister agree that we need to do something to address the cliff edge?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing that important case to the House. Universal credit has no fixed hours requirement, but the connection between housing costs and universal credit, as she mentioned, is still a problem. I would be keen to look at the detail of her constituent’s case. Universal credit was introduced with the promise that it would move people off benefits and into work, but that clearly has not happened as we need it to happen, so considerable work is under way to deal with the inadequacies of the mess that the Conservative Government left us.

[Mr Richard Holden (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

There are 300 more people on out-of-work benefits in Basildon and Billericay than there were 12 months ago. Local businesses tell me that that is because business rates have gone up under the Labour Government, national insurance tax has gone up under the Labour Government and taxes on investment for the long term have gone up under the Labour Government. Does the Minister agree, or has she got another explanation for the fact that 300 more of my constituents are unemployed than there were 12 months ago?

[Alison McGovern]

Our Department is determined to serve businesses well. If the right hon. Member would like to help his local jobcentre do that and get good jobs into the jobcentre so that we can help his constituents, I am sure that I can facilitate that. However, he should be aware that employment is up and inactivity is down. We are moving towards an 80% employment rate, and the Chancellor’s investment plans, as she set out in the spending review, will help us move towards that.

[Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)]

The Government’s proposals to change benefits have a compound consequence for people wanting to stay in work. For example, the Department has said that 95,000 working-age claimants receive carer’s allowance and, under the proposals, would lose the PIP they receive. Does the Minister agree that those proposals will actually make it harder for people to stay in work, rather than easier as they claim?

[Alison McGovern]

As the Secretary of State set out some moments ago, we are introducing the biggest improvement to employment support that the country has known. We will ensure that people receive the help they need to get into work and to stay in work.

[Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)]

7. What steps her Department is taking to help prevent the use of the child maintenance system to facilitate economic abuse.

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[Luke Akehurst (North Durham) (Lab)]

19. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the child poverty taskforce on levels of child poverty in North Durham constituency.

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

Given our objective to reduce the number of children in poverty overall, I expect the impact of the child poverty strategy on children in Stroud to be positive, as all children benefit when the whole community can rely on children enjoying a good childhood. We will publish the child poverty strategy as soon as possible, but, as we have said, we are not waiting to act. The Secretary of State has listed a number of initiatives that we have already been getting on with.

[Dr Opher]

In Stroud, after 14 years of austerity, over 4,000 children are living in poverty. A recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report stated that after removing the two-child limit, the next most effective way of reducing child poverty is to get rid of the benefit cap. Would the Minister be willing at least to review the benefit cap?

[Alison McGovern]

As the Secretary of State has already said, all policies that can lift children out of poverty are under consideration by the taskforce. We obviously will not commit to any policy without knowing how we will pay for it; neither, as I have said, will we wait to act if there are steps we can take immediately. I thank my hon. Friend for his question, which I will take as input to the child poverty taskforce. I also take this opportunity to thank all colleagues who have participated in the five parliamentary sessions that the taskforce has hosted since November 2024.

[Luke Akehurst]

Will the Minister give an update on the work the Department is doing with the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness’s child poverty reduction unit to tackle the specific drivers of that issue in our region?

[Alison McGovern]

Child poverty is a significant challenge in the north-east, and that is why it is right that Mayor Kim McGuinness participated in an early session of the taskforce and has shaped the agenda since then. The child poverty reduction unit engages regularly with colleagues from the north-east and will hold a dedicated session on strategy with the north-east child poverty commission this week. Mayors have been absolutely critical to the development of the strategy, and we will continue to work closely with them.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

As in Stroud and the north-east, children in poverty rely on food banks to get by—6,617 food parcels in my constituency alone. Will the Government take the advice of the Trussell Trust and seek and follow independent advice on the universal credit standard allowance?

[Alison McGovern]

As Labour’s manifesto said, the emergency food parcels that we have seen are a “moral scar” on our country. That is why I am glad that, as Ministers have said, we are increasing the standard allowance for the first time in—as long as I can remember, certainly. I am also pleased that emergency food parcels were down this year.

[Sir Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

15. What steps she is taking to encourage people who are out of work to accept jobs that they are offered.

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

If a person is out of work and is offered a job, they are required to accept appropriate work that is offered to them. The focus of our Get Britain Working reforms is to address the current situation whereby nearly 3 million people are out of work sick and not actively looking for work, and 1.7 million people are out of work but are not getting the help they deserve from the existing jobcentre system.

[Sir Julian Smith]

R and J Yorkshire’s Finest butchers in Kirkby Malzeard have had multiple job applications via jobcentres from people who they think never had an intention of going to interview or taking a job. May I urge the Minister to look at how incentives and penalties are matched up, to ensure that people actually turn up to interview and take a job?

[Alison McGovern]

The right hon. Gentleman mentions a problem that I think is central to the situation that we have inherited. That is why, as I mentioned in response to the right hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden), we are changing the way that DWP acts, so that we serve employers better and match people who actually want to move into those jobs. If the right hon. Gentleman would allow me, I will connect him with his local jobcentre manager, so that he can link up the businesses he mentions.

[Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)]

16. What steps she is taking to support severely disabled people who will never be able to work in East Worthing and Shoreham constituency.

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[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

Matching the Scottish child payment by raising the child element of universal credit would bring more than half a million children out of poverty. The Secretary of State has been clear that a lot of issues are being considered by the child poverty taskforce. Is raising the child element of universal credit to the level of the Scottish child payment one of those matters?

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

At the risk of boring the House, let me say that all levers are very much on the table when it comes to getting our kids out of poverty.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

T9. A single parent in my constituency has worked full time for more than 20 years but is now in personal crisis because universal credit is unable to reimburse the childcare costs she has paid in advance. I hope the Minister agrees that it is deeply unfair that my constituent is left short every month despite working incredibly hard. Will he set out ways in which the Government are supporting hard-working women with childcare needs?

[Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)]

At the weekend, Vivergo and Ensus workers learned that UK negotiators had successfully protected the UK bioethanol industry until President Trump called the Prime Minister and he sold out that industry, allowing a genetically modified bioethanol to flood the market and put all those jobs at risk. What can the Secretary of State tell those workers who feel that they have been sold out by our Prime Minister when negotiators had successfully protected an industry of the future?

[Alison McGovern]

This Government will always have the backs of working people, and I believe there will be a statement shortly on our modern industrial strategy. I know that Ministers from the Department for Business and Trade will be extremely engaged in the point that the right hon. Gentleman has just raised.

[Fred Thomas (Plymouth Moor View) (Lab)]

Many new mothers in Plymouth are claiming maternity allowance, not because they are unemployed, but because they do not qualify for statutory maternity pay; they may be self-employed, have recently changed jobs or have had a pregnancy-related sickness. Many of them have contacted me with concerns that maternity allowance is treated as unearned income and is therefore subject to universal credit deductions, unlike statutory maternity pay. What steps is the Department taking to ensure financial security for women in Plymouth who are claiming maternity allowance?

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[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

Do Ministers agree with the Trussell Trust’s recent estimate that the weekly cost of basic essentials is £120 for a single person and £205 for a couple?

[Alison McGovern]

Through the child poverty taskforce, we have been looking at the issue of incomes versus expenditures. We are taking steps urgently where we are able, but we will have more to say about that issue shortly.