Oral Answers to Questions

Cathy Jamieson Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

What I said originally was that we believe that from the position we inherited, the implementation of the universal credit will have a net beneficial effect for the poorest people in this country who are trying to achieve work. So it is not just a case of people not being worse off; we believe that people will be far better off than they were when the hon. Lady’s Government left us.

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

14. Whether his Department plans to publish a gender impact assessment of the changes to be made to the benefits regime as a result of the comprehensive spending review.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

The Department for Work and Pensions assesses the equality impacts of any new policies or changes to existing policies and practice. In line with that commitment to transparency, equality impact assessments are published when they are available, and gender impacts are included as part of those documents.

[Cathy Jamieson]

I thank the Minister for that answer. What assessment are the Government making of the needs of vulnerable women, particularly those who receive housing benefit and are aged between 25 and 35? How will the Government ensure that their needs are met and, in particular, that if they have disabilities, they do not end up inappropriately in shared accommodation?

[Chris Grayling]

As the hon. Lady will know, exemptions are already in place for the most vulnerable people, and those will continue. The package of reforms set out in the spending review, particularly the introduction of the universal credit, will make a huge difference to women on some of the lowest incomes, particularly lone parents seeking to get back into work. The credit will make that journey much easier and mean that they are better off going back to work than they would otherwise have been.