Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Law Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Law (Dundee West) (SNP)]

6. What assessment she has made of the effect on gender equality of the Government’s welfare reforms.

[The Minister for Employment (Priti Patel)]

The Government set out their assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20 July. Every Government policy change is carefully considered, in line with the legal obligations.

[Chris Law]

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that working lone parents with assets or unearned income are more likely to lose out under universal credit. With single parents overwhelmingly being female, it appears to me that the Government’s austerity programme is once again targeting women. What representations has the Minister made to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions about the impact of universal credit on women’s equality?

[Priti Patel]

I come back to my opening comment: we fully assessed the impact of the Bill’s equality measures, and we are meeting our wider obligations. As the hon. Gentleman will recognise, universal credit supports people in employment, and that applies equally to women. That is alongside all the additional measures that we are now implementing, such as the national living wage, increased childcare and tax-free childcare.