Employment and Support Allowance: Underpayments

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Newton]

We published ad hoc statistics last week so that we could very clearly respond to the question that the hon. Lady raised.

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

We know that many people who fall on hard times can go on and off the radar, and some who have been underpaid may since have become homeless. Will the Minister tell us what efforts the Government are making to find these people to give them the money that they are owed and that they will be in desperate need of?

[Sarah Newton]

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that people would have been on benefits, so it is not fair to say that—or to characterise the situation as one in which—people would not have had any benefits. Clearly, some people would have benefited from additional payments because we did not give them the right amount of money, but people did have those payments in the first place.