Universal Credit Roll-out

Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Mark Pawsey

Wednesday 18th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Debbie Abrahams]

Absolutely, and I will go on to make those points in a moment.

Getting back to the principles, we supported those then and we support them now. The Government wanted to pilot the implementation of UC, so they introduced a number of pathfinder areas, including my Oldham constituency, and planned a phased roll-out between 2013 and 2017.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

My constituency was also a pathfinder, and since the introduction of UC in 2012, the claimant count in my constituency has halved. Does the hon. Lady think the two issues are connected?

[Debbie Abrahams]

There may be many and varied reasons why the claimant count is down, not least the system of punitive sanctions the Government also introduced in 2012.