Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The contract is working very well across the board at the moment. About 99% of all claimants are getting their money as required at the right time, and 95% are within 1 mile of outlets, or within 5 miles in rural areas. It is, therefore, better than the previous system and it is also cheaper. The last cheque system cost £30 million and was defrauded to the cost of about £5 million; this costs about £7 million.

Immediate responsibility for the individual mentioned by my hon. Friend lies with PayPoint and the bank. They have a responsibility to ensure that cash is available at every location. We take them to task over that and they will have to make restitution.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

17. What plans he has to support disabled entrepreneurs.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

We offer a range of support to help disabled people get and stay in work, including Work Choice, the Work programme and Access to Work. In fact, we have extended Access to Work to make it available to disabled people setting up businesses though the new enterprise allowance.

[Glyn Davies]

Investment in disabled people’s user-led organisations has proved very helpful to disabled people, but does my hon. Friend accept that it is crucial for the coalition Government’s commitment to delivering fairness that we build on this policy?

[Esther McVey]

I share my hon. Friend’s views about disabled people’s user-led organisations, which is why we have put £3 million aside—£2.2 million has been spent so far—to support programmes that are being built by such organisations. I have been impressed with the innovative designs that have resulted from that, including, most recently, an app called Georgie, which was designed by a blind person and is now being manufactured and used across the country.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The best thing for me to do is to ensure that I write to the hon. Lady properly and place the reply in the Library of the House.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

T7. Last week we discussed in the House the treatment of women across the world. To deliver equality and fairness of treatment in the United Kingdom, we must ensure equal access to work and remuneration. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important to make a continuing assessment of the number of women in work?

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend will celebrate, as I did on international women’s day, the fact that there are record numbers of women in work and that the number of women unemployed has fallen by 29,000 over the past year. We need to do more to get women in work, and universal credit will help, but it is important also to celebrate the flexibility of the labour market, which enables more and more people to work part time to meet their responsibilities.