Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 9th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Apart from the technical changes, the reality is that at the moment when someone falls unemployed then takes a part-time job they have to sign off and go through the whole rigmarole of claiming tax credits with no one talking to them. Under universal credit, they do not sign off. They stay with their adviser, who helps them enormously in negotiating their way through all their job applications. There is therefore a human interface, which is much better and which will help people who are unemployed and who have difficulties. People can look forward to that.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

12. What proportion of people over the age of 50 who have been referred to the Work programme have found work as a result.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

T4. Further to the Secretary of State’s previous answer, will he confirm that unemployment will return to pre-recession levels by the end of the Parliament?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We stand by the OBR forecast that unemployment will rise slightly in the coming year and, thereafter, will fall year on year.

Welfare Reform

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 11th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Perhaps I should not say this, but I think that it is Holland—I read that in a note. Some 20% of all households in this country have nobody in work, which is a staggeringly high number. We also have the highest number of children born to workless households. By and large, every other country is Europe is doing it better than we do—and that is the shame of the previous Government.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

Has the Secretary of State considered the impact of the benefits cap on homelessness provision, including women’s refuges? What plans does he have for housing benefit for supported accommodation, where rents are understandably higher than in the private rented sector?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We are looking at all that. I have made available some £60 million for transitional funding for local authorities and others, and we will keep that under review. We do not want to penalise households, because it may not be their fault that they are living in homes that they simply would not be able to afford. We need to ensure that the changes are made, and I hope that we will also be able to drive down some of the rents. A lot of change is coming in the next two years, and I hope that much of it will be very progressive.