Oral Answers to Questions

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

One of the things I made sure to do when we set up the review was invite the chief executive of Mind to take part in one of the support groups for Professor Harrington. That input has been hugely valuable. I have also invited the mental health charities to make recommendations about possible changes to the descriptors, which might also help enhance the process. They are due to respond shortly. We will make sensible changes as and when we can. I intend to brief the hon. Lady and her colleagues about the contents of the Harrington review tomorrow morning, and perhaps we can talk briefly behind the Speaker’s Chair about how best to arrange that. I want them to be part of the process, and I am very happy to take suggestions from Opposition Members as well. As the hon. Lady rightly says, this is a cross-party issue. We have to get it right. It is in all our interests that we get it right, and I think we share the aspiration that this process should be fair and firm.

[Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

12. What assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed universal credit on work incentives.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

We believe that universal credit will make work pay. We have done some assessment and we can announce that we believe we should reduce by 1.3 million the number of workless households facing a participation tax rate of more than 70%. We also believe that we will improve earnings incentives for some 700,000 people and that we could reduce the number of workless households by about 300,000.

[Karen Bradley]

I thank the Secretary of State for that response. Caudwell Children is a charity that has significant experience in helping the parents of disabled children back into work. Could he give some assurances as to how the universal credit will make that process easier?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I hope and believe that if we implement universal credit correctly, it should allow people with caring responsibilities to meet those responsibilities with greater flexibility in the number of hours they can work. At the moment, it is very difficult for many of them to work the sort of hours they need to work without damaging their ability to fulfil their caring responsibilities. We think that flexibility would be most effective for them and, strangely enough, for lone parents.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I always appreciate the hon. Lady’s advice. We certainly keep all that under review and intend to do so all the way through until we introduce the Bill. However, having said that, there is a lot of good evidence out there to show that we have to give people some sort of incentive not to decide to refuse that work. We believe that that is one of the areas where a lot of international evidence shows that such a spur actually helps people to do that.

[Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

T5. What can the Secretary of State do to assure unemployed people in Staffordshire Moorlands that the Work programme will help them to find not just employment, but sustainable employment?

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

One of the key differences in the Work programme, compared to previous programmes, is that it will pay providers not simply for getting someone into work, but for supporting them while they are back in work over an extended period. That is crucial to ensuring that people do not come off benefits, stay in work for a few weeks and then return to the unemployment registers, as has so often happened in the past.