Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Hoban and Susan Elan Jones

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I assure my hon. Friend that we apply a habitual residence test to see whether people moving from other EU states are entitled to means-tested benefits. We will continue to look at that test and at what more can be done to strengthen it.

[Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State consider introducing a compulsory jobs guarantee for people who have been unemployed for two years or more?

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Lady should be commended for trying to trot out a policy that I thought the Opposition had dropped two or three weeks ago. When such a scheme was piloted under the previous Government, it demonstrated that it was not good value for money or good for the unemployed. The hon. Lady should welcome the measures the Government are taking to get people into work. That is why record numbers of people are in work and unemployment has continued to fall for 11 months in a row.