Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Coyle Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is right to mention the Corby site. Again, support from the rapid response service and the Department’s team was offered to Tata workers following the announcement of the job losses. On top of that, at this very difficult time, we are giving those individuals support through our DWP network—for example, guidance on job applications, training and support—to enable them to get into work all over again.

[Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (Lab)]

6. How many people his Department expects to be naturally migrated on to universal credit during this Parliament.

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

Universal credit is rolling out, with the live service available in over 90% of jobcentres, and full roll-out will continue according to the published plan. It is worth reminding everybody that it is complete in London, and very shortly—probably by the end of this month or the beginning of next—universal credit will be in pretty much every single jobcentre in the country.

[Neil Coyle]

The Secretary of State made reference earlier to unreliable predictions. He predicted that by today’s date 8 million people would be on universal credit, but the DWP confirmed last week that fewer than 365,000 people are on universal credit—a staggeringly pathetic success rate of 4.4%. The only reason why the Government are pushing out universal credit now is to deliver the tax credit cut that will hit thousands of working families in my constituency, so is it not time the quiet man went silent on pretending that universal credit is a success?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I bet that looked good when the hon. Gentleman wrote it down. It is utter rubbish.