Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hammond Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

As the hon. Lady will know, exemptions are already in place for the most vulnerable people, and those will continue. The package of reforms set out in the spending review, particularly the introduction of the universal credit, will make a huge difference to women on some of the lowest incomes, particularly lone parents seeking to get back into work. The credit will make that journey much easier and mean that they are better off going back to work than they would otherwise have been.

[Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) (Con)]

16. What assessment he has made of the likely contribution of the proposed universal credit to his Department’s objective of encouraging people to work.

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

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I just gave.

[Stephen Hammond]

I listened carefully to my right hon. Friend’s previous answer. Given the benefits for so many of the introduction of the universal credit, what chance is there that the Government might be able to accelerate its introduction beyond the 2017 time scale currently announced?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I will resist the temptation to accelerate anything. I simply say to my hon. Friend that the plan we have put in place allows us to spend the right amount of time making sure that we are integrating those on the current benefits correctly and that we are not making any mistakes. We do not plan to accelerate that, but clearly we hope that this process will go smoothly—we believe it will. That is the most important thing.