Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce poverty in (a) Barnsley Central constituency and (b) other former mining communities.

This Government is tackling poverty through our new Life Chances agenda. This will drive real action which will make the biggest difference to the most disadvantaged children – now and in the future. This approach will ensure that Government action is focused on tackling the root causes of child poverty - worklessness, educational failure, family breakdown, problem debt and addiction.

This Government believes that work is the best route out of poverty and is therefore focused on getting people into employment. With more than two million more people in work than in 2010, and with the number of workless households at a record low, the progress made by this Government has been significant including in Barnsley Central constituency. In the constituency, over the past year, the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or not in work and claiming Universal Credit, fell by 13 per cent.

We do not have specific data on all former mining communities and this information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.