Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the correlation between increasing food bank dependence in the West Midlands and the roll-out of universal credit.

Whilst we have always said that there are many reasons people use Food Banks and that their growth cannot be linked to a single cause, we have long acknowledged that there were issues with the early roll out of UC. We have listened to feedback on how we can support our claimants and acted quickly, making improvements such as extending advances, removing waiting days, and introducing housing benefit run on. These changes are giving support to vulnerable people who need it most, whilst at the same time helping people get into work faster.