Working People’s Finances: Government Policy
Debate between Lord Cryer and Simon Clarke(3 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)
The vast majority of people among my constituents who have written to me about the cut in universal credit are in work, some of them doing two or three jobs, yet many of them are going to be pushed into poverty by the cut the Minister is defending now.
Mr Clarke
The hon. Gentleman needs to bear it in mind that we are of course dealing here with a product, in universal credit, that has a number of different components. The change to which he is alluding affects the standard allowance, but the majority of households on universal credit of course receive many additional elements—for example, 58% receive additional support for housing costs and 38% receive the child element—and many households on UC will also have access to additional sources of income, such as child benefit. This comes before we come to all the things we have built into the system over recent years to make universal credit more generous. That includes, for example, the £1,000-a-year increase to the work allowance, which was announced in 2018 and is worth £630 to working parents and people with disabilities, and of course we have changed the taper rate so people get to keep more of the money they earn as their earnings increase. This is a very carefully calibrated system, and let us not forget that this is far better, frankly, than the legacy programme we inherited from the last Labour Government, which of course, as we know, did not incentivise work, did not properly support people and was a failure, so I am afraid I will not take lessons on universal credit from the hon. Gentleman.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Cryer and Simon Clarke(5 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Simon Clarke
My hon. Friend is right that we need to ensure that the UK shared prosperity fund works for all the regions and nations of our country. I would be delighted to meet her, to ensure that we get all the suggestions from Cornwall as part of the process of designing that new fund.
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)
Can the Minister answer the question asked earlier by the right hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Amber Rudd): what is the reason for not suspending the loan charge scheme until the inquiry is completed? It is a request not for a change of policy, but just to suspend the scheme.