Living Standards

Debate between Yasmin Qureshi and David Gauke

Monday 5th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

Given that we ask lone parents to work 16 hours a week before they are entitled to working tax credits, I would say that it is not right to have the same threshold for a couple. Asking and incentivising them to work 24 hours a week is perfectly reasonable. Under the universal credit that we are going to introduce shortly, every hour extra worked will be worth while, as there will not be the same threshold. Essentially, we are working within the system that we inherited from the previous Government.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about the extra hours, but with more than 2 million people unemployed, where are those extra hours going to come from?