Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chloe Smith and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 1st February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I say to the hon. Lady, whom I respect enormously, that we are consulting on what changes are necessary to aids and adaptations to ensure that the support, which was always bound into the personal independence payment, gets to those who need it most. That is the critical point. All of us should want to ensure that people get the support they need for the things they need most to get by. The door is always open to her, as it always has been, and I would be happy to discuss this matter further in light of the consultation.

[Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will be aware of the index published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission over the weekend and will share my concern that children growing up in the Norwich City Council area have some of the lowest chances of doing well in life. Does he agree that we should have the highest possible ambition for Norwich children? What does he suggest could be done locally to target that?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

A huge amount can be done locally. Universal support, which is now part of universal credit, is being trialled with a lot of councils to look at the families with the greatest difficulties. It involves councils in getting financial support to those families and in helping them to sort out drug and alcohol abuse. As they receive the special payments, we expect councils to work with us to ensure that their problems are put right, rather than ignored and left to one side.

Universal Credit

Debate between Chloe Smith and Iain Duncan Smith

Tuesday 25th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Actually, the number of delays in processing has fallen since this Government came to office. There are now fewer cases of delayed payments. The universal credit process will ensure that even that is improved on, as the automatic payments work quite quickly. All of the centres already provide advice on debt management and any particular personal problems people may have. There are debt advisers available and we are also ready to provide advanced payments if people have such problems. That is all part of the services delivered locally through universal credit. If the hon. Lady wants to raise a particular problem, I would be very happy to deal with it, as would the jobcentre. Jobcentres are able to pay money early to people, and if the hon. Lady has a problem case they will certainly be able to help her.

[Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)]

It was only on Saturday that a constituent of mine—a mother of four, including a disabled child—described to me her current restriction on taking a little paid work. She told me that universal credit would solve that. May I urge my right hon. Friend to proceed as quickly and as safely as possible; to let me and the House know how many households in the country and my constituency will benefit; and to do a good job for my constituents?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I accept those blandishments from my hon. Friend. There are two very important issues to remember. Universal credit is not just about the IT system; more importantly, it is about the relationship between the claimant and the adviser. When someone claims a benefit under jobseeker’s allowance, after they take a job—a part-time job or whatever—they have to sign off, which means that they do not have any contact with the jobcentre until they fall out of that job and go back again. Under universal credit, they will not sign off. They will be able to afford to take a job with fewer hours, build up their hours, go back to see their adviser and take another job. In other words, the adviser will stay with them until they come off the benefits system. It is that dynamic that is changing the lives of so many claimants and I intend to extend that to all of them,