Oral Answers to Questions
Chris Clarkson Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Dr Coffey
Tonight, many people right across the United Kingdom will be celebrating Burns night, recognising the strength of the poet and the prose he delivers. I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman’s comments fail to hit with me right now. The reality is that we have supported the welfare system with an extra £7 billion in the past year. We continue to spend more on benefits and we continue to spend more to try to help people back into work. This is a Government who are on the side of people, recognising the difficult situation that we face. As I have said before, as long as the Opposition keep trashing universal credit it will be no wonder that people do not realise that many of them would be better off moving tomorrow. I would encourage people to look into that.
Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) (Con)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Dr Thérèse Coffey)
Kickstart has got off to a flying start and I am delighted to inform the House that to date 120,000 kickstart jobs have been approved and 2,000 young people have already started. Around 10,000 jobs are available to young people now and I am expecting a further 33,000 or so to be placed fairly soon while we work with employers to finalise the detail of the job offer. We recognise that young people have been greatly impacted by the pandemic, which is why kickstart is such a pivotal part of our plan for jobs to help them secure a stable footing on the career ladder.[Official Report, 4 February 2021, Vol. 688, c. 7MC.]
Chris Clarkson
Kickstart is a fantastic programme that has created 120,000 opportunities that will benefit young people in Heywood and Middleton and around the country, but of course the core jobcentre offering will be incredibly important as we move to recovery. What measures are being taken to ensure that that is available to people of all ages around the country?
Dr Coffey
My hon. Friend is right. While kickstart is the flagship of our plan for jobs, we are well on track to recruit the extra 13,500 work coaches. Throughout the pandemic and across the country, work coaches have continued to provide support directly and digitally. Helping people to get ready to get back into work is a top priority and that is why other parts of the plan for jobs, including stepping up the number of places on sector-based work academy programmes, boosting job entry targeted support and launching job funding support nationally this month, are how we are helping everybody to try to get back into work.
Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit
Chris Clarkson Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) (Con) [V]
Yesterday I took the unusual step of posting to my Facebook an account of what an Opposition day actually is. Usually I like to focus on local issues in Heywood and Middleton rather than process. However, after the abuse, threats and vitriol generated by the last series of Opposition day debates, I felt it necessary to get ahead of the misinformation that will doubtless follow on social media after today’s debate, despite the fine words from the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds). He should consider carefully the intemperate language used by some of his colleagues in the debate so far.
People deserve so much better than political opportunism. That is why I am genuinely saddened by the tenor of today’s debate, which is not just disingenuous but painfully ironic. It remains the position that the official Opposition want to scrap universal credit altogether. Whether it is furlough, covid winter grants or the stay on evictions, the schemes that the Government have put in place to support people through this pandemic have been refined and adapted to meet the changing circumstances we face, and so too with universal credit. The truth is that we simply do not know what the next few weeks hold or what the best solution will be. The responsible thing to do is to assess the situation as we approach the Budget, which is why the Secretary of State is actively reviewing next steps.
Uprating UC represents £4.6 billion of additional spending to support those impacted by coronavirus, and the rapid roll-out of funds must, by any measure, be considered a success. Despite an almost two-thirds increase in the number of claimants, 96% of new claimants got their full payment on time. Staff at the DWP deserve our thanks and praise, and I associate myself with reports from the Work and Pensions Committee and the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee highlighting their successes and the fact that the digital structure of the benefit has enabled the system to withstand the sudden increase in demand, where the legacy system would have struggled severely. We know that the official Opposition want to do away with UC, despite its effectiveness during this national crisis, but we have yet to hear what they would do or, more importantly, where the money would come from. That has been the hallmark of their behaviour throughout—taking no firm positions and offering no constructive alternatives.
It is at times like this, when we are up against it, that we find out what people are really made of. I have been genuinely humbled by the selflessness of my constituents and proud of my colleagues, many of whom are learning the job as we deal with the pandemic. I am deeply saddened but not at all surprised by the naked self-interest of Opposition Members in trying to weaponise this emotive subject. Despite the veiled threat to red wall Conservative MPs from the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde, I will not be voting for this motion, because to do so would be to give the oxygen of publicity to an Opposition who, frankly, have nothing constructive to say.