Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Green and Stephen Kerr

Monday 19th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

1. What estimate the Government have made of the number of workless households.

[Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)]

17. What estimate the Government have made of the number of workless households.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Amber Rudd)]

May I take this opportunity to thank my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Ms McVey), for her great leadership of this Department and particularly for her work on the Disability Confident campaign, which she set up?

The number of workless households has decreased by 964,000 since 2010, and currently stands at 3 million; this is a decrease of 24%. As the Office for National Statistics reported last week, the employment rate now stands at a near record high of 75.5 %, with a record 23.93 million people in full-time employment. In fact, there are now more than 3.3 million more people in work than in 2010.