Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Damian Hinds and Virendra Sharma

Monday 20th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

10. What estimate his Department has made of the number of households in which a person in work will receive less income in universal credit than they would have received in tax credits.

[The Minister for Employment (Damian Hinds)]

It is not meaningful to compare against an unchanged tax credits system, but the national living wage, help with childcare and the straightforward taper in universal credit all mean that people can earn more, and a higher income tax allowance means that they can keep more of it.

[Mr Sharma]

A single parent working full time on universal credit will be up to £3,000 worse off than someone in the same situation on tax credits, as a result of this Government’s cuts. Does the Minister accept that those cuts are creating an unjustified disparity in the in-work support received by people in similar circumstances?

[Damian Hinds]

Anybody who changes from tax credits to universal credit as a result of managed migration can get transitional protection. For those who are coming into it with a new claim, it is a wholly different system with a completely different support set, including much more child care support. There are various other reforms from which the individual to whom the hon. Gentleman refers would also benefit.