Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

5. What progress the Government have made on reducing the rate of unemployment.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

13. What progress the Government have made on reducing the rate of unemployment.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

Under this Government, unemployment has fallen by more than 650,000 and the unemployment rate has been cut from 8% to 5.6% of the labour force.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My hon. Friend does a huge amount of work in her constituency to help people in those kinds of jobs and represents them very well here. Jobcentres in her area are tasked with and focused on helping people who do periodic work, which is the nature of a lot of the employment there, and they are trained to do that. As universal credit arrives next year, my hon. Friend will find that a huge number of her constituents will benefit, because instead of losing their way by having to come off jobseeker’s allowance and on to tax credits, they will stay on universal credit and with the jobcentre. That will help those who have work that is not always permanent.

[David Morris]

Does my right hon. Friend welcome the fact that the number of people in Morecambe and Lunesdale claiming jobseeker’s allowance for 12 months or more fell by more than 30% over the past 12 months? Is not it a key part of any long-term economic plan to help the long-term unemployed back into the dignity of work?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My hon. Friend has been assiduous in his work with the jobcentre and those who have been unemployed. Across the country, long-term unemployment is down by more than a fifth, falling to about 165,000 over the past year, and the number of people unemployed for more than 24 months is falling. The latest figures are down by a fifth, which is a remarkable position, given what we took over from the last Government.