Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 8th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I heard that interesting debate between Professor Dowler and the head of the Oxford food bank, who talked about the wider ramifications of issues concerning access to food and food distribution, which is a matter for supermarkets. Of course, we want people to earn more. The key thing after the recession was to get people into work. We have got 2 million people back into work as a starting point, and we know that for every year in work a person’s salary rises on average by about 4%. Is there more to do? Yes, of course there is. We are looking carefully at that report and we will respond appropriately. I promise the hon. Gentleman that I take the report very seriously.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

5. What the average time taken is for a decision on an award of personal independence payment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 3rd November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Apart from the rhetoric, the reality is that the hon. Gentleman is wrong. It was his Government who started the process in the first place. I remind him that when they introduced the local housing allowance, they refused to allow anybody who accepted that benefit to live in a house that had extra bedrooms, because that would be unfair on those who were in that accommodation. We have restored that fairness. That is the right thing to do, and it saves £500 million a year.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

11. What forecast he has made of the likely level of child poverty in (a) 2015 and (b) 2020.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 18th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Since January, the coalition has no longer been producing the statistics showing the number of people chasing every job vacancy in each constituency. Will the Secretary of State bring those statistics back, so that we can have information about what is happening in our own constituencies?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I shall consider the hon. Lady’s request, and get back to her.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 14th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Universal credit will roll out very well and it will be on time and within budget. We should consider the reality of the record of the right hon. Gentleman’s Government on Departments and the mess they got into. They left us with IT blunders of over £26 billion. With respect to him, as he was not always involved, but the others were, I therefore think they should apologise first.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

17. What discussions he has had with Motability on the changes from disability living allowance to personal independence payment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

11. When he plans to announce the recipients of universal credit whose children will be eligible for free school meals.

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

We are working closely with all the Departments that administer the staggering number of passported benefits—some 25 benefits in England, as well as about 20 in Scotland and Wales. The administration of passported benefits and determining who will receive them is the responsibility of various Departments—in the case of free school meals, it is the Department for Education. With different eligibility criteria all over the place giving rise to the massive complexity that has built up over the past few years, we are looking to simplify the system under universal credit while ensuring that those benefits continue to be available to the families who need them most.

[Diana Johnson]

Does the Secretary of State agree with the Church of England’s Children’s Society, which states that all children in families receiving universal credit should be eligible for free school meals? If he does not, why not?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I do not agree, because that would mean a huge increase even on the numbers with which the previous Government left us. If we did that, it would include an extra 2.5 million children and an estimated cost of up to £1 billion. I wonder whether the hon. Lady has talked to her hon. Friends on the Front Bench about whether that is another spending commitment they would like to make.