Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I am very happy to see my hon. Friend myself. If what he is suggesting has happened, it should not have done, and let us put it right.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

T7. Will the Secretary of State support Oxfam’s calls for the Welfare Reform and Work Bill to include a requirement for his Government to publish a poverty strategy that would properly address the issue of low pay and tax credit cuts? Please note: the answer is not the Chancellor’s entirely bogus living wage.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We are focused constantly on trying to get incomes up, and we are looking to do that through the raising of the national living wage announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor. For this Government, the No. 1 thing we need to do to make sure that people get out of poverty is to get them back to work. There are some of the best employment figures in Scotland thanks to this Government.