Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Maria Miller]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I can reassure him about the Government’s commitment to access to work. I can go one stage further and say that more people will receive support from access to work this year than received it in the final year of the previous Government, and that that support will continue. We will be considering how we can make access to work provide really good value for disabled people and for the taxpayer.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

23. What assistance his Department has provided to vulnerable people during the recent period of severe weather.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

This winter we have paid a record £427 million in cold weather payments, with 17 million separate payments.

[Henry Smith]

I am grateful to the Minister for his answer. Can he confirm that, contrary to various scare stories that we have heard in recent weeks, cold weather payments will continue into the future?

[Steve Webb]

As my hon. Friend suggests, there are two systems of support during the winter months: the winter fuel payment, which the Chancellor has confirmed will continue on exactly the basis budgeted for by the previous Government; and the cold weather payments, which will not continue on the basis budgeted for by the previous Government because they were going to cut them by two thirds and we are going to keep them at £25 a week.