Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Henry Smith and Iain Duncan Smith(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
21. What progress his Department has made on reducing the number of workless households.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)
The number of workless households is now at its lowest-ever level, having fallen by over 680,000 since 2010.
Mr Duncan Smith
I do agree with my hon. Friend. We know that unemployment is one of the causes of family breakdown. Having a family member in work helps to create strong and stable families, which are crucial to giving children the best possible start in life. It is therefore very welcome that the number of workless households in the east midlands—a huge part of which my hon. Friend represents—has fallen by 68,000 since we came to power. I remind my hon. Friend and the House that, notwithstanding all the nonsense that we hear from Labour Members, some 2.5 million children were growing up in workless households when they left office. That is not much of a record.
Henry Smith
Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the fact that the number of workless households in the south-east has fallen by more than 50,000 since 2010? Does he share my dismay that Labour Members are still set against welfare reform, and want a high tax, high spending economy to take us back to the pre-2010 days?
Mr Duncan Smith
My hon. Friend’s question is a strong endorsement of the reforms that have reduced the number of workless households in the south-east by such a large number. Since 2010, the claimant count in Crawley has fallen by 60%, and the youth claimant count has fallen by 75%. Getting people into work clearly has a huge effect. However, my hon. Friend should not be too unkind to the Opposition. I know that many Labour Members who are not now on the Front Bench think that they should be engaging with us on welfare reform, but their new leadership does not believe in that; it believes only in opposition.
Universal Credit
Debate between Henry Smith and Iain Duncan Smith(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the forecast savings to the taxpayer are about £100 million in this financial year, and will be about £200 million in the coming tax year?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Henry Smith and Iain Duncan Smith(10 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Duncan Smith
Let me remind the hon. Lady that, as I said earlier, for these people, and the previous Government made no effort whatsoever to get them back to work—[Interruption.] No, 2.5 million people were written off on sickness benefits under the previous Government. No one worked with them and about 1 million were left without anybody seeing them for nearly 10 years. That is the record of the previous Government. I simply remind the hon. Lady that since we came to power, some 22,000 have started a job for the first time and many thousands more have worked with the Work programme to get ready for work without a requirement to go to work. The programme is succeeding and improving all the time and this is the first time that the thousands who are going back to work have ever had help—they got none from the previous Government.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
T2. What is my right hon. Friend’s assessment of how the Government’s triple lock guarantee for increases in the state pension has benefited thousands of pensioners in my constituency and across the country?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Henry Smith and Iain Duncan Smith(11 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Duncan Smith
The claimant commitment is about people’s obligations under the existing terms. They will have to seek work, attend interviews and try to get a job, and once they are offered a job they must take it. Those are the sanctions coming up under universal credit. People will lose benefits for three months for a first offence, six months for a second offence and three years for a third offence. Right now, zero-hours contracts are legal. If Labour wants to change the law, we want to hear that from the hon. Gentleman.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State update the House on the innovation fund and how it is helping separated families?