Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Heidi Allen

Monday 1st February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

We have no plans to do that, but I am happy to see the hon. Gentleman if he wishes to encourage us.

[Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

Following on from the comments about the ESA WRAG changes and the Lords having passed the matter back to us, I welcome the opportunity to look at this again and am excited to see the content of the White Paper. Can the Minister give us any feel at all about the cost recognition for claimants in the future? This is not just about support; it is also about the additional costs that they face to live.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Heidi Allen

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

I have a brief question on universal credit, as we continue to roll it out. Is there an opportunity to extend the dedicated telephone line that housing associations enjoy direct to universal credit to citizens advice bureaux, which do an incredible amount of work but are struggling to make contact with the people who can help them?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

Under universal support, which is delivered locally, we are talking hugely to local authorities and all the local organisations in the area, and my hon. Friend will find that this will be swept up as part of that process; it is a dramatic improvement on where tax credits are right now, because it brings in all those other benefits as well.

Child Poverty

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Heidi Allen

Wednesday 1st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Allen]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was here towards the end of the transport statement.

I want to draw on my own experiences as a business owner. It is important that, however we choose to describe the measures, we tackle child poverty head-on. During the early days of one particular employee’s employment, it felt like I had to drag him to work. He was a young man aged 21 with three small children and it was clear that nobody, including his peers and parents, had brought him up in the world. When I gave him employment and put his money up, he was still culturally unable to find the mental drive to go to work. We have to tackle child poverty by getting to people when they are young, through education, giving them hope and making sure they have food in their bellies—whatever it takes—and we have to achieve that together. I have seen it at the other end—you can drag a horse to water—so I welcome what the Secretary of State is trying to do.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place and her experience of running a business and trying to get people from difficult backgrounds into work. My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary is already engaged in driving schools to help inculcate and teach character resilience and key characteristics such as understanding what it is to go to work and to get up in the morning. Under this Government, average weekly earnings have been rising faster than for a considerable time.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Heidi Allen

Monday 22nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we deal with housing benefit claims as they come. They support people in both private rented accommodation and social rented accommodation. I remind him that the Government whom he supported introduced the current private rented benefit test. More importantly, under that Government more people out of work and more people in work were claiming housing benefit. Under this Government fewer of those out of work are claiming housing benefit.

[Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

As the employment figures tell us, the work plan is working. Before I came to this place, I ran my own business, and when I saw the same CVs coming back six months or a year later, I would choose to email or call those people and try to give them some coaching. It is a great opportunity for businesses to mentor individuals who are not being touched by the work plan.