Universal Credit
Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Henry Smith(10 years, 10 months ago)
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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 Iain Duncan Smith and Henry Smith(11 years, 1 month 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 Iain Duncan Smith and Henry Smith(11 years, 7 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?