Business of the House

James Morris Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

My view is clear that all Members of the House are entitled to prompt responses to correspondence with Ministers or from officials at HMRC. The hon. Lady has given me the details of the particular correspondence to which she is awaiting a reply, and of course I will chase that up immediately.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

Two thirds of people in Halesowen and Rowley Regis have gross earnings of less than £26,000, and most do not believe it to be fair that some families can receive much more than this from benefits. May we have a debate in Government time on what further work the Government need to do to make sure that people are always better off in work?

[Sir George Young]

The motivation behind the introduction of the universal credit, which I hope is supported by Members on both sides of the House, is to ensure that it always pays to work. My hon. Friend will know that the relevant legislation has gone through, along with a benefits cap and a serious approach to benefit fraud. The current system costs the taxpayer £1.5 billion a year. We hope to make progress on that and introduce new measures to tackle fraud, tougher rules and a benefit ban of three years for people who offend repeatedly. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 is an Act of historic importance. We have taken bold action both to make work pay and to protect the vulnerable.