Oral Answers to Questions

Katrina Murray Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Josh Simons (Makerfield) (Lab)]

6. What steps she is taking to support people on universal credit into work.

[Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch) (Lab)]

9. What steps she is taking to support people on universal credit into work.

[The Minister for Employment (Alison McGovern)]

We are building a new jobs and careers service for all, including those on universal credit, as the cornerstone of our Get Britain Working reforms. This new service will build towards an 80% employment rate, closing the gaps between disabled people and others and between parents and those without caring responsibilities, and dealing with the crisis in youth unemployment. We are also changing universal credit to stop people being left on the scrapheap, as per our “Pathways to Work” Green Paper.

[Alison McGovern]

Specifically on the business that my hon. Friend mentioned, the Department’s rapid response service has worked with those affected and is keen to do more. I will personally ensure that he is put in touch with my colleagues in the Department so that he can help facilitate that, too.

More broadly, like many industrial communities, my hon. Friend’s constituency deserves more good jobs. Our industrial strategy will help lead the way on that, as will the Chancellor’s investment plans set out in the recent spending review. I know that if my hon. Friend feels that we need to do more for his constituency, he will not hold back in telling us.

[Katrina Murray]

My constituent Tracy is living in local authority temporary accommodation after fleeing domestic violence. She is currently trapped on universal credit because the cost of her accommodation is way beyond anything she could earn locally—by a factor of about 10. As a single young person, she faces years before she is likely to be allocated a flat, and she is rightly concerned that future employers would question her years of unemployment and under-employment. She wants to work full time but has been advised not to do so. Does the Minister agree that we need to do something to address the cliff edge?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing that important case to the House. Universal credit has no fixed hours requirement, but the connection between housing costs and universal credit, as she mentioned, is still a problem. I would be keen to look at the detail of her constituent’s case. Universal credit was introduced with the promise that it would move people off benefits and into work, but that clearly has not happened as we need it to happen, so considerable work is under way to deal with the inadequacies of the mess that the Conservative Government left us.

Oral Answers to Questions

Katrina Murray Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Torsten Bell]

I will commit to fighting every day to avoid a repeat of the exercise under the last Government whereby pensioner poverty rose by 300,000, having fallen by 1 million under the last Labour Government. We will make sure that we publish details of the take-up of pension credit by the end of February.

[Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch) (Lab)]

8. What steps she is taking to support people with disabilities and long-term health conditions into work.

[Alex Ballinger (Halesowen) (Lab)]

18. What steps she is taking to support people with disabilities and long-term health conditions into work.

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

We will champion disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. Our “Get Britain Working” plan will support many more who were failed by the last Government to enter and stay in work. We will devolve power to local areas for a joined-up work, health and skills offer.

[Katrina Murray]

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests; prior to my election, I represented disabled members on the national executive of Unison. There are many barriers that prevent disabled people and those with long-term health conditions from not only entering but staying in the workplace, from a strict and punitive approach to attendance and sickness to a failure even to consider adaptations that make work possible. It is clear that employers have to be supported to make high-quality work accessible to disabled people. What work is my right hon. Friend therefore doing to engage employers in making work a positive and constructive experience for disabled people?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I commend my hon. Friend for her previous work. She raises a very important point. We have launched the “Keep Britain Working” review, which is being led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, the ex-chair of the John Lewis Partnership. It will look at exactly the point that my hon. Friend raises: how to make workplaces and the wider labour market more inclusive, because we know, and employers know, that that is good for businesses and good for disabled people.

“Get Britain Working” White Paper

Katrina Murray Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I thank my hon. Friend for an amazing visit yesterday, and I hope he will pass on my thanks to Rachel at the local college and to all the local businesses and apprentices. I agree with him: the number of apprenticeship starts for young people dropped by 38% under the previous Government’s apprenticeship levy, and in Peterborough more than 1,350 young people are claiming benefits, with the majority not in work, so we must act swiftly, and we will. These programmes are starting immediately in the new year. I look forward to working with him and all those businesses and the college in Peterborough to put our plans into action, because we are determined to deliver.

[Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch) (Lab)]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and to the work that I did prior to prior to entering this place. It is difficult enough for a disabled person to enter employment; it is even more difficult for a disabled person to remain in employment if the employers are not aware of or not accommodating their disabilities and the reasonable adjustments that they might need. Within the debate on this White Paper, will the Secretary of State ensure that the work of exemplar employers is picked up and credited? There must be a recognition of the value that disabled people can bring to all workplaces. I also invite her to come and meet my old team in the employability service within NHS Lanarkshire, who have worked not just with Project Search but with disabled—

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. I call the Secretary of State.