Universal Credit Roll-out Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Mark Pawsey
Main Page: Mark Pawsey (Conservative - Rugby)Department Debates - View all Mark Pawsey's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
Universal Credit Roll-out
Mark Pawsey Excerpts(7 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Debbie Abrahams
Absolutely, and I will go on to make those points in a moment.
Getting back to the principles, we supported those then and we support them now. The Government wanted to pilot the implementation of UC, so they introduced a number of pathfinder areas, including my Oldham constituency, and planned a phased roll-out between 2013 and 2017.
Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)
My constituency was also a pathfinder, and since the introduction of UC in 2012, the claimant count in my constituency has halved. Does the hon. Lady think the two issues are connected?
Debbie Abrahams
There may be many and varied reasons why the claimant count is down, not least the system of punitive sanctions the Government also introduced in 2012.