Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nia Griffith and Chloe Smith

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

I will ask my colleague the employment Minister to write to my right hon. Friend to ensure she has a full update, and I touch briefly on an example such as mandatory pay gap reporting, which is helping to drive progress.

[Dame Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

2. What steps the Government are taking to tackle sexual harassment against women in the military.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nia Griffith and Chloe Smith

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dame Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

12. What assessment her Department has made of the impact on disabled people of the move from legacy benefits to universal credit as part of the managed migration process.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chloe Smith)]

We estimate that 600,000 people on employment and support allowance will be better off on UC, which is of course a modern, flexible benefit that includes targeted support for disability and which helps to simplify the benefits system, providing support in times of need and making work pay. I can add that the Department holds regular engagement sessions with external stakeholders, including of course disabled people and others in the health and disability sector, seeking their input into the process.

[Dame Nia Griffith]

In 2019 the then Secretary of State promised that the Department would pause the migration to UC after a pilot of 10,000 cases, would report back and would provide parliamentary scrutiny of legislation for the wider roll-out. Instead of breaking this promise, does the Minister accept that migration to UC will make thousands of people worse off in real terms just when inflation is going through the roof, and will she now pause the process?

[Chloe Smith]

The answer is no, and that is because, first, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State updated the House through a written ministerial statement only recently in which she explained precisely the point about the prior piloting and exploratory work. Secondly, Parliament voted in 2012 to end legacy benefits and replace them with a single, modern benefit system, and on top of that, committed to providing transitional financial protection. That is the key point in this case: where a claimant may not already be better off—as we have said, in the majority of cases, they are—they are supported.