Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)]

9. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of social security payments in the context of increases in the cost of living.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of social security payments in the context of increases in the cost of living.

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of social security payments in the context of increases in the cost of living.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mims Davies]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue. I will be very interested in the outcome of the work that the Scottish Government have been doing on the Scottish child payment system, taking the powers that have been devolved to the Scottish Government to support and link into their communities—that is absolutely what devolution is, and I will be following the outcome. But I reiterate that the work that goes on in his constituency and in the jobcentres that serve his community is also about people progressing through work, and that benefits are not the route out of poverty.

[Patrick Grady]

Food prices rose by 16.8% in the year to December, according to the Office for National Statistics, and that disproportionately affects households with children, particularly women-led, single-parent households. Given that the Government spent most of last week saying that they wanted to protect the rights of women and children, can the Minister explain how they are protecting the rights of the women and children in the 787,000 households affected by their two-child policy and the associated rape clause?

[Mims Davies]

Personally, I find the term “rape clause” obnoxious and completely inappropriate. I absolutely do not mind standing up for women, either at this Dispatch Box or outside the Chamber. On supporting families, we are acting, with Barnett consequentials, to support families to progress, whether through interventions such as the national living wage or on the cost of living. I am proud to be the Minister bringing forward the next stage of household support funds and the cost of living Bill. We are not leaving families behind. We are determined to help make work pay and ensure that we fill these sectors’ vacancies and opportunities in the whole of the United Kingdom.