Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Courts Excerpts

Monday 7th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

The Secretary of State has set out the position very clearly. Of course we will be bringing forward any potential new regulations. The hon. Gentleman and his colleagues talk a lot about supporting vulnerable people, but they voted against the £1.5 billion of support last year and against the £4.5 billion of support introduced in the Budget. He should be supporting those policies, not talking them down.

[Robert Courts (Witney) (Con)]

6. What assessment the Government have made of the effectiveness of universal credit in helping people into work.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

10. What assessment the Government have made of the effectiveness of universal credit in helping people into work.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Amber Rudd)]

There are many good reasons why universal credit is effective at helping people into work. The most important is that the legacy system disincentivised people from taking up work, often by applying a tax rate of 90% and above, while the taper rate under universal credit is more likely to be 63%, which enables people genuinely to get into work.

[Robert Courts]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in commending the hard work of the Witney jobcentre? Will she also explain how jobcentres such as the one in Witney are using new technology to help people into work in the digital age?

[Amber Rudd]

I thank my hon. Friend for drawing this to my attention. I thank the Witney jobcentre for the work that it does in helping people into work, and I also thank him for his work on this as a Member of Parliament. Of course it is essential that we make advanced digital equipment available to our work coaches to ensure that the service they deliver really is first class, and we will always ensure that they do.