Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Lloyd Excerpts
Monday 13th November 2017

(6 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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David Gauke Portrait Mr Gauke
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We sometimes hear enough fake news in this Chamber, but it is disappointing to see the former leader of the SNP employed by a purveyor of fake news, even if we welcome employment opportunities in the round.

Stephen Lloyd Portrait Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) (LD)
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T9. Universal credit is proving to be a real challenge for self-employed people as it fails to account for fluctuations in income from one month to another, meaning that many are losing out on hundreds of pounds of benefits. This is totally counter to the aspirational vision of universal credit that the Government preach, so will the Minister commit to immediately reviewing the benefit’s suitability for the self-employed and fixing this anomaly?

Damian Hinds Portrait Damian Hinds
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On the contrary, universal credit specifically responds each month to what a person’s earnings have been in that month. That is at the heart of its design. We want to help people in self-employment to grow their earnings and to ensure that they have sustainable remunerative work, so we have introduced a programme within the new enterprise allowance to help people to do just that.