Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Timms Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly look at the proposal that my hon. Friend makes, and I am sure my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will want to study it, but I also congratulate everybody involved with the Aylesbury Vale enterprise zone on the cutting-edge technology that exemplifies the very best of this country and shows the way to our future.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

  The Government were right to raise universal credit by £20 a week at the start of the crisis, but other benefits, such as employment and support allowance, claimed by other people in identical circumstances, were not raised. The all-party Select Committee on Work and Pensions recommended unanimously last week that those legacy benefits should be brought back in line with universal credit and raised. That has since been endorsed by the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb). Will the Prime Minister endorse it too?

[The Prime Minister]

We have done a huge amount. The right hon. Gentleman is a tireless campaigner on this matter, but the House will accept that we have done a huge amount to increase support for people on benefits. I remind him of the increase in universal credit and working tax credit of up to £1,040 a year, which is benefiting 4 million families across the country.