Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Department for Work and Pensions

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Timms Excerpts
Monday 28th June 2021

(2 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Will Quince Portrait Will Quince
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The hon. Gentleman knows that I will not be able to comment on live litigation, but what I would say is that we do have a comprehensive childcare offer, both as a Government and specifically as a Department. I would also say that, unlike the previous benefit system, in which childcare costs could be up to 70% recoverable, in universal credit the figure is 85%, so it is a far more generous system.

Stephen Timms Portrait Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)
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The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has told the Work and Pensions Committee that cutting £20 a week from universal credit in October will reduce unemployment support to the lowest level for over 30 years at exactly the point when unemployment is being increased by the ending of the furlough scheme, and that it will also pull 400,000 people, including many children, below the poverty line. What assessment will the Minister make of the impact of that cut on child poverty before the cut goes ahead?