Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Webb and Julian Smith

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Steve Webb]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his question. We believe that a link between what people put into the system and what they get out of it is important, and we are looking at ways of modernising that principle. He will know that the contributory principle, as it currently exists, was invented in the 1940s when the assumption was that men worked and women stayed at home. We live in a modern world and need to modernise the contributory principle.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

T7. What measures will be contained in the Work programme to ensure that the unemployed in rural areas get the help they need?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Webb and Julian Smith

Monday 19th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

T9. At my surgery on Saturday, Liz Harlow, a benefits adviser, told me that it is taking weeks to process applications for crisis loans. Given that they are described as loans that can provide help in “an emergency or disaster”, can Ministers reassure me that they will be processed more quickly in future?

[Steve Webb]

My hon. Friend raises a vital issue. We need to ensure that crisis loans are administered far more efficiently than they are at present. I am aware that there are delays. I am happy to look not only into the individual case that he raises, but more systematically at whether the social fund is delivering—I do not think that it is.