Oral Answers to Questions

Theresa Villiers Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

We know that people on universal credit spend a great deal more time looking for work than others, and that they apply for a wider range of jobs and consider jobs that they may not have considered before. All that is part of why it involves significantly better labour market outcomes, and why people are more likely to be in work after six months than they were on the old benefits.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

16. What steps he is taking to ensure that the benefits system does not penalise people who wish to increase the number of hours they work.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr David Gauke)]

Universal credit is transforming and modernising the welfare state, ending complicated rules around employment hours and the cliff edges of the old system. Universal credit has a clear system of allowances and tapers to ensure that claimants know that they are always better off in work.

[Theresa Villiers]

Does the Secretary of State agree that one of the fundamental flaws of the system that we inherited from Labour is that people who wanted to work more than 16 hours a week could lose 90p of every pound that they earned?