Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of people that are in work and claiming Universal Credit in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.

Under my political leadership the DWP will shift from being a department for welfare to being a department for work. We will create a new jobs and careers service, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service.

The service will be focused on helping people get into work and get on at work, not only on monitoring and managing benefit claims. For our employment support system, the outcomes that will matter are higher engagement, higher employment, and higher earnings.