Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing flexibility within Universal Credit to enable greater labour market engagement.

This Government committed in its manifesto to review Universal Credit, to reduce poverty and make work pay. We believe that work continues to be the best way out of poverty, and growing the economy and driving up living standards across the country is this Government’s number one mission in our Plan for Change. This requires as many people as possible to realise the benefits of good work, and Universal Credit has a critical role to play in achieving this goal. The review will consider changes to Universal Credit which could increase labour market engagement.

We have already taken positive steps through the Get Britain Working White Paper which set out the biggest reforms to employment support for a generation and we are giving people on health benefits the opportunity to try work by legislating to guarantee that work in and of itself will never lead to a reassessment.