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PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Universal Credit: Low-Income Families - 25 April 2018 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

Debate Detail

Lab
David Hanson
Delyn
10. What assessment he has made of the effect on low-income families of the roll-out of universal credit in Scotland.
  12:00:49
Stuart Andrew
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales
Universal credit is transforming lives across the country. Research shows that universal credit claimants spend more time searching and applying for work than those on previous benefits. There are now more than 100,000 fewer workless households in Scotland than there were seven years ago.
  12:00:57
David Hanson
The Trussell Trust reports that there was a 17% increase in food bank use in Scotland last year. Could that be linked in any way to universal credit?
Stuart Andrew
I think it is widely accepted that there are many reasons why people use food banks, and many different issues. Even the all-party parliamentary group on hunger and food poverty has accepted that. We have rolled out universal credit slowly and made changes when we have considered them to be necessary, and we continue to do so.
Mr Speaker
Finally and briefly, Patricia Gibson.

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