Rudd defends Universal Credit with claim ‘many reasons’ why people use food banks

The Work and Pensions Secretary has told MPs “there are many reasons why someone might use a food bank” in a defence of Universal Credit.

Amber Rudd appeared to row back on comments she made in the Commons in February, when she said: “The main issue which led to an increase in food bank use could have been the fact that people had difficulty accessing their money early enough”, when the new benefits system was first introduced.

Labour MP Stephen Timms (East Ham) said the number of food parcels distributed by Trussell Trust food bank went up 19% last year.

During a debate on inequality, Mr Timms asked the Work and Pensions Secretary: “Does she recognise that there is a very close link between the growth of that problem and the rollout with its current flaws of Universal Credit?”

Ms Rudd replied: “There are many reasons why people turn to food banks.

“The early rollout of Universal Credit had some issues in terms of timeliness of the payment.

“That has now been corrected so that between 85, 86, 87% of payments to recipients of Universal Credit are paid on time – which actually compares favourably with the previous legacy system.”

Shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood criticised the Government for its record on inequality.

She said the Government’s own figures “tell a shocking story” with “4.1 million children growing up in poverty an increase of half a million since 2010”.

She added: “The last Labour government understood the importance of tackling child poverty and set statutory targets for reducing it based on household income with a coordinated strategy across government that took 1.1 million children out of poverty.”

“Yet despite this, the Government abolished those targets and only continued to publish figures for poverty at all after pressure from Labour and voluntary organisations.”

Ms Greenwood said a Labour Government would focus on social justice rather than social mobility.

She added: “Social mobility focuses on how easy it is for individuals to escape poverty.

“This is of course important but it does not address the wider issues of tackling the causes of poverty and inequality.

“So our goal has to be the delivery of a fair and just society.”

Mrs Rudd said more evidence would help the Government understand and respond to the issues better.

She said “new experimental statistics” to measure poverty would be published in 2020 and could help the Government “target support more effectively”.

She added: “Evidence about the effects of poverty is vital in order to tackle it.”

Mrs Rudd went on to say: “We will look at the Social Metrics Commission’s new measure of poverty.”

She said the Commission’s new measure would look not only at people’s income, but at the costs they had to incur and how much money people are left with after their costs had been factored in.

SNP work and pensions spokesman Neil Gray, however, said the Government’s priorities are not “geared” to addressing inequality, and said Conservative spending cuts had driven inequality.

Mr Gray said: “Evidence shows they are not tackling burning injustices, they are fanning the flames with petrol.”

Tory former equalities minister Justine Greening attacked Labour, saying social mobility need not come at the expense of social justice.

She said: “I also think it is fundamentally anti-aspiration, and what it shows is that this Labour party led by the right honourable member, the member for Islington North, is simply engaged, as far as I am concerned, in prioritising class warfare over aspiration, and I think that is absolutely wrong.”

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Stefan Rousseau / PA Wire.