division_name: Universal Credit
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b648.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the following papers be laid before Parliament: any briefing papers or analysis provided to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since <phrase class="date" code="2018-01-08">8 January</phrase> 2018 on the impact of the roll-out of universal credit on recipients&#8217; and household income and on benefits debts.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b655.10/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The deficit has to be eliminated. We believe in controlling the cost of social security so that it is fair&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b655.10/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the people who are paying for it&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2018-07-20">20 July</phrase> 2015; Vol. 598, c. 1265]&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b661.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Department will never be able to measure whether Universal Credit actually leads to 200,000 more people in work, because it cannot isolate the effect of Universal Credit from other economic factors in increasing employment.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b663.3/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;ongoing roll out of Universal Credit, the benefit cap reduction and the capping of housing benefits...directly threaten tenancies and risk pushing more people into homelessness.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b670.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;that degree of loss&#8230;is not something the majority of the British population would think of as fair, and if people think you have removed yourself from fairness then you are in deep political trouble.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b677.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Government is committed to ensuring that no-one loses as a direct result of these reforms. We have ensured that no-one will experience a reduction in the benefit they receive as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It is a social experiment that&#8217;s gone wrong&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;They remain in denial about the system&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;it doesn&#8217;t make business sense to let a property to a tenant who has no idea of when their claim is going to be processed or how much money they are going to get, and who will invariably end up in arrears&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The managed migration should only begin when the DWP has shown service levels meet a standard agreed with external experts including SSAC&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;and the Work and Pensions Committee. We suggest this should be that 90 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/15" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The IT changes that would be necessary to deliver&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b680.1/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;would not constitute a major IT project.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b688.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Universal Credit&#8217;s big impact is on people&#8217;s mental health. We are seeing so many people who cannot deal with UC due to the fragility of their mental health. It&#8217;s making underlying mental health worse. We are aware of clients attempting suicide due to the anxiety of the whole thing.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b689.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;UC will still strengthen work incentives overall. Importantly, UC will have the welcome effect of strengthening work incentives for groups who face the weakest incentives now: the number of people who keep less than 30% of what they earn when they move into work will fall from 2.1 million to 0.7 million. &#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b701.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I will face at least 5 weeks without any money, if I am lucky.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b702.6/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I&#8217;ve read that the Prime Minister has said that people will be protected when they transfer to Universal Credit&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b702.6/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the draft rules the government have published show that won&#8217;t happen if the first attempt to claim isn&#8217;t successful.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b703.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Universal Credit is failing to achieve its aims, and there is currently no evidence that it ever will.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b714.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;operationally messy, socially unfair and unforgiving&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="b715.1/10" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="b715.1/11" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 279, Noes 299.</p>