division_name: Universal Credit
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c755.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That an humble address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that the Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments Saving and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2018 (S.I., 2018, No. 65), dated <phrase class="date" code="2018-01-22">22 January</phrase>, a copy of which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2018-01-22">22 January</phrase>, be annulled.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c755.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that the Free School Lunches and Milk, and School and Early Years Finance (Amendments Relating to Universal Credit) (England) Regulations 2018 (S.I., 2018, No. 148), dated <phrase class="date" code="2018-02-06">6 February</phrase>, a copy of which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2018-02-07">7 February</phrase>, be annulled.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c755.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that the Local Authority (Duty to Secure Early Years Provision Free of Charge) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (S.I., 2018, No. 146), dated&#160;<phrase class="date" code="2018-02-06">6 February</phrase>, a copy of which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2018-02-07">7 February</phrase>, be annulled.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c755.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (S.I., 2018, No. 120), dated <phrase class="date" code="2018-01-31">31 January</phrase>, a copy of which was laid before this House on <phrase class="date" code="2018-02-01">1 February</phrase>, be annulled.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c755.5/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is not a case of the government taking free school meals from a million children&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c756.8/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;will ensure that work always pays and is seen to pay&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c760.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;make the system harder to navigate at a time when people are unwell and most in need of support.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c770.1/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If an existing tax credit claimant makes a claim for TFC, even if they do not claim any help with childcare costs through tax credits, their whole tax credit claim will be automatically terminated. If they live in an area where universal credit full service has rolled out they may find that they are not able to claim tax credits again and this is very confusing.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c772.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is not a case of the government taking free school meals from a million children who are currently receiving them: it&#8217;s about comparing two future, hypothetical scenarios. Both of them are more generous than the old benefits system.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;weak management, ineffective control and poor governance&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The proposed changes to the eligibility criteria have been designed to ensure that support is targeted where it is needed most, meaning that those on the lowest incomes remain the focus of Free School Meals&#8230;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">No child will lose their meals during the rollout of Universal credit as a result of these changes.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">Our plans mean an extra 50,000 children will be eligible for a nutritious meal at school by 2022.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">Labour&#8217;s claim that our changes could leave over a million children without this is deliberately misleading.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Since 2010, we have extended the availability for free school meals to disadvantaged students in further education and introduced universal infant free school meals.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/10" pwmotiontext="yes">When Universal Credit was introduced, the Government were clear that they would set a new criteria for free school meals. To ensure that no one was adversely affected during its roll out, the Government temporarily made Universal Credit a qualifying benefit for Free School Meals, regardless of income. As was made clear at the time, this was always an interim measure&#8230;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/11" pwmotiontext="yes">If you receive a free school meal now&#8212;you will continue to do so until the end of the rollout of Universal Credit, planned for 2022, and then to the end of either primary or secondary school (which ever you are in at this point).</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c775.2/12" pwmotiontext="yes">For example a child in year 5 on a FSM now, whose parents are on UC but have an income of &#163;40,000, will continue to get a FSM until the end of secondary school.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c776.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;build a great meritocracy in Britain, we need to broaden our perspective and do more for the hidden disadvantaged&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c778.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is not a case of the government taking free school meals from a million children who are currently receiving them. It&#8217;s about comparing two future, hypothetical scenarios, one of which is more generous than the other.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c779.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;ensure that work always pays and is seen to pay. Universal Credit will mean that people will be consistently and transparently better off for each hour they work and every pound they earn.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c782.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;increased effort will always result in increased reward.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c789.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I want to set our party and our country on the path towards the new centre ground of British politics built on the values of fairness and opportunity where everyone plays by the same rules and where every single person&#8212;regardless of their background, or that of their parents&#8212;is given the chance to be all they want to be. And as I do so, I want to be clear about something else: that a vision is nothing without the determination to see it through. No vision ever built a business by itself. No vision ever clothed a family or fed a hungry child. No vision ever changed a country on its own. You need to put the hours in and the effort too.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c800.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c804.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c804.3/5" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 288, Noes 315.</p>