Sir Stephen Timms

Sir Stephen Timms

Labour — East Ham

Speaking in the House of Commons on 1 July 2025

Debate

Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill

Contribution

We have had a passionate and eventful debate. We have heard the concerns, and the Government will amend the Bill, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have set out, but the system we have inherited does not work. Uniquely in the G7, our employment rate is still lower than before the pandemic. Every other G7 country has got back to where it was before, or better, but we have not. The system is trapping hundreds of thousands of people needlessly in low income and inactivity. It tells people that they cannot work, and for many of them that is simply untrue. We have to change that.

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