UK Parliament / Open data

Capital Gains Tax (Rates)

Proceeding contribution from Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Monday, 28 June 2010. It occurred during Budget debate on Budget Debate.
I will give way in a second; I think that I have been reasonable. Our action to increase benefits in line with headline inflation measures is in marked contrast to the actions of the previous Government. I mentioned that there was no provision to find the extra £300 million that they would have reduced next year's budget by. Let me look at some of the other measures. Today in the UK, nearly 2 million children grow up in homes where no one works. They are at risk of poorer outcomes than those of their peers in working households. That is unacceptable, so the Budget will deliver fairness for children and families while protecting the vulnerable. To help lone parents to raise themselves out of benefit dependency and into work, our measures include lowering the age at which lone parents will be expected to move into work to when their youngest child reaches five. However, it is important to remember that jobcentres have wide discretion on this, and as they assist parents, they will of course have the capacity to examine how things fit in with parents' requirements around their children's education. It is right and fair that lone parents should work as and when their children are in school, although more particularly in this case that will be part-time work. When we are restricting eligibility for the Sure Start maternity grant for the first child, it is right that we provide additional support for families to buy essentials. However, it is also right that these essentials are not repeatedly bought for subsequent children but used again, which is what is done by many hard-working families on low incomes. For multiple births, the grant will come through a corresponding number of times, so people who have triplets or twins will receive different lots of that £500. Further help may be available from the social fund if there is an additional need.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
512 c606-7 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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