At Work and Pensions Questions today I once again asked Minister Will Quince whether the Government plans to uplift legacy benefits in line with Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.

His response was to ask me to stop asking questions. Perhaps I will consider doing so if his Government fixes this injustice and stops discriminating against disabled people.

This Tory Government really is out of touch.

You can read the text of our exchange below or watch the video clip.

Vicky Foxcroft: “Ministers have been asked many times about the lack of uplift to legacy benefits, and every response has been woeful. The Government are now being taken to court to correct this discrimination. Do Ministers not see that they are discriminating against millions of disabled people on these benefits? This needs to be sorted. Does the Minister agree that it should not take a judicial review to tackle this injustice?”

Will Quince: “I have a lot of time for the shadow Minister, but however many times she asks the same question she is going to get the same response. The Government have focused support on UC and working tax credit claimants because they are more likely to be affected by the sudden economic shock of covid-19 than other legacy benefit claimants. I am not going to comment on the live litigation, but I would say that legacy claimants can make a new UC claim and benefit from the £20 a week increase; the Government encourage anybody to go on gov.uk and use one of the independent benefit calculators to check carefully their eligibility before they apply.”