The Work and Pensions Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work and Pensions and its associated public bodies.[1]
Membership of the committee is as follows:[2]
The full membership of the committee in the 58th Parliament was as follows:[3] [4]
| Member | Party | Constituency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Timms MP (chair)[5] | Labour | East Ham | ||
| Debbie Abrahams MP | Labour | Oldham East and Saddleworth | ||
| Shaun Bailey MP | Conservative | West Bromwich West | ||
| Siobhan Baillie MP | Conservative | Stroud | ||
| Neil Coyle MP | Labour | Bermondsey and Old Southwark | ||
| Marsha de Cordova MP | Labour | Battersea | ||
| David Linden MP | Scottish National Party | Glasgow East | ||
| Nigel Mills MP | Conservative | Amber Valley | ||
| Selaine Saxby MP | Conservative | North Devon | ||
| Dr Ben Spencer MP | Conservative | Runnymede and Weybridge | ||
| Desmond Swayne | Conservative | New Forest West | ||
The chair was elected on 12 July 2017, with the members of the committee being announced on 11 September 2017.[6] [7]
| Member | Party | Constituency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Field MP (Chair) | Labour | Birkenhead | ||
| Heidi Allen MP | Conservative | South Cambridgeshire | ||
| Alex Burghart MP | Conservative | Brentwood and Ongar | ||
| Marsha de Cordova MP | Labour | Battersea | ||
| Neil Coyle MP | Labour | Bermondsey and Old Southwark | ||
| Ruth George MP | Labour | High Peak | ||
| Steve McCabe MP | Labour | Birmingham Selly Oak | ||
| Chris Stephens MP | Scottish National Party | Glasgow South West | ||
| Date | Outgoing Member & Party | Constituency | → | New Member & Party | Constituency | Source | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nowrap rowspan=3 | 16 October 2017 | New seat | → | Andrew Bowie MP (Conservative) | West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine | Hansard | ||||
| Jack Brereton MP (Conservative) | Stoke-on-Trent South | |||||||||
| Chris Green MP (Conservative) | Bolton West | |||||||||
| nowrap | 23 October 2017 | Marsha de Cordova MP (Labour) | Battersea | → | Emma Dent Coad MP (Labour) | Kensington | Hansard | |||
| nowrap | 20 February 2018 | Chris Green MP (Conservative) | Bolton West | → | Nigel Mills MP (Conservative) | Amber Valley | Hansard | |||
| nowrap rowspan="2" | 4 June 2018 | Andrew Bowie MP (Conservative) | Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine | → | Justin Tomlinson MP (Conservative) | North Swindon | Hansard | |||
| Emma Dent Coad MP (Labour) | Kensington | Rosie Duffield MP (Labour) | Canterbury | |||||||
| 26 November 2018 | Justin Tomlinson MP (Conservative) | North Swindon | → | Derek Thomas MP | St Ives | Hansard | ||||
| nowrap | 11 February 2019 | Alex Burghart MP (Conservative) | Brentwood and Ongar | → | Anna Soubry MP (Conservative) | Broxtowe | Hansard | |||
The chair was elected on 18 June 2015, with members being announced on 8 July 2015.[8] [9]
| Member | Party | Constituency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Field MP (Chair) | Labour | Birkenhead | ||
| Debbie Abrahams MP | Labour | Oldham East and Saddleworth | ||
| Heidi Allen MP | Conservative | South Cambridgeshire | ||
| Mhairi Black MP | Scottish National Party | Paisley and Renfrewshire South | ||
| Karen Buck MP | Labour | Westminster North | ||
| John Glen MP | Conservative | North East Hertfordshire | ||
| Richard Graham MP | Conservative | Salisbury | ||
| Emma Lewell-Buck MP | Labour | South Shields | ||
| Craig Mackinlay MP | Conservative | South Thanet | ||
| Jeremy Quin MP | Conservative | Horsham | ||
| Craig Williams (British politician) MP | Conservative | Cardiff North | ||
| Date | Outgoing Member & Party | Constituency | → | New Member & Party | Constituency | Source | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nowrap | 26 October 2015 | Debbie Abrahams MP (Labour) | Oldham East and Saddleworth | → | Steve McCabe MP (Labour) | Birmingham Selly Oak | Hansard | |||
| nowrap | 1 February 2016 | Emma Lewell-Buck MP (Labour) | South Shields | → | Neil Coyle MP (Labour) | Bermondsey and Old Southwark | Hansard | |||
| nowrap rowspan=2 | 31 October 2016 | Jeremy Quin MP (Conservative) | Horsham | → | James Cartlidge MP (Conservative) | South Suffolk | Hansard | |||
| Craig Williams MP (Conservative) | Cardiff North | Luke Hall MP (Conservative) | Thornbury and Yate | |||||||
| nowrap | 19 December 2016 | John Glen MP (Conservative) | Salisbury | → | Royston Smith MP (Conservative) | Southampton Itchen | Hansard | |||
The chair was elected on 10 June 2010, with members being announced on 12 July 2010.[10] [11]
| Member | Party | Constituency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anne Begg MP (Chair) | Labour | Aberdeen South | ||
| Harriett Baldwin MP | Conservative | West Worcestershire | ||
| Karen Bradley MP | Conservative | Staffordshire Moorlands | ||
| Karen Buck MP | Labour | Westminster North | ||
| Margaret Curran MP | Labour | Glasgow East | ||
| Richard Graham MP | Conservative | Gloucester | ||
| Kate Green MP | Labour | Stretford and Urmston | ||
| Oliver Heald MP | Conservative | North East Hertfordshire | ||
| Sajid Javid MP | Conservative | Bromsgrove | ||
| Stephen Lloyd MP | Liberal Democrats | Eastbourne | ||
| Shabana Mahmood MP | Labour | Birmingham Ladywood | ||
The committee has been involved in a number of significant investigations.
On 18 September 2015, the committee announced that it was beginning an enquiry into the 'welfare safety net'.[12] The committee's chair, in launching the enquiry, said:
"There is a great deal of concern that some of the least advantaged people are slipping through our safety net into a state of hunger. Our welfare safety net has developed over decades because there is a level below which we as a society do not believe anyone should fall, no matter where they live. We want to understand how local councils are adapting and coping with the changes in benefits and the extra responsibilities on them to meet genuine need and maintain that basic safety net."
In 2019 the Work and Pensions Select Committee recommended ending the two-child limit on welfare payments. The committee heard evidence from charities, economists and faith groups and stated the limit had, “unintended consequences that no government should be willing to accept”. The committee stated the justification for the limit assumed all pregnancies were planned, that distinguishing between families on benefits and families in work was “crude and unrealistic”, further evidence did not support the case that the two child limit might encourage parents to increase their incomes from work. The committee argued for no significant distinction between households on benefits and those working. In April 2019, 72% of families getting tax credits were in work. In May 2019, 28% of working-age housing benefit claimants were, “in employment and not on passported benefit”. in October 2019, 33% of Universal Credit claimants were recorded as employed. Frank Field MP said, “Any family in this country, except the super-rich, could fall foul of the two-child limit if their circumstances changed for the worse. This is exactly why social security must act as a national insurance scheme covering people when they’re most exposed to hardship – not increase it.”[13]