UNIVERSAL CREDIT AND HOSPITALISED CHILDREN

That this House recognises the enormous personal and financial pressures placed on parents when their child is seriously ill; is aware of the care that parents are required to give their children while their children are in hospital, the additional costs of transport and parking that they incur, and that most parents whose children endure a long stay in hospital have to give up work, thus placing the family in serious financial predicament; condemns the removal of the child element of universal credit for children who are in hospital for six months or more, as these families already have enough pain and hardship to endure; and calls on the Government not to invoke this provision and to revoke it at the earliest possible opportunity.