To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Universal Credit: Young People
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential correlation between poverty levels and the lower standard allowance of Universal Credit for those people under 25.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such assessment has been made.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Greater London
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in London in receipt of Universal Credit are aged under 25.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department regularly publishes Universal Credit statistics. Statistics of the number of people who are on Universal Credit each month, by age and region, are published monthly and are currently available to January 2024 on Stat-Xplore.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Children
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants aged under 25 have at least one child.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance
Friday 29th January 2016

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employment and support allowance claimants with (a) Parkinson's disease, (b) rheumatoid arthritis, (c) motor neurone disease, (d) multiple sclerosis and (e) cystic fibrosis have been (i) placed in support groups, (ii) placed in the work-related activity group and (iii) found fit for work since 2008; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Priti Patel

The information requested is shown in the table below.





Cystic Fibrosis

Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Parkinson's Disease

Multiple Sclerosis

Other Rheumatoid Arthritis

Initial

SG

900

1,100

1,700

7,600

3,400


WRAG

100

100

700

2,600

3,500


FFW

100

-

600

1,800

4,100








Repeat

SG

500

300

1,100

7,300

4,500


WRAG

100

-

500

2,200

3,900


FFW

-

-

100

400

1,200








IBR

SG

600

200

1,300

15,400

6,100


WRAG

100

-

300

2,600

5,000


FFW

-

-

-

300

1,100


Written Question
Poverty: Greater London
Friday 28th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce poverty among adults and children in (a) London and (b) the London Borough of Hackney.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The Government is committed to our goal of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.

The 2014-17 Child Poverty Strategy outlines our plans to tackle the root causes of poverty, including worklessness, low earnings and educational failure. This approach reflects the reality of child poverty in the UK today and is the only way to achieve lasting change to protect the poorest in society.

Under this Government, 300,000 fewer children are in relative income poverty, around 390,000 fewer children are growing up in workless families, the attainment gap for deprived pupils has narrowed, and we have recently seen the largest annual fall in unemployment on record.[1]

But central Government cannot, by itself, end child poverty. Where people live matters. This Government has taken action to give local areas more freedom to do what people want and need locally including by providing local data that helps users identify specific local challenges. Local Authorities are required to have their own local child poverty strategies.

Further information is outlined in the Child Poverty Strategy. Local data is also published in the child poverty basket of indicators.

Child Poverty Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-strategy-2014-to-2017

Child Poverty basket of indicators: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-basket-of-local-indicators

Our strategy is not just focussed on children; Universal Credit will reduce poverty by making work pay and providing an effective route out of poverty.

This Government’s welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities by promoting work and helping people to lift themselves out of poverty.

  • Up to 300,000 more people are likely to be in work as a result of Universal Credit, through improved financial incentives, increased simplicity of the system and increased conditionality.

  • Universal Credit aims to ensure that work – even small amounts – will pay. This removes long-standing barriers that deter people on benefit from working.

The Government recognises the immediate pressure on households and has responded with a range of policy interventions including:

· Providing funding for successive Council Tax freezes, saving the average household £1,100 during this Parliament.

· Increasing the National Minimum Wage rate to £6.50 from October 2014, the first real terms increase since 2007.

· The largest ever increases in the income tax personal allowance, to £10,500 by April 2015, will save a typical taxpayer £805 per year compared to 2010, and will lift 3.2 million individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015/16.

[1] Based on Labour Market Statistics published in October 2014. In June-August 2014, there were 538,000 fewer unemployed people compared to a year earlier.


Written Question
Poverty: Hackney
Friday 28th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce poverty among (a) adults and (b) children in Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The Government is committed to our goal of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.

The 2014-17 Child Poverty Strategy outlines our plans to tackle the root causes of poverty, including worklessness, low earnings and educational failure. This approach reflects the reality of child poverty in the UK today and is the only way to achieve lasting change to protect the poorest in society.

Under this Government, 300,000 fewer children are in relative income poverty, around 390,000 fewer children are growing up in workless families, the attainment gap for deprived pupils has narrowed, and we have recently seen the largest annual fall in unemployment on record.[1]

But central Government cannot, by itself, end child poverty. Where people live matters. This Government has taken action to give local areas more freedom to do what people want and need locally including by providing local data that helps users identify specific local challenges. Local Authorities are required to have their own local child poverty strategies.

Further information is outlined in the Child Poverty Strategy. Local data is also published in the child poverty basket of indicators.

Child Poverty Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-strategy-2014-to-2017

Child Poverty basket of indicators: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-basket-of-local-indicators

Our strategy is not just focussed on children; Universal Credit will reduce poverty by making work pay and providing an effective route out of poverty.

This Government’s welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities by promoting work and helping people to lift themselves out of poverty.

  • Up to 300,000 more people are likely to be in work as a result of Universal Credit, through improved financial incentives, increased simplicity of the system and increased conditionality.

  • Universal Credit aims to ensure that work – even small amounts – will pay. This removes long-standing barriers that deter people on benefit from working.

The Government recognises the immediate pressure on households and has responded with a range of policy interventions including:

· Providing funding for successive Council Tax freezes, saving the average household £1,100 during this Parliament.

· Increasing the National Minimum Wage rate to £6.50 from October 2014, the first real terms increase since 2007.

· The largest ever increases in the income tax personal allowance, to £10,500 by April 2015, will save a typical taxpayer £805 per year compared to 2010, and will lift 3.2 million individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015/16.

[1] Based on Labour Market Statistics published in October 2014. In June-August 2014, there were 538,000 fewer unemployed people compared to a year earlier.


Written Question
Poverty: Greater London
Monday 17th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in each parliamentary constituency in London and Greater London are classed as living in poverty; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

Estimates of the total number of individuals living in poverty at a regional level are available from the latest Households Below Average Income publication in table 3.6db which can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-hbai-199495-to-201213


Written Question
Employment Schemes
Tuesday 11th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in each constituency in (a) London and (b) England are on community work placements; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

The information is not readily available. The Department works to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Tuesday 4th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases have been registered for personal independence payment in (a) Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, (b) the London Borough of Hackney, (c) London and (d) England to date.

Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport

Such information as is available on personal independence payment cases registered below national level has been published and is available in the data tables which accompany the most recent release of statistics on 17 September: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-july-2014


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Tuesday 4th November 2014

Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence claims in (a) Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, (b) Hackney local authority area, (c) London and (d) England have taken longer than 16 weeks to be awarded or declined.

Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport

Departmental statisticians are continuing to develop measures around clearance times and waiting times to ensure they provide a rounded and representative picture of personal independence payment performance, improvement activity and the claimants’ experience. These statistics will be published when they are ready, with the release pre-announced in line with United Kingdom Statistics Authority release protocols.