Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 27 March (HL3520), why it is not possible to undertake a robust assessment of the impact of the two-child limit.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not have the data to fully measure health and well-being behavioural impacts that may have resulted from the two-child limit.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to ensure that his Department's (a) policy and (b) guidance is (i) trauma-informed and (ii) co-produced with lived-experience experts.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP is committed to being a more Trauma Informed organisation. We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work.
The integration programme is in its early phases, and we appreciate that it will take time to realise the benefits of changes we implement. We are learning from the continued progress of leaders in the field including programmes such as the Scottish National Trauma Transformation Programme. We recognise that an important aspect of many programmes is policies and procedures and intend to replicate this focus within our own work whilst recognising that the programme does not seek to change what the department does, instead we are impacting how we do this, which will extend to supporting our policy development.
We recognise that any truly trauma informed system is shaped by lived experience experts and we fundamentally believe in the co-production of this programme. This is why we have an extensive network of diverse internal and external stakeholders who are engaged in shaping the programme through ongoing forums and insight activity. We are also currently collaborating with the University of Salford on research which explores how trauma informed the department is through conversations with customers, colleagues and external stakeholders. The outcome of this research will help to shape the future priorities of the programme. Finally, we are currently exploring how we establish our own co-production forums for the programme taking advice from expert stakeholders to ensure we create a safe, empowering space for lived experience experts to whilst establishing trust in the ongoing aims and progress of the programme.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations of Child of the North APPG's report entitled Children in Care in the North of England, published on 17 April 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP recognises the challenges care leavers face as they move out of the care system and has in place a series of easements aimed at simplifying and improving their interaction with the benefit system. In addition to the intensive tailored support the Youth Offer provides for young people with additional barriers to work, we are working with employers through the Care Leaver Covenant to help care leavers find more employment opportunities; and with DfE to ensure care leavers can access the right skills, opportunities and wider support, to move towards sustained employment and career progression.
Furthermore, to help achieve the missions set out in the Department for Education’s response to the independent review of children’s social care 'Stable Homes, Built on Love' DWP has already committed to proactively explore additional easements to enhance the support offer for care leavers and work with DfE officials to explore how to improve transition for care leavers entering the benefit and employment support system.
The Government is committed to supporting families on lower incomes and expects to spend around £306bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2024/25 including around £138bn on people of working age and children. We have uprated working age benefits by 6.7% and raised the Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefiting 1.6 million low-income households.
We have consistently set out a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling child poverty based on evidence about the important role of work, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risk of child poverty. The latest statistics show that in 2022/23, children living in workless households were over 6 times more likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) than those where all adults work. This is why, with over 900,000 vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people into and to progress in work.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many school leavers who had been in receipt of free school meals were on Universal Credit six months after leaving school in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022 and (d) 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the outcomes of the (a) pre-testing phase, (b) phase one and (c) phase two of the additional job centre support pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
An evaluation of the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot is ongoing.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) additional work coaches and (b) additional hours of work coach time have been allocated to jobcentres to administer the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The pilot is being delivered using existing Jobcentre resource.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff have been trained in disability awareness in (a) his core Department and (b) Jobcentres in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is unable to provide the information you seek within the appropriate cost limit as you have asked for information that is contained across a wide range of learning journeys.
All staff new to DWP undergo mandatory learning followed by role specific learning, this encompasses vulnerabilities and complex needs training which is threaded throughout learning. Staff continue to build on this in the workplace through accessing policy guidance and point of need learning products.
Please refine your request, for example to mandatory learning to enable data to be provided.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation report entitled Guarantee our Essentials, published on 27 February 2024, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of that report's findings on levels of essential costs for single parent families claiming Universal Credit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of his Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions delivers a range of campaigns which are essential in ensuring that vulnerable people and pensioners are aware of the financial support that they are eligible for.
Appropriate advertising is a key government approach to ensure that target audiences receive the correct information and the media channels used are selected based upon their potential impact and cost, ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.
The figures provided in the table below show the percentage of the total spend for each advertising channel during 2023/24.
Channel | % of spend |
National and local newspaper print | 15 |
Digital display | 5 |
Social media | 25 |
Search engines | 5 |
Broadcast and on-demand television | 10 |
Radio and digital audio | 30 |
Out of home | 10 |
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value was of underpayments of the Personal Independence Payment due to recipients’ failure to update their medical need in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP measures its underpayments via annual national statistics published each May. However, we do not produce an estimate for the average value of a benefit underpayment.
Our estimates relating to PIP underpayments in 2022-23 can be found at the link below:
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 6 provides the total estimated value of PIP underpayments in 2022-23.
Table 8 provides the estimated value of PIP underpayments due to claimant error. All claimant error underpayments were due to errors where the claimant’s condition had got worse, and they failed to inform the department (Functional Needs).