Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many MPs have contacted the House authorities about anonymous abuse or threats on Twitter in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Tom Brake
The Parliamentary Security Department regularly provides advice to Members and their staff on social media security, but we do not collate data on these interactions. For security and privacy reasons, the discussions held between Members and the House authorities relating to threats and abuse are not publicly available. Threats and abuse received by Members should always be reported to the police.
The Member is invited to contact the Director of Security for Parliament directly if he wishes to discuss this matter further.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what assessment the Commission has made of the effectiveness of Twitter's response to complaints by House authorities about abuse or threats directed at Members of Parliament.
Answered by Tom Brake
Parliament has established a reasonable relationship with the main social media companies, including Twitter. We continually monitor the effectiveness of our work as we regularly raise abusive content directly with the company on behalf of Members.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of vehicles returned to the Motability Scheme due to negative PIP reassessments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 1 June 2018 to Question UIN 148652.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) financial and (b) psychological effect on self-employed people of being unable to access statutory maternity and paternity leave pay.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department has not conducted any analysis of the psychological or financial impacts on self-employed people who are ineligible for statutory family related leave and pay entitlements.
Maternity Allowance (MA) is paid to eligible self-employed and employed women who are not entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay. Statutory family related leave entitlements focus on employees as they have less flexibility and autonomy over the work they do and when they take time off work.
The Government agrees with the principle of equalising parental benefits for the employed and self-employed. But as set out in the Government Response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, it is right to only consider making changes to this area once we have carefully considered this in the wider context of tax, benefits and rights over the longer term.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of recent trends in the level of unemployment in Dudley.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The level of unemployment in Dudley, using the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS), was estimated to be 8,300 in the year to December 2017. The unemployment rate was 5.6%, in the year to December 2017, and is estimated to have fallen by almost half (46%) since the year ending December 2010.
Data from the ONS Labour Force Survey shows that since the 2010 election the level and rate of unemployment has fallen in every region and country of the UK.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the level of support available to unemployed people in Dudley.
Answered by Lord Sharma
In addition to national initiatives available such as the Work and Health Programme and the Enhanced Support Offer, there are currently 67 local partners available to support unemployed people in Dudley. These are in a variety of sectors and include educational, voluntary and charitable organisations. We also support employers with their redundancy programmes. To date in 2018, support has been provided to 10 employers and 432 people.
Support for Universal Credit claimants in Dudley includes Universal Support, covering budgeting and digital skills, which is delivered by the local authority. This contracted provision is closely monitored and local partnership managers work with partners and providers to ensure the level of support available fulfils requirements.
If training gaps are identified, additional training can be procured for customers either on an individual basis or for groups of customers with similar needs at a local level.
Details of the support provision available and its usage are monitored and continuous customer feedback is gathered from our three Dudley borough sites: Dudley, Halesowen, and Stourbridge.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what funding her Department has made available to services which support unemployed people in Dudley.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Since February 2018, over £100,000 of flexible support funding has been used to support unemployed people in Dudley.
Additional support can also be allocated to purchase training for customers either on an individual basis or for groups of customers with similar needs at a local level.
Funding from national programmes such as the New Enterprise Allowance, Specialist Employability Support and the Work and Health Programme is also used to support the unemployed in Dudley.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment claimants with a primary condition of epilepsy who were awarded such payments after a tribunal ruling have (a) had a Statement of Reason requested by her Department, (b) had their tribunal decision appealed by her Department and (c) seen their award (i) decreased or (ii) removed as a result.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times her Department has requested a Statement of Reason from a tribunal after a tribunal has ruled in a personal independence payment claimant’s favour.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment tribunal decisions that have ruled in favour of the claimant have subsequently been appealed by her Department; and what the outcomes of those appeals have been.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Since its introduction, the Department has appealed 283 cases of Personal Independence Payment where a Tribunal has ruled in favour of the claimant. Following appeal in twenty five of these cases the claimant was successful; in 202 cases DWP was successful and in 56 cases we are still awaiting an outcome.