Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people claiming housing benefit in Gosport in each of the last three years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Monthly statistics for the number of Housing Benefit claimants in Great Britain are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore, The statistics are available for various geographies, including local authority and parliamentary constituency, and are currently available to May 2025.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of AI on (a) graduate employment, (b) employment in labour intensive industries, (c) employment in capital intensive industries and (d) overall employment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are starting to witness AI’s impact within the labour market: transforming the workplace, demanding new skills and augmenting old ones. But there is uncertainty over the future scale of AI’s impact on the labour market, particularly over the next few years. Given the recent rapid pace of AI development, government is planning against a range of plausible future outcomes and closely monitoring the data that will help track if we are heading towards any of these outcomes.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Government's decision not to implement the recommendations of the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues, published on 21 March 2024, on the role of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The basis for the Government’s decision has been set out by the Secretary of State, deposited in the House of Commons library and is available here: Government response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's investigation into Women's State Pension age and associated issues
The Ombudsman does important work, which we respect. We have taken this report seriously, considering the findings in detail. We consider the findings and recommendations of the Ombudsman on a case-by-case basis. Moving forward we will work with the Ombudsman to learn the lessons this investigation can teach us and DWP will develop an action plan that we will publish in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to publish a timeline for its proposed changes to the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced. This needs to come alongside a proper plan to support disabled people into work.
We are taking the time to review this in the round before setting out next steps on our approach, and the timescale, in the coming months.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how the Connect to Work scheme will support people living with arthritis to remain in employment.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 12 November 2024 to PQ12617
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2024 to Question 6049 on Pension Credit: Gosport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the survey sample sizes for entitled non-recipients of Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The take-up statistics which include the estimated number of entitled non-recipients for Pension Credit, are based on survey data from the Family Resources Survey. The Family Resources Survey is designed to produce robust regional estimates and does not include all local authorities each year so is not suitable for analysis at, or below, the Local Authority level [PQ 74999, Emma Lewell-Buck]. There is not currently an intention to increase the achieved sample size.
Further detail on the upcoming sample size of the Family Resources Survey can be found here: Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2024 to Question 2857 on Pension Credit: Gosport, if she will make it her policy to collect that data at constituency level.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Estimates of the number of Pension Credit entitled non-recipients (ENRs) are based on survey data. The survey sample sizes for ENRs are too small to calculate take-up rates in smaller geographical areas. This means that we are unable to collect data at constituency level using this methodology. Further information around the take-up statistics can be found at: Background information and methodology for financial year ending 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to review the minimum reduction in the level of income that is required to trigger a review of a parent's child maintenance payments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
When a parent’s income has changed by at least 25%, their calculation can be updated. The 25% income change tolerance was set to offer a stable maintenance liability, to provide greater certainty to both parents, whilst also remaining fair in dealing with unexpected and major changes in circumstances; and, to set the threshold at a level which supports operational efficiency.
The Department is conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation, and the 25% income change tolerance falls within the scope of this review.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of households in Gosport constituency who will lose their winter fuel payment.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The estimated number of pensioner households in Gosport constituency who will lose Winter Fuel Payments is 13,577. This is based on Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics and 22/23 Winter Fuel Payment statistics, (sources below).
The estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of Pension Credit recipients for Gosport Constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients for Gosport constituency. Please note that Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.
Please note that the Pension Credit data is based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024 in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics.
Furthermore, the above does not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up we might see as a result of the Governments Pension Credit Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.
Sources used:
winter-fuel-payments-household-2022-to-2023.ods (live.com)
Stat-Xplore - Table View (dwp.gov.uk) (Feb-24 data)
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of households in Gosport constituency who are (a) eligible for and (b) not in receipt of pension credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.