Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies her Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Wellbeing indicators are used to inform DWP policy. For example, within the programme of work and health trials being delivered by the joint DWP/DHSC Work and Health Unit, ONS measures of wellbeing are being collected alongside health and employment outcomes to inform future policy development. Within the data pack that informed the 2016 Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, the relationship between employment status and wellbeing was considered.
In addition, specific DWP initiatives are designed to help promote citizen wellbeing. For example, in 2019, the Department launched the `Mid-life MOTs’ online portal to encourage more active planning in the key areas of work, wellbeing and finances.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 13 September 2018 to Question 171307, what steps her Department takes to monitor the personal wellbeing of claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The services provided by the Department are designed to make a positive difference to citizen’s life circumstances, through helping more people into work, simplifying the benefits systems, providing support to disabled people and providing security in later life.
DWP has over 100m transactions with customers each year. We do not record well-being measures against each of these transactions, however our case managers are trained to take action in the case of customers discussing suicide or self-harm, alongside being able to signpost customers to additional support such as bereavement assistance where appropriate.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the proportion of children who live in households in receipt of benefits who have one or more (a) parent and (b) guardian with a diagnosis of depression or anxiety.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of economically active people claiming universal claimant in the Vale of Clwyd constituency in August (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost to the Department.
Universal Credit claimants that are economically active could either be employed or unemployed and therefore, information on Conditionality Regimes by parliamentary constituency can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 effect of unemployment on a person's mental health.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions recognise the impact unemployment can have on an individual’s mental health. An independent review* of the scientific evidence on the relationship between work and health, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, found strong evidence that unemployment is generally harmful to health and linked with poorer mental health, psychological distress, and psychiatric morbidity. Our jobcentre staff work in partnership with mental health providers and services to ensure individuals experiencing unemployment receive the necessary help they need to support them in their job search, work entry and job retention.
Notes: * Waddell G and Burton AK. (2006). Is work good for your health and well-being. London: TSO.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Health and Safety Executive has made of the effect of long-term trends in workplace stress on the mental and physical health of workers.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HSE does monitor year on year statistics of work-related stress, using data gathered via the Labour Force Survey.
The overall incidence rates have remained fairly stable over the last decade but have recently shown indications of an upward trend. This data is used as evidence to inform policy and strategy development. Within the statistics there are a series of sectors that have persistently higher than average rates of stress – education, health, local and central government.
HSE has targeted these sectors more specifically, and its involvement has led to the development of practical tools and guidance to help support employers and employees in taking action to prevent and reduce the incidence of work-related stress and resulting mental health issues of anxiety and depression.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have claimed universal credit in Wales in each year since its inception.
Answered by Will Quince
Statistics surrounding the volume of Universal Credit claims is routinely published and can be found on the Department’s Stat-Xplore service: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who claimed personal independence payment in Wales in each year since its inception.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The latest available data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) registrations, clearances (whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) and claims in payment can be found on Stat-Xplore at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. This data can be broken down by region and by month.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 merits of twice monthly universal credit payments in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Social security matters are the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. The Department for Communities therefore delivers Universal Credit with the support of DWP and its Universal Credit Programme. Mitigations agreed as part of the Fresh Start Agreement allow the Department for Communities to deliver UC differently from the way it is delivered in GB, and responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness of the mitigations package rests with them.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claimants of universal credit that have taken an advance payment have seen payments reduced by (a) up to 20 percent (b) between 21 and 30 per cent, (c) 31 to 40 per cent and (d) over 40 percent of the initial amount in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit (UC) new claim advances provide access to a payment for those in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first UC payment is due. Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months.
The Department has taken a number of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that recovery arrangements are personalised and reasonable. The maximum rate of deductions cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance and does not reduce other components of an award, such as money paid for children, housing or when someone is caring for a severely disabled person. From October 2019 this will be reduced to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery period for advances from 12 to 16 months.
However, the Government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt, so last resort deductions can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their fuel supply (gas/electricity) cut off, by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of these essential services. In these cases, when it is considered to be in the best interests of the claimant and their family, deductions may be taken above the 40 per cent limit.
If a claimant is in financial difficulty as a result of the level of deductions being made they can contact the Department to request that a reduction in deductions be considered.
The latest available data for eligible claims to UC Full Service is provided in table 1:
Table 1 | Month Payment Due | ||
| Feb-17 | Feb-18 | Feb-19 |
| % | % | % |
up to 20 percent of Standard Allowance | 42% | 49% | 47% |
between 21 and 30 per cent of Standard Allowance | 20% | 19% | 18% |
31 to 40 per cent of Standard Allowance | 35% | 31% | 33% |
over 40 percent of Standard Allowance | 3% | 1% | 2% |
Notes
1. The latest month for which data is available is February 2019.
2. When categorising claims into the groups above, the figures for the percentage of the Standard Allowance for individual claims have been rounded to the nearest percent.
3. Deductions include advance repayments and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
4. A claim can have more than one type of deduction applied to a given payment e.g. the total deduction could be the total of both an advance repayment and another deduction type.
5. Figures are for Universal Credit Full Service only; Universal Credit full service was fully rolled out by the end of 2018.