Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many appeals against Personal Independence Payment decisions were lapsed by her Department as at the latest date for which data is available.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The table below provides information on Personal Independence Payment appeal registrations and lapses for both the whole of Great Britain and for Scotland, between 1st April 2013 and 31st December 2021.
GB Appeals registered | GB Appeals lapsed | Scotland Appeals registered | Scotland Appeals lapsed |
604,080 | 112,100 (19% of GB appeals registered) | 72,590 | 12,270 (17% of Scotland appeals registered) |
Notes:
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of local welfare assistance schemes in Glasgow South West constituency.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No assessment has been made.
Local Welfare is a devolved matter and it is for the Scottish Government to assess the adequacy of their local welfare assistance scheme.
The Government has recently announced an extension to the funding provided to help vulnerable households with cost of living pressures - providing an additional £500 million from April 2022 to help households with the cost of essentials bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion (between October 2021 and September 2022). In England, £421 million will be provided to extend the existing Household Support Fund from 1 April to 30 September inclusive. The devolved administrations will again receive £79 million through the Barnett formula (£41 million for the Scottish Government, £25 million for the Welsh Government and £14 million for the NI Executive).
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what processes are in place for reporting employers that may attempt to advertise jobs on her Department's website that fail to comply with National Minimum Wage legislation to HMRC Minimum Wage Complaint Unit; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All adverts listed on Find a job meet the National Minimum Wage, with the exception of a small number resulting from user error on the part of the employer.
When entering details of their job advert into Find a job the employer is presented with 2 options for stating the wages/salary. They can provide a minimum and maximum rate of pay and select the period this applies to, for example hourly, weekly or annually. Alternatively, they can confirm that the job will pay at least the National Minimum Wage.
The employer is also required to state whether the job is full time (30 hours per week or more) or part time (less than 30 hours per week). When full time is selected Find a job validates that the wages/salary on offer meets National Minimum Wage. The advert cannot be posted until this condition is met.
When part time is selected the validation ensures that the hourly rates entered meet or exceed National Minimum Wage and highlights to the employer where this is not the case; the employer cannot proceed with the advert until this condition is met. However, we know that on a small number of occasions the employer then goes on to mistakenly select the incorrect period this wage applies to. This can lead to adverts showing wages of, for example, £8.91 per year when clearly it should be per hour. Additional manual checks are performed to identify and remove such adverts.
Additionally, if a user finds any error with a job advert – with the rate of pay or anything else - they can use the ‘report this job’ feature and the DWP team will investigate and if appropriate remove the advert.
There is no separate process in place for reporting employers to HMRC’s Minimum Wage Complaint Unit.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department takes to ensure that job advertisements live on its website are compliant with National Minimum Wage legislation; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All adverts listed on Find a job meet the National Minimum Wage, with the exception of a small number resulting from user error on the part of the employer.
When entering details of their job advert into Find a job the employer is presented with 2 options for stating the wages/salary. They can provide a minimum and maximum rate of pay and select the period this applies to, for example hourly, weekly or annually. Alternatively, they can confirm that the job will pay at least the National Minimum Wage.
The employer is also required to state whether the job is full time (30 hours per week or more) or part time (less than 30 hours per week). When full time is selected Find a job validates that the wages/salary on offer meets National Minimum Wage. The advert cannot be posted until this condition is met.
When part time is selected the validation ensures that the hourly rates entered meet or exceed National Minimum Wage and highlights to the employer where this is not the case; the employer cannot proceed with the advert until this condition is met. However, we know that on a small number of occasions the employer then goes on to mistakenly select the incorrect period this wage applies to. This can lead to adverts showing wages of, for example, £8.91 per year when clearly it should be per hour. Additional manual checks are performed to identify and remove such adverts.
Additionally, if a user finds any error with a job advert – with the rate of pay or anything else - they can use the ‘report this job’ feature and the DWP team will investigate and if appropriate remove the advert.
There is no separate process in place for reporting employers to HMRC’s Minimum Wage Complaint Unit.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs are listed on her Department's website that are advertised at rates under the national minimum wage of £9.50 per hour as of 22 March 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All adverts listed on Find a job meet the National Minimum Wage, with the exception of a small number resulting from user error on the part of the employer.
When entering details of their job advert into Find a job the employer is presented with 2 options for stating the wages/salary. They can provide a minimum and maximum rate of pay and select the period this applies to, for example hourly, weekly or annually. Alternatively, they can confirm that the job will pay at least the National Minimum Wage.
The employer is also required to state whether the job is full time (30 hours per week or more) or part time (less than 30 hours per week). When full time is selected Find a job validates that the wages/salary on offer meets National Minimum Wage. The advert cannot be posted until this condition is met.
When part time is selected the validation ensures that the hourly rates entered meet or exceed National Minimum Wage and highlights to the employer where this is not the case; the employer cannot proceed with the advert until this condition is met. However, we know that on a small number of occasions the employer then goes on to mistakenly select the incorrect period this wage applies to. This can lead to adverts showing wages of, for example, £8.91 per year when clearly it should be per hour. Additional manual checks are performed to identify and remove such adverts.
Additionally, if a user finds any error with a job advert – with the rate of pay or anything else - they can use the ‘report this job’ feature and the DWP team will investigate and if appropriate remove the advert.
There is no separate process in place for reporting employers to HMRC’s Minimum Wage Complaint Unit.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 112080, Artificial Intelligence, what progress has been made with each of the items listed.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There has been no fundamental change from the answer of 10 November 2020.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims were having deductions taken from them in the most recent month for which data are available, in each parliamentary constituency; what was the average size of sums deducted in each constituency; what the total sum was deducted from claims in each constituency; and what proportion of each sum was deducted to repay advance payments.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Processes are in place to ensure deductions are manageable, and customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension, depending on their financial circumstances.
Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties
Advances are a claimant’s benefit entitlement paid early, allowing claimants to access 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. They ensure nobody has to wait for a payment in Universal Credit and those who need it are able to receive financial support as soon as possible. Claimants can receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit award if required, resulting in 25 payments over a 24-month period. This is not a debt.
The requested analysis of Universal Credit claims with a payment due in November 2021 by Parliamentary Constituency in Great Britain (GB) is provided in the separate spreadsheet.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in her Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by her Department as of 21 February 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP has maintained its services throughout the pandemic with Jobcentres remaining open for anyone who needed face-to-face support and whom we could not help in any other way. When DWP returned to its standard opening hours within our jobcentres in April 2021, we launched a template to support one-to-one discussions between managers and colleagues about returning to the workplace. This template is a document for managers and colleagues to capture key information from these discussions, providing support for conversations about the barriers and concerns that may arise for colleagues in returning to the workplace.
The template covers a number of important considerations and topics relating to the health and safety of our colleagues, and includes reasonable and workplace adjustments, risk assessments for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues, mental health support, caring requirements, and wellbeing issues such as referrals to occupational health. The one-to-one template links to a suite of products and supporting mechanisms available to all colleagues across DWP, and has been widely publicised in various communications and channels since its launch. The one-to-one process is focussed on the individual, and was not centrally monitored.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of the current board members at the Money and Pensions Service have been advised their appointments will not be renewed; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
One current non-executive board member at the Money and Pensions Service has been notified that their appointment will not be renewed. In accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, there is no automatic presumption of reappointment.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the serving board members at the Money and Pensions Advice Service have been notified that their appointments will not be renewed; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
One current non-executive board member at the Money and Pensions Service has been notified that their appointment will not be renewed. In accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, there is no automatic presumption of reappointment.