Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to respond to email correspondence of 20 February 2023 from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member was sent on 23rd March 2023.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward proposals to create duties to measure and report concentrations of indoor air pollutants in public buildings.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the regulator for workplace health and safety. HSE expects businesses to consider any risks arising from the quality of the air in their premises and to ensure they have mitigations in place where, for example, work generating fumes or dust that is harmful to workers. As such, they have no plans to create duties to measure and report concentrations of indoor air pollutants in workplaces.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a sectoral breakdown of the industries in which people his Department deems gainfully self-employed work.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not routinely collect data on the sectors in which Universal Credit claimants work, including self-employed work, because this does not affect entitlement to UC. However, we are currently exploring what additional information we could collect to help work coaches support claimants in their search for work.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many people in the entertainment industry will be excluded from the Government’s Cost of Living Payments as a result of the Minimum Income Floor reducing their Universal Credit entitlements to zero.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No estimate has been made, the Department does not routinely collect data on the sectors in which Universal Credit claimants work, including self-employed work, because this does not affect entitlement to UC. However, we are currently exploring what additional information we could collect to help work coaches support claimants in their search for work.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of Universal Credit have a diagnosis of Parkinson's in (a) Liverpool Walton and (b) the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the payment date for Spring 2023 cost-of-living payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has made substantial support available to households this winter. The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, paid over six months starting in October 2022.
This support comes on top of the Cost of Living Payments which have already been made to the most vulnerable households during 2022. DWP, HMRC and MoD successfully delivered 8.4 million £326 means-tested benefit Cost of Living Payments (as of 8th September 2022), 8.3 million £324 means-tested benefit Cost of Living Payments (as of 12th December 2022), 6 million £150 disability benefit Cost of Living Payments (as of 30th September 2022) and 11.6 million pensioner Cost of Living Payments (as of 20th December 2022).
For those who require additional support this winter the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula. As announced at Autumn Statement, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024.
The government intends to make the forthcoming Cost of Living payments throughout the financial year 2023/24 as follows:
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 117888 on State Retirement Pensions: Females, if he will make on assessment of the impact for his policies of the tribunal report by Dr Joceylynne Scutt published on 13 July 2022.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
There are no plans for an assessment to be made.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the treatment of 1950s born women affected by changes to the state pension age, what assessment he has made of the implications for her policies of the tribunal report by Dr Joceylynne Scutt published on 13 July 2022; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to reform Universal Credit to provide greater access to that benefit for students.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government has no plans to change eligibility rules for Universal Credit to provide greater access for students.
The core objective of Universal Credit is to support claimants to enter work, earn more or prepare for work in the future. Whilst financial support for higher/advanced education students comes from the current system of learner loans and grants designed for their needs, it is also a condition of entitlement for Universal Credit that the person must not be in full-time education.
Exceptions are made where students have additional needs that cannot be met through the student support system of loans and grants, such as being responsible for a child.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment he has made of employers complying with their obligation to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people in the (a) public and (b) private sectors.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The most recent assessment was set out in the Government’s response to the Health is Everyone's Business consultation. It identified a lack of awareness and understanding of rights and responsibilities under the Equality Act among both employers and employees, in particular around providing reasonable adjustments. A separate assessment was not made for the public and private sectors. The measures the Government is taking forward provide greater clarity around employer and employee rights and responsibilities and address the need for employers to have access to clear and compelling information and advice that is easy to understand, trustworthy and accessible.