Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people pay the full child maintenance costs for which they are liable.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal to ensure parents meet their financial obligations to their children.
These include deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport or even commitment to prison.
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act received Royal Assent in 2023. This creates a primary power to replace court-based liability orders with administrative orders, which should significantly speed up this key enforcement process.
We have concluded a public consultation to support regulations to implement administrative liability orders. The Government published their response on 12 February 2024.
Secondary legislation is now being developed, which, once implemented, will reduce the process from 22 weeks to as low as 6 weeks. This will be brought forward as soon as possible.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of increasing the state pension age on the financial situation of people approaching retirement age.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The latest assessment of the impact of increasing State Pension age can be found in the 2023 State Pension age review published in March 2023.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-review-2023-government-report
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of housing benefit in the context of trends in the level of average rents.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Housing Benefit supports tenants in both the private rented sector (PRS) and social rented sector (SRS).
For Housing Benefit claimants in the PRS, the majority are subject to their Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate. The LHA policy is kept under regular review and in 2020 we spent almost £1 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile. The significant investment at that time has been maintained ensuring that everyone who benefited continues to do so however, LHA rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas.
Claimants in receipt of the housing benefit living in the social rented sector have their eligible rent paid in full, unless it is reduced because of their income or savings, contributions from non-dependants, or limited by the benefit cap or the removal of the spare room subsidy.
We recognise that rents are increasing. However, the challenging fiscal environment means that difficult decisions have been necessary to ensure support is targeted effectively.
For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support. Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP funding to local authorities
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made a recent equality impact assessment on the Personal Independence Payment in the context of the ethnicity of people who have been awarded that payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) places a legal duty on the DWP to consider how its decisions impact differently on different people and in particular those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. While an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is not a legal requirement of the PSED, it is one of the ways a department can demonstrate consideration of, and compliance, with its duty.
Prior to the introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), an EIA, including against ethnicity, was completed which can be found here Disability Living Allowance reform – equality impact assessment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). EIAs are carried out in relation to significant proposals or changes to PIP, the most recent of which was in 2022. The Family Resources Survey, published annually, also contains ethnicity data by benefit, including PIP.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional financial support to people who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and are unable to work.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department is committed to supporting people nearing the end of life. The main way the department does this is through special benefit rules, called the Special Rules for End of Life. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, and in most cases receive the highest rate of benefit, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods.
From 3rd April 2023, individuals with 12-months or less to live, where they meet the relevant eligibility criteria, ate able to claim Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, and Attendance Allowance, under the Special Rules for End of Life. These changes mean that thousands of people nearing the end of life are able to claim fast track financial support from the benefits system.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure employers make the right adjustments for disabled people.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2022, we delivered legislative changes, which extended fit note certification to other healthcare professionals e.g., Occupational Therapists. Extending certification will allow these professionals to provide more tailored advice to patients to support them to discuss any reasonable adjustments with their employers and stay in, or return to, employment.
Our new digital information service for employers, “Support with Employee Health and Disability”, is currently available to businesses nationally in public live testing. This includes information to help employers make reasonable adjustments.
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which contributes to the disability-related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments. It does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Universal Credit's two-child limit on trends of the level of children living in poverty.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government firmly believes where possible it is in the best interests of children to be in working households. We have a range of employment support and advice available from our Work Coaches in Jobcentres to help people to be better off and become less reliant on benefits. Assessing the impacts of these policies would involve projecting forward every household’s income and individual circumstances which is not possible to do with confidence.
DWP is committed to supporting families and helping parents to progress. This requires a system that provides strong work incentives and key support for those who need it, but crucially also ensures a sense of fairness to the taxpayer as many working families do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.
Meanwhile, we can highlight that both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute low income after housing costs than in 2009/10.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has for the future of the (a) Pneumoconiosis Workers' Compensation Scheme and (b) 2008 Diffuse Mesothelioma Scheme.
Answered by Chloe Smith
There are currently no plans to make any significant changes to either scheme.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to provide additional financial support to people with a disability vehicle to help them afford the recent increase in the cost of fuel.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Whilst the Department works closely with Motability and is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme, Motability is an independent charitable organisation wholly responsible for the terms and administration of the Scheme. Claimants on Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement who are awarded the enhanced or higher rate for mobility can choose to join the Motability Scheme or can choose to spend their benefit however they see fit for their individual circumstances.
Disability benefit payments increase annually in April and the rate of increase is linked to the Consumer Price Index.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claim for mobility vehicles that are electric cars; and what impact assessment has been carried out on the effect of electricity price rises on their continued affordability.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Motability is an independent charitable organization that is wholly responsible for the terms and the administration of the Motability Scheme.
DWP is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme. The Motability Scheme is open to anyone who qualifies for higher rate mobility component for Disability Living Allowance, the enhanced rate of the mobility component for Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or War Pensioners Mobility Supplement. Eligible claimants in receipt of one of these allowances can choose to join the Motability scheme, and in exchange for part or all of their mobility component they receive a leased car, wheelchair or powered chair/scooter.