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.
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 she is taking to reduce the backlog of people waiting for personal independence payment claims to be processed.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence.
The time it takes to clear a claim and the number of people awaiting a decision can vary reflecting factors including customer demand, operational resource and timescales for different parts of the process. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused distortion and work is ongoing to manage the recovery.
The time it takes clear new PIP claims in July 2021 (most recent data available) are similar to levels a year ago.
We are always looking at ways to improve the assessment process. In addition to face-to-face, we will continue to conduct paper-based, telephone and video assessments where appropriate.
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 her Department is taking to address the backlog of people waiting for work capability assessments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We are currently delivering health assessments through a variety of channels. We have reintroduced face-to-face assessments, alongside the telephone and video assessments introduced in response to the pandemic. Whenever possible we will conduct a paper based assessment.
We are always looking at ways to improve the assessment process and continue to work with the assessment provider to maximise the number of WCAs completed.
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 have been affected by the recent administrative delays in receiving their state pensions since turning 66.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP is aware that a small number of new State Pension claims have been subject to delays in receiving payment.
The Department is working hard to clear the current backlog, many of which have accrued since the Covid Pandemic.
We are prioritising overdue payments and payments that are imminent within the next few weeks. Normal service will be resumed by the end of October 2021.
Claimants don’t need to act, we have identified the cases and will process them 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 steps she is taking to improve customer service to help elderly people contacting her Department regarding the time taken to receive their state pension payments.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP is aware that a small number of new State Pension claims have been subject to delays in receiving payment.
The Department is working hard to clear the current backlog, many of which have accrued since the Covid Pandemic.
We are prioritising overdue payments and payments that are imminent within the next few weeks. Normal service will be resumed by the end of October 2021.
Claimants don’t need to act, we have identified the cases and will process them 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 steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for people turning 66 to receive the first payment of their state pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP is aware that a small number of new State Pension claims have been subject to delays in receiving payment.
The Department is working hard to clear the current backlog, many of which have accrued since the Covid Pandemic.
We are prioritising overdue payments and payments that are imminent within the next few weeks. Normal service will be resumed by the end of October 2021.
Claimants don’t need to act, we have identified the cases and will process them 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 estimate she has made of the level of child poverty in (a) England and (b) Wansbeck.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to support the most vulnerable including through spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. Additionally, in December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. It will now run until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Data for Wansbeck is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.
Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in England, covering 2019/20, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020,“children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables” in table 4.16ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in table 4.22ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).
In the three years to 2019/20, the absolute child poverty rate, before housing costs, in England was 18%, down 3 percentage points since the three years to 2009/10.
The Department now publishes supplementary official statistics on the number of children in low income families at constituency level. Children in Low Income Families data is published annually.
In 2019/20 the absolute levels of child poverty, before housing costs, in Wansbeck was 22%. The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in Wansbeck and in England, covering 2019/20, can be found at:
Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable.
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 assessment she has made of the impact of the £20 uplift in universal credit on levels of child poverty in (a) England and (b) Wansbeck.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
We introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed during the coldest months. It will now until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.
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 prohibition notices for each sector have been served by the Health and Safety Executive to employers for breaching covid-19 safety.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) takes Covid-19 safety at work very seriously and it is playing a critical role in the national response to the pandemic. The Government has provided additional funding of £14 million to HSE to strengthen its capacity to tackle Covid-19.
Since the start of the pandemic HSE has carried out over 110,000 Coivd-19 spot checks and responded to over 18,000 concerns. Over 700 checks a day are currently taking place. Spot checks have been targeted in those industries where workers are most likely to be vulnerable to transmission risks.
HSE’s evidence is that more than 90% of the businesses checked have the right precautions in place or are willing to make necessary changes promptly and without the need for enforcement notices. HSE will continue to take enforcement action where appropriate, but the best use of its time and resource to ensure employers take the right action promptly is often to educate, persuade or require matters to be put right immediately.
HSE has to date issued two prohibition notices for breaches of workplace COVID-secure standards, both in the oil and gas industry (part of the extractive utilities sector).
A further 212 COVID-19 related interventions have resulted in improvement notices, 1,422 in written correspondence and 6429 in verbal advice.
The tables below provide the breakdowns by industry sector. To note, sector comparisons cannot be made as the figures are not like for like in each sector due to our targeting approach.
Table 1: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of improvement notice
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of an improvement notice |
Agriculture | 0 |
Construction | 107 |
Extractive Utilities | 2 |
Manufacturing | 38 |
Services | 53 |
Water / Waste Management | 7 |
(Sector not specified) | 5 |
Total | 212 |
Table 2: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of written correspondence
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related cases resulting in an outcome of written correspondence |
Agriculture | 8 |
Construction | 457 |
Extractive Utilities | 24 |
Manufacturing | 474 |
Services | 367 |
Water / Waste Management | 65 |
(Sector not specified) | 27 |
Total | 1,422 |
Table 3: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of verbal advice
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related cases resulting in an outcome of verbal advice |
Agriculture | 69 |
Construction | 1,165 |
Extractive Utilities | 107 |
Manufacturing | 2,724 |
Services | 2,030 |
Water / Waste Management | 299 |
(Sector not specified) | 35 |
Total | 6,429 |
Note: This data was extracted from HSE’s live operational database on 9th February 2021 and is subject to change e.g. as there can be a delay of up to 10 working days before actions are updated on the database.
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 she will assess the potential merits of introducing time-bound targets for increasing Pension Credit uptake.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics covering 2018-19 were published on 29 October 2020, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019. They show a small but encouraging improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit. Take-up of Guarantee Credit – the safety-net element of Pension Credit – has risen from 68% to 70% of those eligible to claim it. The statistics also show a significant improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit by expenditure, with some 76% of Pension Credit being claimed, up from 70% in the previous year.
This year we took steps to raise awareness of Pension Credit by launching a campaign aimed at dispelling some of the common misconceptions about Pension Credit eligibility. We engaged with our stakeholders to ensure that the key campaign messages could be widely disseminated because we know that trusted organisations working in the community are often one of the first places that people are likely to go to seek information.
We have updated our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May we also launched the digital ‘Apply for Pension Credit’ (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim) service as part of our Covid 19 response to help people claim Pension Credit online with minimal delay and to ensure they can do so while adhering to social distancing or shielding measures. This online claim service for Pension Credit supplements the existing free Pension Credit claim line number (0800 99 1234) and postal claim facilities and around 50% of claims are being made using it.
We continue working with stakeholders to find the best ways to reach eligible pensioners and raise awareness of Pension Credit.