Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for transitioning from jobseeker's allowance to income support.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We do not hold any data in relation to cases which have transitioned from Jobseekers Allowance to Income Support, however we can confirm that the year-to-date (YTD) figure as at November 16 is 83.8% for Income Support claims cleared within 5 days.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unpaid internships there are in his Department.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There are no unpaid internships. The Civil Service runs the Summer Diversity Internship Programme, which is a two month placement and is paid. The Civil Service also runs the Early Diversity Internship Programme which is for a week only (and more akin to work experience) – it provides expenses to encourage applications and ensure there is no financial loss.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people employed in human resources roles in his Department have (a) prior experience and (b) qualifications in human resources.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Records of prior Human Resources (HR) experience and qualifications in HR, for people employed in HR roles in the civil service, are not held centrally within the Department for Work & Pensions. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the budget is for DWP Digital for financial year 2016-17.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The budget for DWP Digital for financial year 2016-17 is £1,032m
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which contracts in his Department operate on a payment by results basis.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Department will not pay suppliers that do not fulfil their contractual obligations. In that respect all contracts managed by the Department operate on a payment by results basis.
I have however interpreted the question as relating to contracts designed to help people back into employment, where suppliers are paid for individual job outcomes.
The following contracts operate on this basis:
Work Choice
Specialist Employability Support (SES)
Access to Work (AtW) Mental Health support service
Access to Work (AtW) Assessments
European Social Fund Contracts (ESF)
Work Programme (WP)
Community Work Placements (CWP)
Youth Engagement Fund (YEF)
New Enterprise Allowance (Phase 1)
Relationship Support Contracts
Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) – in part
Notes:
Work Choice – 29 contracts. Payment by results is linked to job outcomes and sustained job outcomes which relate to 50% of the income
Specialist Employability Support (SES) – 6 contract. Payment by results with same design as Work Choice.
Access to Work (AtW) Mental Health support service – 7 contracts. Payment by results linked to delivery of support to customers
Access to Work (AtW) Assessments – 7 contracts. Payment by results linked to delivery of assessments
European Social Fund Contracts (ESF) – 31 contracts. Payment by result linked to job outcomes and sustained job outcomes.
Work Programme (WP) – 41 contracts. Payment by result linked to job outcomes and sustained job outcomes.
Community Work Placements (CWP) – 18 contract Payment by result linked to four outcomes.
Youth Engagement Fund (YEF) – 4 contracts Payment by results relating to six outcomes
New Enterprise Allowance (Phase 1) – 15 Contracts Payment by result for four outcomes
Relationship Support Contracts – 5 separate contracts that use a mix of outcome result payments (36%) and output payments.
Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) – 10 live contracts in place which include payments by results in the form of client job starts and job outcomes.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
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 extend the eligibility criteria for statutory sick pay to living organ donors.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
All employed live donors should be able to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if they satisfy the qualifying conditions and provide some form of medical evidence, after the first seven days of sickness, which assesses them as unfit for work.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many live national insurance numbers there currently are (a) in total and (b) for people aged over 100.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The latest available figures (06/11/2016) show approximately
92 million National Insurance number (NINo) records on the Department’s Customer Information System (CIS). These consist of approximately:
The information on how many National Insurance numbers are held for people over 100 is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
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 raising the earnings threshold for carer's allowance to enable those who work 16 hours a week on the living wage to be eligible.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government keeps the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit under regular review and increases it when it is warranted and affordable.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer she received on 25 April 2016 in response to UIN34752
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of his Department's digital and IT projects are (a) under review and (b) at risk of cancellation.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
(a) Performing regular reviews of projects within a portfolio is an industry standard best practice activity. We currently have an active portfolio of circa 250 initiatives across DWP Digital. We are reviewing all of these regularly.
(b) We regularly pause and accelerate projects based on business need and the need to sequence interdependencies across a complex systems estate. Given the agile delivery methods adopted by DWP, no projects are currently at risk of cancellation.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-payroll staff are employed in his Department; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such staff in the financial year to date.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There are currently 619 non-payroll staff employed in DWP through the Crown Commercial Service ‘CL1’ Framework. Year to date spend on non-payroll staff is £66,988,161. To be clear the year to date spend covers all non-payroll staff; some of whom are no longer employed by DWP.