Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Warwick and Leamington are entitled to Access to Work funding; and what is the average waiting time for receipt of that funding.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Access to Work is a demand led programme which provides help to disabled people to start or stay in work. The programme provides support to individuals that goes beyond reasonable adjustments; as such, any disabled person in or about to start work, who needs support beyond reasonable adjustments, is eligible to apply for Access to Work. We do not hold information on if a population is entitled to Access to Work, we only have data on who has applied.
We do not hold information on waiting times for receipt of funding by geographical area.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of households that have fallen into poverty as a result of the equalisation of the State Pension age.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Changes to State Pension age were made over a series of Acts by successive governments from 1995 onwards, following public consultations and extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament.
We do not hold any recorded information of an impact assessment that informed the rises in State Pension age of the Pensions Act 1995.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if the Government will introduce (a) maximum temperatures and (b) guidance for managers and employees on reasonable indoor temperatures for areas of government buildings where staff are working.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 already place a legal obligation on all employers to make a suitable assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees and take action where necessary to minimise those risks as far as reasonably practicable. In addition, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 place a legal obligation on employers to provide a ‘reasonable’ temperature in indoor workplaces. Detailed guidance including information on how to undertake an assessment and specific measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort is available on HSE’s website.
The Government has no plans to set in law a maximum permitted working temperature. No meaningful upper limit can be imposed because in many indoor workplaces extreme temperature is not seasonal but is created by work activity. In such environments factors other than air temperature, including radiant temperature, humidity and air velocity, become more significant and the interaction between them becomes more complex with rising temperatures. However, it is still possible to work safely provided appropriate controls are present.
HSE regularly reviews and, where necessary, refreshes the guidance published on its website.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many young people have benefited from the Kickstart programme since that programme was first launched.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to PQ 149447 for the most recent data on the Kickstart Scheme.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Warwick and Leamington constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of unemployment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Latest ONS Labour Market data puts the unemployment level in the West Midlands region at 145,000.
Due to the Pandemic, the rate has risen nationally and DWP is working closely across government and with external organisations and local partners to ensure a tailored local response for communities.
We are recruiting additional Work Coaches in our Jobcentres who are supporting new and existing claimants into work.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
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 potential effect of reducing universal credit and working tax credit by £20 a week in April 2021 on (a) working age and (b) child poverty.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates as a temporary measure for the 20/21 tax year.
Future decisions on spending will be made by the Chancellor at the next appropriate fiscal event, and Parliament will be updated accordingly.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial support her Department provides for extremely clinically vulnerable people advised by their health care teams to continue shielding during the covid-19 outbreak beyond 1 August 2020 and as a consequence are unable to work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Where an individual is notified by their doctor or health service to continue to shield in cases of local lockdown and where shielding guidance is reinstated, they will be eligible for ESA or SSP. If an individual is no longer required to shield they may still be entitled to ESA or SSP where they are sick, or self-isolating and meet the eligibility conditions. People can also apply for Universal Credit.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
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 effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in enforcing payments for resident parents during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where payments have been missed we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal.
In order to ensure that receiving parents do not lose out in the long run, we will update cases with notified changes as soon as possible. Where payments have been missed the Service will take action to re-establish compliance and collect any unpaid amounts that may have accrued.
No one will get away with giving false information. Those found to be abusing the system can be subjected to the full extent of our enforcement powers and the Child Maintenance Service will pursue these, where appropriate.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of increasing legacy benefits in line with the increase in universal credit during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made. The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic.
We estimate that 2.5 million households receiving Universal Credit will benefit straight away from the increase in the standard allowance rates which was announced on 20 March, and which is additional to the planned annual uprating. New claimants who have either become unemployed, or whose earnings or work hours have decreased because of the outbreak, will benefit too; subject to their eligibility.
We have also made a number of changes to legacy and other working age benefits in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including increasing certain entitlements, such as Local Housing Allowance. Up-to-date information about the employment and benefits support available, including Universal Credit, Statutory Sick Pay, New style Jobseeker's Allowance, and Employment and Support Allowance, can be found here: www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/employment-and-benefits-support/.
It has always been the case that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for UC if they believe that they will be better off.
However, claimants should check their eligibility before applying to Universal Credit as legacy benefits will end when they submit their claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. Neither DWP nor HMRC can advise individual claimants whether they would be better off moving to UC or remaining on legacy benefits.