Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer on 28 May 2021 to Question 6445 on Children: Poverty, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the impact of the £20 uplift in universal credit on child poverty in (a) England and (b) Manchester Gorton constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
Looking at the impact on poverty of an individual policy is complex and inherently speculative as it requires projecting how incomes will change for every individual in society which are affected by a huge range of unknown factors.
To monitor poverty for different groups the Department publishes the Households Below Average Incomes (HBAI) publication which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020
Data at constituency level is unavailable in this publication due to insufficient sample size.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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) Manchester Gorton constituency.
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 Manchester Gorton 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.
The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in Manchester Gorton 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: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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) Manchester Gorton constituency.
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 run 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: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of correspondence sent by hon. Members to her Department received a substantive response within the service standard in each month of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises the great importance of the effective and timely handling of correspondence.
The Cabinet Office is currently compiling data on the timeliness of responses to Hon. and Rt Hon. members from Government Departments and Agencies. This data will be released, and made available to Members, in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent representations he has received on reducing the waiting period to receive support for mortgage interest payments.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A number of organisations have made public recommendations for government to reduce the qualifying period including Centre for Policy Studies, Joseph Roundtree Foundation, Affordable Housing Commission, The Resolution Foundation, UK Finance and the Building Societies Association.
The Department currently has no plans to amend the qualifying period for Support for Mortgage Interest.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 economic effect on renters of increasing the Local Housing allowance in line with median market rents.
Answered by Will Quince
There has been no such assessment.
In April 2020 Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates were increased to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment of almost £1 billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with around £600 more housing support per year than they would otherwise have received. In 2021/22 all LHA rates will be maintained at their increased level, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector will continue to benefit from the significant increase in the rates applied this year.
For those who require additional support with housing costs Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 merits of increasing the Local Housing Allowance to cover median market rents.
Answered by Will Quince
There has been no such assessment.
In April 2020 Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates were increased to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment of almost £1 billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with around £600 more housing support per year than they would otherwise have received. In 2021/22 all LHA rates will be maintained at their increased level, meaning claimants renting in the private rented sector will continue to benefit from the significant increase in the rates applied this year.
For those who require additional support with housing costs Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to take steps to enable the public to communicate with her Department by email.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Due to the risk of personal data being compromised through email, this service is restricted to general enquiries, however it is available as a reasonable adjustment on request.
For claimants with a disability or health condition who require email as they need information to be provided in an alternative format we can accept the security risk and allow use of email.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 cost of setting up an email channel for the public to contact her Department in respect of personal independence payment appeals.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Once a customer has submitted an appeal to Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) the customer engages with HMCTS from this point to provide information and evidence relevant to their PIP appeal. In most PIP appeal cases, additional evidence provided is then digitally shared with DWP as a party to the appeal, therefore an email address is not necessary.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 merits of allowing claimants to contact her Department with general queries relating to their claims.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Claimants can contact DWP with general enquiries through various routes, including by phone or by email via GOV.UK.
We also have an alternative option for British Sign Language users who can use the Video Relay Service to communicate with DWP.
In addition, there is an online Journal for Universal Credit claimants and a self-service portal for Child Maintenance Service clients.