Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Living Wage Foundation's "Living Hours" standard; and what steps they are taking to encourage employers to adopt that standard.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government commends employers who are able to go above the requirements of minimum wage and employment legislation. However, the Living Wage Foundation are clear that their measures are voluntary.
Our statutory minimum wage rates are based on the expert and independent advice of the Low Pay Commission; the LPC takes into account the impacts on workers, businesses and the wider economy to ensure a fair balance is struck.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Action for Children’s report, The Educational Outcomes of Children Referred to Children’s Social Care: A Revolving Doors Report, published on 22 August, and data from the annual children in need census, what assessment they have made of the gap in educational attainment between children who have interacted with the children’s social care system, and their peers who have not.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Our analysis for reporting year ending March 2022 for children in social care shows:
After accounting for a wide range of factors such as rates of special educational need in these cohorts, children who have interacted with the social care system were around 25-50% less likely to achieve grades 5-9 in GCSE English and Maths, compared to pupils who were not in social care.
The government has put in place a number of measures to support the educational attainment of looked-after children. Every local authority in England must appoint a Virtual School Head, who has a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of all children in their care, wherever they live or are educated. Looked-after children attract Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,530 per child up to age 16, which is managed by the Virtual School Head, working with the child’s education setting to deliver objectives in their individual Personal Education Plans.
‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ sets out our strategy to reform the children’s social care system, including improving the education, employment, and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers. The department will introduce a gold standard accreditation scheme for further and higher education institutions supporting care leavers, consult on plans to expand the Virtual School Head role to include children in care and care leavers up to age 25, and roll out a further £24 million in Pupil Premium Plus style funding between 2023 and 2025 to bolster educational support available to children in care and care leavers in 16-19 education.
The Children in Need Review, which concluded in June 2019, identified for the first time that 1.6 million children needed a social worker between 2012 and 2018, and that these children have worse educational outcomes at every stage, with children who need a social worker in their GCSE year being 50% as likely to achieve a strong pass in English and Maths as their peers.
To address this, in June 2021 the department extended Virtual School Head duties to include all children with a social worker, giving them a strategic leadership role to champion the educational attendance, attainment, and progress of children with a social worker. This means that they have a lead role in levelling up educational outcomes for children with a social worker and narrowing the attainment gap, so every child has the opportunity to reach their potential.
We recently announced over £1 billion for programmes to improve early help services from birth to adulthood, including delivering on Family Hubs and helping families facing multiple-disadvantage through the Supporting Families programme and Holiday Activities and Food programme. Investing in support for families helps children to have happy, healthy childhoods. It can stop issues escalating and help them to achieve better outcomes. The Supporting Families Programme has supported over half a million families, to make sustained improvements to their lives, and is projected to help a further 300,000.
In ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, we outlined our plans to build on the strengths of current early help services, through the creation of family help. These reforms are central to ensuring children growing up with loving relationships and stability. The department is creating a service which meets the whole needs of a family and works to their strengths, delivered by multi-disciplinary teams working collaboratively with their local partners. Through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme, we will test implementation in up to 12 local areas over two years and help assess requirements to achieve meaningful change system-wide.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of people employed in insecure work; and what steps they are taking to ensure that more employees have secure work.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government has taken a range of steps to support people in insecure work. We have supported six Private Members’ Bills in this Parliamentary session, which will give benefits including easier access to flexible working and a more predictable working pattern.
In April 2023, we increased the National Living Wage by 9.7%, the largest ever cash increase. We have extended the ban on using exclusivity clauses to the lowest paid, ensuring an estimated 1.5 million people have the option to pick up extra work.
We closed an unfair loophole to stop agency workers being employed on cheaper rates than permanent workers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support families at risk of homelessness.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Temporary accommodation ensures no family is without a roof over their head, however the Government is committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs.
That is why Government has provided local authorities in excess of £1 billion over the next 3 years through the Homelessness Prevention Grant. Local authorities can use the funding flexibly to work with landlords to prevent evictions and offer financial support for people to find a new home and move out of temporary accommodation.
This is on top of total government support of over £94 billion over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. This includes Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable, meaning around 8 million households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to a further £900 in payments this year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the data on homelessness published on 25 July that showed that more than 131,000 children were living in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2023, what steps they are taking to reduce the number of children living in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Temporary accommodation ensures no family is without a roof over their head, however the Government is committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs.
That is why Government has provided local authorities in excess of £1 billion over the next 3 years through the Homelessness Prevention Grant. Local authorities can use the funding flexibly to work with landlords to prevent evictions and offer financial support for people to find a new home and move out of temporary accommodation.
This is on top of total government support of over £94 billion over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. This includes Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable, meaning around 8 million households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to a further £900 in payments this year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on families of freezing local housing allowance rates for the past three years.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No Assessment has been made, however the department works closely with stakeholders, Jobcentres and Local Authorities to understand the impact of its policies on families.
The Local Housing Allowance (LHA) policy is kept under regular review and rates are reviewed annually by the Secretary of State. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas.
In 2020 we spent almost £1 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of market rents. This significant investment has been maintained ensuring that everyone who benefited continues to do so.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available for those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in funding to local authorities for DHPs.
We recognise that rents are increasing. However, the challenging fiscal environment means that difficult decisions have been necessary to ensure support is targeted effectively.
Over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 the Government is providing support in excess of £94 billion to help households with the rising cost of living.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the book by Kate Andersen Welfare That Works for Women? Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit, published in January, what assessment they have made of the impact on families of increasing the job search requirements for lead carers.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Evidence suggests that working substantially reduces the risk of child poverty and growing up in poverty is a strong predictor of children’s education and future earnings.
These measures form one part of a wider package that also improves our childcare offer to support parents into work/into more or better paid work. The wider package is expected to encourage 700,000 lead carers of children on Universal Credit to look for work or increase their hours and will receive additional Work Coach support to do so. Previously they would have had only limited requirements, or no requirements at all.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to join the US and the United Nations in urging Rwanda to end its support to the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK continues to monitor the security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) closely and its grave humanitarian consequences. We regularly raise the conflict in eastern DRC with the Governments of DRC, Rwanda, and the region, where we urge all parties to deliver on their commitments, agreed through the Nairobi and Luanda processes. This includes the cessation of hostilities, respect for sovereignty and agreed withdrawal by armed groups including M23. The UK firmly believes the regional Nairobi and Luanda diplomatic peace processes provide the best means by which to achieve a lasting peace in eastern DRC and offer them our full support. We have taken over chair of the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes where we are in regular contact with likeminded partners and are working together to support progress on the ground. We will continue to work with members of the international community to bring an end to the violence.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the book by Kate Andersen Welfare That Works for Women? Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit, published in January, what assessment they have made of their decision to introduce automated sanctions and intensify the conditionality regime for lead carers.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made. There are no plans to automate sanctions. However, we have automated the creation of the referral form for claimants who miss mandatory appointments. The referral form will be reviewed by the Work Coach before submitting to the Decision Maker in the normal way.
By introducing the conditionality changes, we are providing increased opportunities for lead carers to engage with their work coach and work-related activity to help them prepare and move towards employment.
As with all policies, we will review these changes to ensure that they are effective and meet the policy intent.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to book by Kate Andersen Welfare That Works for Women? Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit, published in January, what steps they are taking to ensure that work-related requirements are appropriate to parents' caring responsibilities.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with parental caring responsibilities continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances and conditionality requirements.
Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied to claimants with parental caring responsibilities.
A copy of the Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons library and the department is committed to refreshing it at regular intervals.