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Written Question
Debts
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on trends in the number of people with problem debt; and if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of those trends.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP Debt Management holds information on people owing monies to DWP (benefit debt recovery) but does not hold data on general, personal/household indebtedness.

Problem debt statistics are published by the Office for National Statistics.


Written Question
Universal Credit
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the maximum benefit deduction rate for people on Universal Credit.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The primary aim of the deductions in Universal Credit is to protect claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services.

Making deductions from a claimant’s benefit is a cost effective and efficient mechanism to recover third party debt and benefit debt. Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions. There are limits set for individual deduction items, there is also an overall deduction cap set at 25% of standard allowance, although where necessary to support the claimant, this can be exceeded for rent and fuel debts.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the findings in the Christians Against Poverty report entitled Pushed under, pushed out, published on 12 March 2024, relating to the impact of high debt repayments on people's living standards.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Pushed Under, Pushed Out, published by Christians Against Poverty on 12 March 2024.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Employment: Older People
Wednesday 22nd November 2023

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2023 to Question 26 on Employment: Older People, what the cost to the public purse was for midlife MOTs in each year since 2019.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In the Autumn 2021 budget, DWP secured more than £22m to deliver an enhanced 50+ offer. This included £5m to expand and improve the Midlife MOT by delivering Midlife MOTs through our network of Jobcentre Plus offices and launching a private sector pilot delivered via providers, in three areas (the North East of England; Cornwall & Devon; and East Anglia).

As part of the Government’s continued commitment to support older workers, the Spring Budget 2023 set out a significant, wide-ranging package of DWP measures that represent an investment of £3.5bn over 5 years to boost workforce participation. This includes investment to support over-50s, including the expansion of the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT and an enhanced digital Midlife MOT offer.


Written Question
Employment: Older People
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many midlife MOTs have been completed between 1 January and 7 November 2023.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since the launch of the Midlife MOT in 2019, we have reached people through multiple channels to help them take stock of their finances, skills and health, and plan for their later life.

The Midlife MOT within Jobcentres was rolled out from the end of January 2023. Up until 30th September 2023, around 5,300 Universal Credit claimants aged 50 or over have attended a Midlife MOT within Jobcentres. Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution. Data up to 30th September is the latest data available.

The Private Sector Midlife MOT pilots were introduced by three providers, across three geographical locations, in May 2023. Quality assured data on the number of people who have attended a Private Sector Midlife MOT is not available.

An enhanced digital Midlife MOT offer went live on 5th July 2023. The website is open to all, and between 5th July and 7th November 2023, there were around 15,000 sessions consisting of 10,200 unique users who had accessed the new site. Please note, these figures only include users who accepted website analytics tracking.


Written Question
Employment: Older People
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many returnerships have been created as of 7 November 2023.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP does not record this data as the Returnerships offer is an initiative that brings together existing skills interventions to the over-50s.

The skills interventions promoted through the Returnerships offer are accelerated apprenticeships, Sector-Based Work Academy Programme placements and Skills Bootcamps. This will support better access to re-training and allow workers of all ages to engage with the opportunities of a second career.


Written Question
Sector-Based Work Academy Programme
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sector-based work academy programme starts have taken place as of 7 November 2023.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Sector-based work academies were first launched in August 2011 in England and January 2012 in Scotland. Regular statistical releases on sector-based work academies, covering participation by those on legacy unemployment benefits, began in 2011 and ended in 2017. These statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/employment-schemes-work-experience-sector-based-work-academy-and-skills-conditionality-starts-to-november-2017

The scheme was relaunched as Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) in July 2020 as part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs. Due to data limitations, we are unable to provide a geographical breakdown for SWAPs that took place before the start of the 2021/22 financial year.

Data for the financial years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 shows that, as of 27th October 2023, there were a total of 245,300 starts to a Sector-based Work Academy Programme. The breakdowns of these starts are provided in the attached tables.

Notes on the data:

Attached are tables listing the number of SWAP starts to date by Country, Region, Local Authority, Parliamentary Constituency, Sector and Age band. The figures used are correct as of 27th October 2023 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

These figures reflect the number of starts by claimants in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Income Support (IS).

It is important to note that the information provided shows the current home location of the person who has started a SWAP. For starts by those in receipt of JSA, ESA or IS, due to data limitations a location cannot be assigned to these starts and as such they are categorised as unknown within the figures. SWAPs are run in England and Scotland, where a person’s current home location is outside of this they have also been categorised as unknown.

Although care is taken when processing and recording SWAP starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any clerical recording system, but is provided in the interests of transparency.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad
Thursday 18th May 2023

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that UK State Pension recipients who are overseas residents receive annual index-linked increases.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions, and we continue to up-rate it abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating.

People move abroad for many reasons and it is their own choice to do so. There is information available in leaflets and on GOV.UK on how to claim State Pension from overseas and on what the effect of going abroad will be on entitlement to the UK State Pension.


Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Mar 2022
Regional Inequalities: Child Poverty

Speech Link

View all Siobhain McDonagh (Lab - Mitcham and Morden) contributions to the debate on: Regional Inequalities: Child Poverty