Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of people using food banks in the North East.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We do not record the number of people using food banks or other types of food aid. We are currently reviewing research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust, to add to our understanding of food bank use, and will consider requirements to add to our evidence base.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential for an increase in food bank use during the school summer holidays in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are currently reviewing research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust, to add to our understanding of food bank use, and will consider requirements to add to our evidence base.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints her Department has received from people affected by legislative changes in 1995 and 2011 to the women's state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of complaints received and investigated from August 2016 to May 2018 is 7835.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2018 to Question 125594 on Personal Independence Payment, what assessment she has made of the reasons that 59 per cent of Personal Independence Payment appeals were decided in favour of the appellant in HMCTS North East Region between October 2016 and September 2017.
Answered by Sarah Newton
As of March 2018, of the 3.3m decisions made since PIP was introduced, 4% have been overturned at appeal.
The majority of decisions are overturned because of the oral evidence provided by the claimant at the hearing; and because of new written evidence not previously seen by the Department’s decision makers.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
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 reasons why unemployment is higher in the North East than in other regions of the UK.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
In the three months to March 2018 the unemployment level in the North East was 63,000, a joint record low for the area. The unemployment rate stood at 4.9%, 0.1 percentage points above the record low for the North East.
Estimates of unemployment differ in different areas of the country due to a range of factors such as the demographics of the local area and local labour market conditions, as well as the effects of sample variability in the Labourforce Survey on which the ONS’s Labour Market Statistics are based.
(Data from the Labourforce Survey for the period January – March 2018)
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the effect of changes to the state pension age on women born in the 1950s in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Successive governments did not do a constituency or regional specific assessment of the effect of changes to the State Pension age for men or women born in any individual constituency. Therefore, this process is not proposed for the Jarrow constituency, South Tyneside or the North East.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of child poverty in the North East.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on the percentage of children in low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. Figures on the percentage of children in low income in the North East can be found in the link below, in table 4.16ts for relative low income, and 4.22ts for absolute low income. These are split into before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC). Due to small sample sizes at a regional level, figures are available as three-year rolling averages.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average net weekly household income was for people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East, (d) London, (e) the South East, (f) England, and (g) the UK in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on the number of people living in in-work relative low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. Average incomes are not available at constituency or ward level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. However figures at a regional level are available as a three year rolling average. National figures are available for individual years.
Figures on average incomes by region and for England can be found in the link below, in table 2.5ts, and sets out median and mean incomes before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC). Figures for the UK can be found in table 2.1ts, which shows UK income deciles but also the median and mean incomes, both before and after housing costs.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce youth unemployment in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
For the quarter October to December 2017, youth unemployment in the North East was 29,000 – down by over 15,000 since the 2010 General Election (quarter: February-April 2010).
In April 2017, a new programme of intensive support was introduced for 18-21 year olds making a new claim to Universal Credit full service. We are introducing this programme in line with the roll-out schedule for Universal Credit, which is being introduced in a planned, gradual and safe way.
A number of sites in the North-East are already full service sites, and are able to provide claimants with intensive support through this new programme. Remaining sites in the North-East will continue to be rolled out in line with the revised schedule for Universal Credit Full Service, including Jarrow, which is expected to deliver our new programme from May 2018.
Considerable additional support is also available to young people who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. This includes (but is not limited to): basic skills training, work-related training, and 2-8 weeks work experience opportunities.
For pupils aged 12 to 18 in England, the Jobcentre Plus Support for Schools programme assists schools in delivering their statutory duty to provide high quality, independent and impartial careers advice. It also helps pupils make a smooth and effective transition from school to work, training or further study.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average net weekly household income was for people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East, (d) London, (e) the South East, (f) England and (g) the UK in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on average net weekly equivalised household income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The average net weekly equivalised household income is not available at local authority or constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography (a and b).
Latest 3-year estimates of the average net weekly equivalised household income for (c) the North East, (d) London, (e) the South East, (f) England and (g) the UK, in each year since 2010, are available in Table 2.5ts in the file “2_incomedistribution_timeseries” from the link below. Single year estimates for (g) the UK are also available in Table 2_1ts_Quintile.