Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the budget of the Veterans Welfare Service is; and how many staff work for that Service.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Veterans Welfare Service forms part of Defence Business Services (DBS), and is not an independent entity.
Budgets and staff numbers are allocated within DBS at the delivery of veterans' services level referred to publicly as Veterans UK, and includes the administration of compensation claims, veterans' welfare services, pensions, some support to serving personnel and the running of Ilford Park Polish Home. It is not possible to break this information down to only the Veterans Welfare Service.
The Veterans Services overall budget for financial year (FY)2023-24 was £20.003million and includes the HM Armed Forces Veteran Card project delivery.
The average Full Time Equivalent (FTE) across all Veterans Services for FY2023-24 was 437.91.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Veterans' Strategy Action Plan 2022-24, what steps the Office for Veterans Affairs has taken to improve veterans' access to social housing.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Veterans Strategy Action Plan sets out over sixty commitments from across government to deliver on the vision and principles of our 2018 Strategy for our veterans, including on housing.
The Government is committed to providing high priority access for social housing and temporary accommodation. To improve access to social housing, we changed the law so that veterans with urgent housing needs are always given ‘additional preference’ (high priority) for social housing, and that those who left the forces within the preceding 5 years cannot be disqualified from social housing because of a local connection or residency requirement.
We have also published dedicated statutory social housing allocations guidance which sets out how local authorities can support veterans and their families to access social housing.
To ensure the sustainable supply of social housing, the £20 million Veteran Capital Housing Fund continues to award grants to fund the refurbishment of existing, affordable and social rental properties, as well as the development and delivery of new build projects.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the annual budget for the Office for Veterans Affairs is for the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial year; and how many people work for the Office for Veterans Affairs as of 22 April 2024.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This Government is investing record amounts to support our veterans and their families.
The Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan totals more than £70 million from across government, with an injection of a further £33 million in the Spring Budget 2023, topped up by a further £10 million in the Chancellor's Autumn statement. As of 22 April 2024, 58 people work in the Office for Veterans’ Affairs.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his immigration policies on universities.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We keep all our immigration policies under constant review to ensure they best serve the UK and reflect the public’s priorities. Impact assessments are produced and considered when developing Government policies.
We have been successful in delivering our International Education Strategy goal of hosting 600,000 students per year by 2030, earlier than planned, and expect universities to be able to adapt to policy change.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many veterans have been identified as Universal Credit claimants since the introduction of the new DWP marker.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone.
It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”.
By 14th March 2024, an armed forces status of “served in the past” had been recorded for approximately 110,000 claimants with UC claims for which a statement had been generated. This figure includes some people who are no longer on the UC caseload, some who had a nil payment claim and some who subsequently reported a different armed forces status, e.g. “currently serving”. It should be noted that the available data does not allow a comprehensive estimate of the total number of UC claimants who are, or have been, veterans.
Notes:
1. The figure provided is for Great Britain. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland.
2. The figure provided has been rounded to the nearest ten thousand.