Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 implications for her policies of the number of people that are in work and claiming Universal Credit in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under my political leadership the DWP will shift from being a department for welfare to being a department for work. We will create a new jobs and careers service, bringing together Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service.
The service will be focused on helping people get into work and get on at work, not only on monitoring and managing benefit claims. For our employment support system, the outcomes that will matter are higher engagement, higher employment, and higher earnings.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to help tackle child poverty in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling child poverty is a priority for the Government and a central part of delivering the Government’s Mission to create and spread opportunity for every child and young person in our country.
We promised concrete actions in our manifesto to support children and families. Our initial steps to tackle poverty include free breakfast clubs in every primary school setting every child up at the start of the day ready to learn, expanding childcare to deliver work choices for parents and life chances for children, stronger protection for families who rent privately, and action to tackle high energy bills and slash fuel poverty.
We are also developing an ambitious, new child poverty strategy and have set up a Ministerial Taskforce, jointly led by the Work & Pensions Secretary and the Education Secretary, to drive cross-government action on this work.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are in work and claiming Universal Credit in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Official statistics for the number of people on Universal Credit are published each month on Stat-Xplore, with breakdowns available by Westminster Parliamentary Constituency. The latest statistics are to June 2024, with a breakdown by employment indicator available to May 2024.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 decision by the previous Conservative government to remove the £20 uplift to Universal Credit on poverty in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The £20 uplift in Universal Credit was removed in October 2021.
Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per constituency before housing costs are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication. They can be found in tabs “6_Absolute_ParlC” and “5_Relative_ParlC” at Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 cover the years 2014/15 to 2022/23.
These statistics show the impact of all policies, economic, societal and behavioural changes on child poverty levels in constituencies.