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Written Question
Child Maintenance Service
Tuesday 16th October 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to undertake a review of the enforcement powers of the Child Maintenance Service.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Effective, consistent enforcement is crucial to making sure that Child Maintenance arrangements hold, and deliver the best outcomes for children. My Department already has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal, including the ability to deduct directly from a non-resident parent’s earnings and bank accounts; the use of enforcement agents to take control of goods; and forcing the sale of the non-resident parent’s property.

Following consultation earlier this year, my department recently laid regulations to support our new compliance and arrears strategy. Alongside making more effective use of existing enforcement powers, these regulations will allow the Child Maintenance Service to make deductions from joint and business accounts; and to apply to the courts to disqualify non-compliant paying parents from holding a passport, where appropriate.

Written Question
Carer's Allowance
Tuesday 17th July 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

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 clarity of the wording of the underlying entitlement rules in departmental correspondence to vulnerable adults applying for carers allowance.

Answered by Sarah Newton

We have examined a selection of Carer’s Allowance letters that contain wording about underlying entitlement and found these to be clear.

However, should anyone need further advice on the rules relating to underlying entitlement for Carer’s Allowance, the letters we examined advised customers to contact the Department’s Carer’s Allowance Unit where they can get advice tailored to their individual circumstances.

The Department continually looks to improve the clarity of its communications and considers feedback wherever possible.

Written Question
Working Conditions
Wednesday 18th April 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

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 trends in the level businesses terminating employment contracts temporarily during building work in those businesses.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

Information on businesses terminating employment contracts temporarily during building work is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Written Question
Employment: Down's Syndrome
Monday 16th April 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that there are employment opportunities for people with Down's Syndrome.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The Government is strongly committed to increasing opportunities for disabled people, including those with a learning disabilty, such as Down’s Syndrome. Taking a life course approach, we are working across Government and with local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers in the public and private sectors to achieve this.

On Thursday 30 November 2017 we published ‘Improving Lives the Future of Work,

Health and Disability’, which sets out details of our life course approach to improving employment opportunities for disabled people and people with a health condition. Whilst the initiatives are not all aimed exclusively at people with a learning disability, we expect that many will benefit from them. Our plans include:

  • A proof of concept for a Tri-work Supported Work Experience offer in schools will be tested in three jobcentre districts and will provide a supported work experience placement of up to two weeks for pupils in Year 10 or 11 who have special educational needs, many of whom are likely to have a learning disability or difficulty.
  • We have developed a Supported Work Experience aimed at offering young people with a learning disability and other long term conditions a chance to spend time with an employer whilst receiving the support they need to make the most from the opportunity. These young people will be identified by Work Coaches and other professionals who will encourage them to volunteer if it is right for them. The young person may be claiming benefit, or in the latter years of their education

  • A Local Supported Employment proof of concept is being delivered with nine local authorities. DWP is investing £2.7 million to test an approach which delivers Supported Employment, on an outcome-payment basis, to help people with a learning disability or learning difficulty who are known to adult care services

  • We are introducing 200 Community Partners to Jobcentres across Great Britain, to enhance our services to people with a disability or health condition. Community Partners have a lived experience or expert knowledge of disability and provide valuable insight into how disability can affect an individual’s employment outcomes, both in terms of securing and sustaining employment. Many of the Community Partners will have a specialism and 11 will be specialists in learning disabilities and neurodiverse conditions.
  • Access to Work has put in place a Hidden Impairment Specialist Team that gives advice to help employers support employees with conditions such as a learning disability. It also offers eligible people an assessment to find out their needs at work and help to develop a support plan
  • Employers signing up to the Disability Confident scheme agree to make specific meaningful offers of opportunities for disabled people such as jobs, apprenticeships, internships and work experience. 5,964 businesses are currently signed up to Disability Confident, and this number continues to grow.

Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Visual Impairment
Tuesday 27th March 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what disability-specific training is provided to personal independence payment assessors to enable them to assess blind and partially sighted applicants.

Answered by Sarah Newton

The PIP assessment is not a medical assessment requiring the assessor to diagnose a condition and recommend treatment options. The focus is on ensuring that the Health Care Professionals are experts in disability analysis, focusing on the effects of health conditions and impairments on the individual’s daily life.

All Health Care Professionals receive training on a wide range of conditions including sight loss and visual impairment. This includes detailed modules covering all aspects of sight loss and how the condition impacts on a person’s ability to undertake the activities in the PIP assessment. Both Assessment Providers employ Sensory Impairment Champions; these are experienced clinicians who are available to provide support and advice to Health Professionals at any point during the assessment process.

Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Visual Impairment
Thursday 22nd March 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints (a) ATOS and (b) Capita received from blind and partially sighted applicants in respect of personal independence payments assessments in 2016-17.

Answered by Sarah Newton

This information is not available.

Capita and Independent Assessment Services do not categorise complaints by health condition or impairment.

Written Question
National Insurance: Refugees
Tuesday 20th March 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department determines which refugees automatically get a National Insurance number as soon as they receive their refugee status; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

For those refugees granted leave to remain as a result of a successful asylum claim, a joint fast track National Insurance Number (NINo) application process operates between DWP and the Home Office. This process has been in place since 2005 but only included the main asylum applicant. This was extended to cover all adult dependants (aged 16 or over) in the refugee’s family from 15 January 2018.

Additionally from this date the NINo is now printed on the reverse of the refugees Biometric Residence Permit (BRP).

Written Question
Universal Credit: Yorkshire and the Humber
Friday 16th March 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are included on universal credit claims in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

The information requested is not currently available.

The Department updated its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in January 2018. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently assessing the data for UC and will release information once the necessary quality assurance work has taken place. As part of this, we are investigating new data areas for publication, including households with children. These statistics will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

Universal Credit official statistics and the Department’s release strategy can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics

Written Question
Universal Credit: EEA Nationals
Tuesday 27th February 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

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 merits of introducing a reduced fee for identification cards for EEA nationals in cases where a benefit claimant needs ID to apply for Universal credit but has no passport or driving license.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

No such assessment is necessary. With the exception of people from the Common Travel Area, an EEA national would have a passport in order to gain entry to the United Kingdom.

Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Tuesday 20th February 2018

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons her Department removed the simple payment method in March 2018 for benefit claimants without a bank account.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The department continues to provide an exception payment service for benefit recipients. Citibank is currently the contractor for that service and is being replaced by i-movo. All current simple payment recipients will move to the i-movo service by the end of March 2018.