Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's press release entitled, Employment boost for thousands of parents on Universal Credit, published on 25 October 2023, if he will consider the potential merits of applying similar conditionality requirements for family and friend carers as foster carers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Friends and family carers, also known as kinship carers, provide incredible care to children who cannot remain with their parents. The government recognises the difficult circumstances in which many kinship carers find themselves when they first take a child into their care. As such, for the first year they are only required to attend jobcentre appointments and are not required to search or prepare for work. This allows time for adjustments to the family’s life and for the children to settle in.
The policy for foster carers reflects their particular circumstances. Universal Credit does not provide claimants with financial support for any foster children in their care and only requires foster carers to attend regular appointments rather than look for work.
We have recently made changes to lead carer (including kinship carer) conditionality – an increased frequency of jobcentre appointments for lead carers of 1 and 2 year olds, and an increase to the maximum hours of work-related activity for lead carers of 3-12s. Alongside this, we have increased support with childcare. These changes in conditionality and childcare availability are designed to provide support to lead carers of children, including kinship carers, to help them move into work or grow their earnings and provide the children in their care with the best possible start in life. We believe that this strikes the right balance.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's press release entitled, Employment boost for thousands of parents on Universal Credit, published on 25 October 2023, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of new Universal Credit work conditionality requirements on family and friend carers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 25 October 2023, we increased the maximum hours of work-related activity that lead carers of children aged 3-12 on Universal Credit can commit to with their job centre work coach to 30 hours per week. This change applies to lead carers including family and friend carers, also known as kinship carers, although it is important to note that kinship carers who are within 12 months of having a child coming to live with them are not required to search for or be available for work. This is to allow a period of settling in to a new family arrangement.
Kinship carers play a critical role in the lives of children, often in very difficult circumstances. The increase to 30 hours of work-related activity for lead carers is a maximum and we expect hours to continue to be set at a level that is achievable for the individual claimant according to their circumstances, and in discussion with their work coach.
These changes are designed to support parents and carers to help them move into work or grow their earnings and provide the children in their care with the best possible start in life.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that the same Universal Credit work conditionality requirements apply to family and friend carers as to foster carers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Friends and family carers, also known as kinship carers, provide incredible care to children who cannot remain with their parents. The government recognises the difficult circumstances in which many kinship carers find themselves when they first take a child into their care. As such, for the first year they are only required to attend jobcentre appointments and are not required to search or prepare for work. This allows time for adjustments to the family’s life and for the children to settle in.
The policy for foster carers reflects their particular circumstances. Universal Credit does not provide claimants with financial support for any foster children in their care and only requires foster carers to attend regular appointments rather than look for work.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the effect of long-term sickness on economic productivity in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The specific information requested on economic productivity is not held by the Department.
According to the latest figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS, INAC01 SA), the number of working age (16-64) people who state their main reason for being economically inactive as long-term sickness is 2.5 million, or 28% of the total inactive population.
Long-term sickness is now the most common main reason for being economically inactive and accounts for 65% of the increase in economic inactivity since the start of the pandemic.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to encourage employers to undertake covid-19 health and safety risk assessments for severely immunocompromised employees.
Answered by Chloe Smith
COVID-19 remains a public health issue. There is no longer a requirement for every business to consider COVID-19 in their risk assessment or have COVID-19 control measures in place. The United Kingdom Health Security Agency has published guidance on reducing the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the workplace.
For people in England who are immunosuppressed (including employees), the Department of Health and Social Care has published guidance entitled: ‘COVID-19: guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk’.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department is issuing to employers to support their immunocompromised staff to work safely from their place of work after the existing covid-19 infection control measures are lifted.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department of Health and Social Care have the lead and alongside UK Health Security Agency released guidance on COVID-19: guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk . This was most recently updated on 25 February 2022. In order to assist employers, the Health and Safety Executive provides a link to this guidance on its website.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to communicate with employers on advice for immunosuppressed people to continue to work from home.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In December 2021, the Department of Health and Social Care and UK Health Security Agency released guidance on COVID-19: guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk . This included advice to work from home if possible. If a person is unable to work from home, they should speak to their employer about what temporary arrangements they can make to reduce that person’s risk.
In order to inform employers of this, the Health and Safety Executive updated it’s guidance Protect vulnerable workers - Working safely during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to include a section on workers who are immunosuppressed and the advice mentioned above.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Denton and Reddish constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2021 to Question 62643 on Universal Credit, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the universal credit assessment period and payment structure; and what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Court of Appeal Judgement of 22 November 2020 [2020] EWCA Civ 778.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department has no plans to change either Universal Credit assessment periods or payment structures. They are fundamental parts of the design, reflecting payment patterns in the world of work, where the majority of people are paid monthly. Ensuring similarities between paid employment and receiving benefits eliminates an important barrier which could prevent claimants from adjusting to paid employment.
The Court of Appeal judgment in the case of Johnson and others, handed down on 22 June 2020, ruled that the way the Department calculated Universal Credit awards involving earnings in an assessment period was a correct application of the regulations, but that the Department’s position of not considering the impact on the small number of specific cases of those paid calendar monthly who are affected by ‘a non-banking day salary shift’ should change.
The Court of Appeal Judgment was narrowly focussed on calendar monthly paid claimants who are affected by a ‘non-banking day salary shift’ resulting in two payments being counted in one assessment period, none in another and the loss of a work allowance. The legislation changes we made to remedy these cases came into force on 16th November 2020 and allow us to move one of these monthly payments to the assessment period where there is none. Moving an additional four-weekly payment from the assessment period with two payments would not have the same effect, but would simply mean there would be two payments in a different assessment period.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) increasing financial support for people in receipt of the State Pension and (b) bringing Government expenditure on the State Pension in line with that in other countries, such as France and Germany.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The State Pension is the foundation of support for older people. Under this Government, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension is now over £2,050 higher than in 2010.
The Secretary of State is required by law to conduct a review of applicable benefit and pension rates each year. The review is on-going and decisions will be announced shortly.
International comparisons are misleading due to differences in the pension systems as there are many factors to take into account.