Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 potential merits of removing entitlement to benefits from people convicted of terrorism offences.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government’s assessment is that someone who has been convicted of a crime and is serving a custodial sentence should not be receiving benefits. That is why the Department’s policy is to stop benefits where people have been convicted and go to prison. This includes convictions for acts of terrorism.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of offenders who joined the Work Programme on leaving prison secured a sustained job outcome within two years of joining that program in each year since 2015.
Answered by Will Quince
Available statistics on the Work Programme, including information on job outcomes and sustainment payments of various payment groups, including JSA Prison Leavers is published and available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/work-programme-statistical-summary-data-to-december-2017
Table 1.3a from the latest statistical summary gives the proportion of JSA Prison Leavers that achieved a job outcome within 12 months of referral, by monthly referral cohort.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 ensure the transition to universal credit does not have a disproportionate effect on those with mental health issues.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Universal Credit is simpler and fairer than the legacy benefit system and is designed to target resources at those that need them most, and to provide support for people who can’t work or need help moving towards the labour market. Our work coaches all undertake a robust training process which includes: a focus on health conditions and disabilities, and how to tailor service delivery according to the needs of claimants with mental health conditions.
We are currently testing a range of additional support offerings and employment provision, including more integrated health and employment support. This includes the Local Supported Employment trailblazer, which will be focusing on people with a learning disability or autism who are known to Adult Social Care, or those in touch with mental health services.
We have been testing the impact of including a healthcare professional in the conversation between the work coach and the claimant, allowing work coaches to address more of the claimants’ needs at one time.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 effect of (a) sanctions and (b) conditionality on the mental health and well-being of claimants.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made to see whether there is any potential link between the sanctions regime and conditionality on the mental health and wellbeing of individuals.
We engage at a personal and individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring support for specific individual needs, including agreeing realistic and structured steps to encourage claimants into or towards the labour market. These conditionality requirements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain appropriate for the claimant. This would include tailoring to reflect any mental health issues the claimant raised.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are claiming universal credit in Romford constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
Universal Credit is now the main system of working age welfare support across the country. It is available in every Jobcentre, with a caseload of over 2.7 million claimants, growing every month, now able to access the additional support and flexibilities it offers.
The latest available information on the number of households on Universal Credit in the parliamentary constituency of Romford is published online and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the level of unemployment in Romford constituency.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 2010, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Labour Force Survey data shows that the level and rate of unemployment has fallen in every region and country of the UK.
The number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits in Romford has fallen by 32% in the last seven years and was 1,855 as at August 2019.
This Government is committed to providing targeted support for people so that everyone, no matter what their start in life, is given the very best chance of getting into work.
Jobcentre Plus is geared-up to offer support and advice to those claiming welfare benefits. Through Jobcentre Plus, individuals can get advice on finding a job; help with retraining or skills advice, CV and job applications; and access to thousands of new vacancies we record every day. They can also access a range of tailored opportunities to improve their likelihood of entering or re-entering the labour market, including demand-led training for higher skilled jobs in specific sectors.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners in Romford constituency (a) receive the basic state pension, (b) receive pension credit and (c) are eligible for pension credit but do not claim it.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In February 2019, the number of pensioners in Romford constituency that (a) receive the pre-2016 State Pension is 15,700 and (b) receive Pension Credit is 2,022. The information is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
The number of pensioners that are eligible for pension credit but do not claim it (c) is only available at national level.
Official statistics on the take-up of income related benefits at Great Britain level, including pension credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up in 2016 to 2017’ publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of levels of literacy and numeracy on trends in unemployment in the Romford constituency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the effects of literacy and numeracy on trends in unemployment in the Romford constituency.
All claimants, including those in Romford, are screened by their Job Centre Plus Work Coaches for any barriers to employment that they face, including their literacy and numeracy skills.
In particular, the review of skills considers whether claimants have the basic skills employers require - including Maths and English (spoken and written).
Where needed, claimants can access or be referred to skills provision, with activities recorded in the Claimant Commitment.
Under this Government since 2010 unemployment across the country has fallen by nearly 1.2 million, with unemployment falling in every region and country of the UK.
In Jul 2009 - Jun 2010 the employment rate for Romford was estimated at 70.1%. In Jul 2018 – Jun 2019 the employment rate was estimated to be 72.6%.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
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 effect of a five-week wait for a first payment of universal credit on trends in the level of food bank usage.
Answered by Will Quince
No Universal Credit (UC) claimant has to wait five weeks for their first payment and there are many reasons why people use foodbanks.
If required, advances of up to 100 per cent of their expected UC award are available to claimants from day one of their claim. Advances are paid back over a maximum of 12 months and in the Autumn Budget 2018, we announced that from October 2021, the payback period for these advances will be extended further, allowing claimants up to 16 months.
This is just one of a number of measures the Department has put in place to support claimants such as paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit onto UC a two week ‘transitional housing payment’. We are also introducing a two-week run on for eligible claimants of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance from July 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimates he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of uprating state pensions for pensioners who live overseas.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Successive post-war Governments have followed the same policy. Up-rating UK State Pensions for recipients who are overseas residents is longstanding; state Pensions are payable worldwide and are up-rated where there is a legal requirement to do so.
The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid to recipients living outside the UK has been in place for over 70 years. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality. Entitlement to the UK State Pension is based on the national insurance contributions on a person’s national insurance record. The annual index-linked increases to UK State Pensions are paid to recipients overseas only where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in EEA countries or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement in place that provides for the up-rating of the UK State Pension. The Government has no plans to change the policy upheld by all previous Governments, Labour, Coalition and Conservative for the past 70 years.
The estimated costs of up-rating state pensions overseas where they are currently not up-rated are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimated-costs-of-uprating-state-pension-in-frozen-rate-countries