Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
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 number of kinship carers who are (a) affected by the under-occupancy penalty and (b) in receipt of discretionary housing payments.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not available.
Local authorities administer discretionary housing payments. Decisions are based on claimants' individual circumstances. This may include consideration of the specific circumstances that have led to the need for a kinship carer. DWP guidance recommends that local authorities give priority to foster and kinship carers (in Scotland) in allocating discretionary housing payments if more than one extra bedroom is required. Regulations already allow an additional bedroom for foster and kinship (in Scotland) carers.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
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 kinship carers with children aged under 18 are exempted from conditionality requirements; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Where work-related requirements do apply, work coaches should already take account of a person's caring responsibilities and the particular circumstances of kinship carers who have older children – for example, ensuring that the work coach considers the impact of any Residence Orders or Special Guardianship Orders on a claimant's capacity to look and be available for work.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
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 number of kinship carers who are subject to conditionality requirements under job seeker's allowance.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
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 number of kinship carers in receipt of employment support allowance.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
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 number of kinship carers who are (a) affected by the under-occupancy penalty and (b) in receipt of discretionary housing payments.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not available.
Local authorities administer discretionary housing payments. Decisions are based on claimants' individual circumstances. This may include consideration of the specific circumstances that have led to the need for a kinship carer. DWP guidance recommends that local authorities give priority to foster and kinship carers (in Scotland) in allocating discretionary housing payments if more than one extra bedroom is required. Regulations already allow an additional bedroom for foster and kinship (in Scotland) carers.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that children kinship carers are caring for are considered as children in need and prioritised accordingly.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government has taken a number of actions to improve the quality of support provided to children being brought up in kinship care arrangements. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 gives local authorities powers to provide services to support the upbringing of children in need by their families. Local authorities should act on their powers under Section 17 to assess the needs of children living with kinship carers, which should lead to appropriate support to families regardless of whether or not children in their care are looked after.
In March 2011, the Government issued Family and Friends Care Statutory Guidance for local authorities where it is made clear, every authority, in England should have a policy describing how it will promote and support the needs of children living with kinship carers. This policy should be widely available and publicised, using media such as websites and leaflets.
In October and November last year the Department for Education held two national learning days for senior managers and for local authority staff directly involved in supporting family and friends carers. These events raised awareness of legal requirements and encouraged the spread of good professional practice in this important area of work.
In February 2014 the Department set up a working group with local authorities to look at practice issues and best practice with the intention of using these findings in peer to peer support and learning in order to increase the quality of practice across the country.
In May 2014 the Department for Education issued an information leaflet for family and friend carers which explained their legal entitlements for support from local authorities, including under section 17 of the Children Act 1989.
I wrote to all local authorities in July 2013 to remind them of their statutory duty to hold a family and friends policy and now 140 have published policies.
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in (a) Aberdeen City Council and (b) Aberdeenshire County Council.
Answered by Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.
Results for all wards are available on the Commission's website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls
The ward results for Aberdeen City Council were as follows:
Ward | Green matches | Amber matches | Red matches |
Airyhall/Broomhill/Garthdee | 78.4% | 2.0% | 19.6% |
Bridge Of Don | 84.4% | 1.5% | 14.1% |
Dyce/Bucksburn/Danestone | 79.4% | 3.4% | 17.2% |
George St/Harbour | 46.2% | 8.1% | 45.8% |
Hazlehead/Ashley/Queens Cross | 76.0% | 3.0% | 21.0% |
Hilton/Woodside/Stockethill | 77.2% | 1.9% | 21.0% |
Kincorth/Nigg/Cove | 82.9% | 1.7% | 15.4% |
Kingswells/Sheddocksley/Summerhill | 83.0% | 1.3% | 15.7% |
Lower Deeside | 77.6% | 5.4% | 17.0% |
Midstocket/Rosemount | 62.9% | 5.2% | 31.9% |
Northfield/Mastrick North | 85.0% | 1.4% | 13.7% |
Tillydrone/Seaton/Old Aberdeen | 55.1% | 3.9% | 41.1% |
Torry/Ferryhill | 67.2% | 5.1% | 27.7% |
The ward results for Aberdeenshire County Council were as follows:
Ward | Green matches | Amber matches | Red matches |
Aboyne Upper Deeside And Donside | 72.7% | 9.4% | 17.9% |
Banchory And Mid Deeside | 79.3% | 5.4% | 15.4% |
Banff And District | 78.0% | 6.9% | 15.1% |
Central Buchan | 74.5% | 9.7% | 15.9% |
East Garioch | 79.0% | 4.5% | 16.5% |
Ellon And District | 78.8% | 5.1% | 16.1% |
Fraserburgh And District | 82.2% | 3.1% | 14.7% |
Huntly Strathbogie And Howe Of Alford | 74.5% | 9.4% | 16.1% |
Inverurie And District | 80.3% | 3.3% | 16.4% |
Mearns | 73.7% | 9.1% | 17.1% |
Mid Formartine | 74.9% | 7.9% | 17.2% |
North Kincardine | 78.5% | 4.8% | 16.7% |
Peterhead North And Rattray | 78.6% | 4.5% | 16.9% |
Peterhead South And Cruden | 81.5% | 3.8% | 14.7% |
Stonehaven And Lower Deeside | 80.2% | 4.3% | 15.4% |
Troup | 76.8% | 8.2% | 15.0% |
Turriff And District | 73.7% | 9.4% | 16.9% |
West Garioch | 74.4% | 8.7% | 16.9% |
Westhill And District | 79.5% | 4.4% | 16.1% |
Asked by: Anne Begg (Labour - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2014, Official Report, column 848W, on incapacity benefit, what estimate his Department originally made of the number of Incapacity Benefit claimants who would be migrated to employment and support allowance; what his Department's latest estimate of the number of such claimants is; and what proportion of such claimants are still to be migrated.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Department published an impact assessment on the migration of existing incapacity benefits customers to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which can be found on the internet at the link below:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/875/pdfs/uksiem_20100875_en.pdf
The Department regularly publishes official statistics on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and the reassessment of Incapacity Benefit claimants. The latest WCA report on Incapacity Benefit reassessment was published in January 2014 and can be found on the internet at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-january-2014
The latest official statistics show that as of March 2013, 77 per cent of claimants had been found to be eligible for ESA. Around 27 per cent of the caseload had by March 2013 yet to commence the migration process.