Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 promote awareness of the Access To Work scheme to people eligible to apply.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Over the past 18 months, a considerable amount of work has been undertaken to increase the awareness and take up of the Access to Work Scheme.
Access to Work have delivered in-depth upskilling sessions to a wide variety of internal colleagues, including Work Coaches, Disability Employment Advisers and Employer Advisers. Externally we have also worked with a range of organisations, employers and customer representative groups, providing awareness of Access to Work. We will continue to do this throughout 2022, focusing activities in the areas of the country with the largest disability employment gap.
We frequently promote Access to Work through the Department’s social media channels and have introduced specific Access to Work pages on the JobHelp website (to maximise reach via our Jobhelp TV campaign), and on gov.uk. In addition, we are continuing to promote Access to Work to employers as part of the Disability Confident scheme.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department spent on (a) assessments and (b) elements under the Access To Work scheme in each year since 2010-11 inclusive.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The yearly expenditure for assessments and elements, for the period 2009/10-2021/21 inclusive, is available in Table 11 and Table 11a of the Access to Work Statistic publications
The latest Access to Work official statistics can be found here:
Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Access to Work expenditure on assessments and elements for the period 2010/11 to 2020/21 inclusive, in real terms.
| Assessments | Elements |
2010/11 | £6,274,000 | £127,562,000 |
2011/12 | £3,798,000 | £110,694,000 |
2012/13 | £3,201,000 | £111,751,000 |
2013/14 | £3,428,000 | £124,528,000 |
2014/15 | £3,361,000 | £110,064,000 |
2015/16 | £3,160,000 | £108,748,000 |
2016/17 | £3,702,000 | £113,749,000 |
2017/18 | £3,899,000 | £119,368,000 |
2018/19 | £3,403,000 | £136,952,000 |
2019/20 | £4,451,000 | £146,186,000 |
2020/21 | £2,669,000 | £106,624,000 |
Access to Work expenditure on assessments and elements for the period 2010/11 to 2020/21 inclusive, in nominal terms.
| Assessments | Elements |
2010/11 | £5,018,000 | £102,034,000 |
2011/12 | £3,084,000 | £89,884,000 |
2012/13 | £2,652,000 | £92,597,000 |
2013/14 | £2,892,000 | £105,045,000 |
2014/15 | £2,875,000 | £94,125,000 |
2015/16 | £2,725,000 | £93,758,000 |
2016/17 | £3,271,000 | £100,497,000 |
2017/18 | £3,506,000 | £107,318,000 |
2018/19 | £3,131,000 | £125,989,000 |
2019/20 | £4,187,000 | £137,514,000 |
2020/21 | £2,669,000 | £106,624,000 |
Please note the following points on the figures provided:
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) small employers, (b) medium sized employers and (c) large employers were required to pay some of the costs of elements implemented under the Access To Work scheme in (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20 and (iii) 2020-21.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested on how many employers were required to pay some of the Access to Work element costs by employer size is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls the Access To Work helpline received in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Access to Work helpline received the following volume of calls in the periods in question:
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many recipients of Access To Work scheme funding were subject to the scheme’s overall cap in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested on how many people were subject to the Access to Work cap is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) applications and (b) successful applications were made to the Access To Work scheme in each year since 2010-11 inclusive.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested on number of applications received is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
However, the Access to Work statistical release includes how many applications results in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2019/20. Please see Table 1 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistical release can be found here:
Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) applications and (b) successful applications there were to the Access To Work Mental Health Support Service scheme in each year since 2010-11 inclusive.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested on number of applications received is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
However, the Access to Work statistical release includes how many applications results in provision being approved broken down by element type from 2007/08 to 2019/20. Please see Table 2 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistical release can be found here: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals were not accurately transferred from incapacity benefit to income related employment and support allowance in Oxford East constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Annex 1 of the letter of 24 May 2021 from the Minister for Welfare Delivery to the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee on Universal Credit Business Case: refreshed costs and savings for 2020/21 and 2021/22, what assumptions her Department has made for the (a) non-take-up in legacy benefits and tax credits in the New Legacy Savings Model mentioned in that Annex and (b) take-up of Universal Credit in that model.
Answered by Will Quince
Under the Legacy system, households had to claim separately for benefits received, for instance an in-work lone parents in rented accommodation would need to claim both Tax Credits and Housing Benefit. However, some households may not have realised they were entitled to, or chosen to claim, all the benefits they were entitled to. As an integrated benefit, Universal Credit automatically increases take-up and we estimate that when fully rolled-out, 700,000 households will benefit from claiming their full entitlement in Universal Credit
In the New Legacy Savings model, we have taken the projections for the number of households on Universal Credit and made an adjustment to take account that fewer benefits would have been claimed under the legacy system, based on the above assessment. This adjustment applies to around 10% of households.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Government's plans are for how shielding people can access benefits after the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Those who receive a notification that they need to shield will remain eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from their employer, and New Style Employment and Support Allowance, subject to the wider eligibility criteria. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, for example where they are not eligible for SSP, they may be able to claim Universal Credit, depending on their personal circumstances.