Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to conduct a public inquiry into (a) deaths and (b) serious harm linked to the social security system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is fully supportive of the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s ‘safeguarding vulnerable claimants’ inquiry, which is examining how the department supports vulnerable benefit claimants and whether its approach to safeguarding needs to change. The Committee has had valuable and constructive discussions with a diverse range of groups and specialist organisations representing people with lived experience, DWP customers, policy makers and legal experts. DWP Officials and Ministers have also given vital evidence, fully supporting the areas the Committee wish to explore, and I look forward to reading the Committee’s report and recommendations when this inquiry concludes.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help tackle poverty in older people in Poplar and Limehouse constituency in the context of changes to the eligibility criteria for the winter fuel payment.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is honouring our commitment to the Triple Lock with a 4.1% increase to the basic State Pension and the new State Pension; and we are also increasing the standard minimum guarantee in Pension Credit by 4.1%. As such, according to the latest OBR projections, the full yearly rate of the new State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,900 over the course of this parliament whilst the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,500.
The Government also offers an array of support to ensure pensioners remain comfortable and safe in the winter months. This includes direct financial help to low-income pensioners through Pension Credit, Cold Weather Payments and the Warm Home Discount (in England & Wales).
We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit. We want to ensure as many people as possible have access to this support and urge pensioners to check their eligibility. Pension Credit will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payments in future, alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them. Our take-up campaign has been successful in boosting applications by 145% since July.
The Warm Home Discount scheme provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their winter energy bill. This winter, we expect over 3 million households, including over 1 million pensioners, to benefit under the scheme.
The Government and industry have worked together to deliver a £500 million Winter Support Commitment for customers, which will help customers most in need by providing credit on bills, enhanced debt write-off schemes, and increased funding for charity partners to target hard to reach customers.
Low-income pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living should contact their local council to see what support may be available to them, as they may be able to receive support from the Household Support Fund, Council Tax Reduction, or through energy support programmes such as the Homes Upgrade Grant and Energy Company Obligation.
We are also supporting consumers, including pensioners, through the Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan – which will transform homes across the country, making them cleaner and cheaper to run. We've committed £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency. This includes £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes, helping over 225,000 households reduce their energy bills by over £200.
Keeping people warm and well at home and improving the quality of new and existing homes will play an essential part in enabling people to live longer, healthier lives and reducing pressures on the NHS.
The difficult decisions we have made, such as targeting the Winter Fuel Payment, mean the Government is able to provide additional investment in the NHS, which benefits everyone including all pensioners who rely on these services. We have committed to returning NHS waiting times – including those for A&E and ambulances - to the standards set out in the NHS constitution that patients rightly expect.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Prevention of Future Deaths Reports have related to (a) universal credit and (b) other benefits in each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department has received 6 Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports in the last five years to date. 1 report did not relate to a customer who was in receipt of benefits. The breakdown of the reports by year and the benefit claimed is provided in the table below:
Number of PFD reports received in the last 5 years | Universal Credit (UC) | Personal Independence Payment (PIP) | Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and PIP | Not in Receipt of Benefits |
2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1* |
2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* This report related to Child Maintenance.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive pursued prosecution of (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
The prosecution data below is for the time period of the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual. The figures are for all prosecutions taken under health and safety legislation which were published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and are not Covid specific.
HSE pursued 206 prosecutions in 2020/21, with a 94% conviction rate, and 290 prosecutions in 2021/22, with a 96% conviction rate. A total of 496 prosecutions across the period referred to.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive is investigating (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any (a) public and (b) private sector employer has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
Reports received by HSE are generally in the form of a ‘concern’. These can be in relation to any health and safety issue in the workplace and can be submitted via HSE’s online reporting portal.
Between the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual, HSE handled over 70,000 concerns about health and safety in the workplace.
However, not all of these concerns were in relation to a failure to abide by health and safety legislation, some were requests for general health and safety advice, support, and guidance. This data has been published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and is not Covid specific.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of levels of in-work poverty in Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Statistics are not available at the constituency level.
National Statistics on the number and percentage of people in “in-work poverty”, including regional-level data, is published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. This can be found here.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the number of children living in poverty in Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The latest available data showing the number and proportion of children in absolute and relative poverty before housing costs by parliamentary constituency can be found in the children in low-income families local area statistics. Absolute poverty after housing costs is the government’s preferred measure as the poverty line is fixed in real terms so is not affected by overall median income.
Households Below Average Income (HBAI) provides estimates of children in low-income families only at national and regional levels but can’t provide estimates by parliamentary constituency due to the sample size of the survey at that level.
Children in Low Income Families (CiLIF) is constructed using administrative data and calibrated to the HBAI regional estimates for consistency at that level. This use of administrative data provides more granular local area information not available from HBAI alone.
More background information on CiLIF and the methodology can be found here.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of (a) absolute, (b) relative, (c) fuel and (d) food poverty in Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill
National statistics on the number and percentage of people in poverty, including regional-level data, is published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. This can be found here. Statistics are not available at the constituency level.
National statistics on food security and food bank use, including regional-level data, for 2021/22 are available here. Statistics are not available at the constituency level.
The latest statistics for the number of households in fuel poverty in parliamentary constituencies in England, can be found in the published sub-regional fuel poverty Official Statistics, in Table 4 here.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment their Department has made of the potential effect of the merger between Three and Vodafone on their Department's contracts with Vodafone.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department has assessed whether the merger constitutes a risk to service and whether the contract documentation needs to be updated. We are also awaiting advice from Cabinet Office regarding any wider significance to the merger. We are content no further action is required pending the Cabinet Office advice.