Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what topics are covered in the initial training received by disability employment advisers.
Answered by Julie Marson
All Disability Employment Advisers (DEA) undertake full Work Coach learning prior to receiving DEA specific learning to ensure they understand the health and complex needs of our customers.
The DEA learning consists of number of workshops to allow a learn-consolidate-learn approach:
Workshop One
Knowledge to Support Others
Tools, resources, and support
The Equality Act (2010)
Disabilities and health conditions
Disability models and perceptions
Discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping
Types of discrimination
Challenging inequalities
Consolidation and Presenting with Impact
Workshop Two
Review of consolidation
Support and provision
Disability Hub
Advocacy
Review and close
Workshop Three
Coaching peers
Case conferencing
3-way interviewing
Review and next steps
Workshop Four
Working with Partners
Employer Engagement
Retention
Skills Exercise
All staff must also undertake specific ‘Mental Health’ learning for Coaching.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate the Department has made of the average waiting time to see a disability employment adviser.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) work alongside Jobcentre Work Coaches to support claimants - providing expert knowledge on how to support customers who have a health condition or disability and building the skills and capability of Work Coaches. DEA’s can also directly support customers with health conditions and disabilities where this can benefit the customer. Every Work Coach in every Jobcentre has access to a DEA.
We do not collect data on average waiting times, however, customers will have regular contact with their Work Coach who can case conference with a DEA to discuss how best to support the customer and arrange access to the DEA at the earliest availability.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many jobcentres are each of the following forms of specialist assistive technology installed for customer use: (a) Screen reader (b) Speech recognition software (c) Screen magnification software.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobcentres have specialist assistive technology installed on their customer computer kiosks.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Department offers support to disabled jobseekers who require assistive technology in order to look for work and who cannot afford the cost of buying that technology.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to take steps to improve the provision of assistive technology in jobcentres.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 provide disabled jobseekers with access to (a) screen readers, (b) speech recognition software and (c) screen magnification software.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 cost of deploying (a) screen readers, (b) speech recognition software and (c) screen magnification software to customer computer kiosks in jobcentres.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not hold the information requested around costs for deployment of screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnification software to our computers for use by customers. This is because the computers contain these products as a standard feature and were not purchased separately. These products are kept up to date and maintained in line with updates to the system as a whole.
DWP has completed an upgrade of all Customer Computers across the whole Jobcentre network which means that all devices provided for use by customers have the standard accessibility features available such as being able to change the screen size & colour, replacing sounds with screen alerts, converting sounds to text and using the screen reader to read text.
We now have over 7973 devices across our estate, registered with these accessibility features. The numbers of computers available for customers to use in jobcentres will differ between larger and smaller offices. We also constantly review the number of computers available and have capacity to increase the number of devices quickly, if the need arises.
The software in use on these machines is continually upgraded as and when required to ensure their continued use for customers. In addition to this further support is available to customers where reasonable adjustments are identified and recorded. Each Jobcentre District Office has been provided with the following items for use by customers if requested:
We have opened a number of new sites across the estate to support delivery of face to face public services. As part of this work, Customer Computers are available in these sites.
We have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer, to access internet services.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to increase the benefit entitlement for people who are blind or partially sighted to mitigate the impact of rising cost of living.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In recognition of global high inflation and the subsequent impact on cost of living, the Government is providing over £37bn of extra funding this year.
Around six million people across the UK who receive disability benefits will receive a one-off payment of £150 from September 2022, including those in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment.
We know people with disabilities may face a wide range of additional costs, such as specialist equipment, specialist food, and increased transport costs, and this payment will help with costs.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs that were created by the Kickstart Scheme were lost when the scheme ended.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions will be monitoring and evaluating the Kickstart scheme throughout and after its implementation and will continue to evaluate the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month jobs. This will include an estimate of the young people that remained employed (either with their Kickstart employer or moving into a job with a different employer), as well as the number of young people no longer in employment upon leaving a Kickstart role.
The evaluation will include surveys to capture the views and experiences of Kickstart participants and of employers and gateway organisations. The fieldwork for the commissioned evaluation will continue until at least 2023.