Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the eligibility threshold for means-tested free school meals for Universal Credit recipients in line with (a) inflation and (b) national living wage increases.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Over 2 million pupils are currently eligible for benefits based free school meals (FSM). Close to 1.3 million additional infants receive free and nutritious meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy.
A threshold must be set somewhere, and the department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables pupils in low-income households to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
The department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for FSM. However, the department continues to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the eligibility threshold for means-tested free school meals for Universal Credit recipients in line with (a) inflation and (b) national living wage increases.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Over 2 million pupils are currently eligible for benefits based free school meals (FSM). Close to 1.3 million additional infants receive free and nutritious meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy.
The department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables pupils in low income households to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. The department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for FSM. The department continues to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. The department also continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other government departments to provide support to disadvantaged families.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help increase the supply of trained electrical workers in the UK.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government’s skills reforms in England provide a ladder of opportunity that enables young people and adults to get good jobs and progress in their careers. We are building a skills system that is employer focused, high quality and fit for the future. It is also flexible enough to lead to more people completing high-quality courses that meet employers’ needs.
£3.8 billion has been invested in the skills agenda over this parliament .We are using this to expand and strengthen higher and further education, ensuring skills training is aligned to the needs of employers to enable communities to thrive. With this investment, we are putting employers at the heart of our skills system. This is why we are working with industry to shape our training offers, creating more routes into skilled employment in key economic sectors including electrical.
Our high-quality apprenticeships are supporting people of all ages with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start, or progress in, an exciting career in the construction sector. Employers in the electrical sector can access a range of high-quality apprenticeship standards to meet their skills needs, such as the Level 3 Domestic Electrician standard and the Level 6 Electronic Technical Support Engineer standard.
T Levels are strengthening vocational options for young people finishing their GCSEs. These two-year, technical qualifications are designed with relevant employers and are equivalent in size to three A levels. T Levels in Construction and Engineering & Manufacturing can lead to careers in the electrical engineering sector.
The Free Courses for Jobs offer, which was launched in April 2021, allows eligible adults to access over 400 Level 3 qualifications (A level equivalent) for free. Qualifications are available that support electrical workers.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Skills Bootcamps are available in a variety of skill areas including technical and engineering with courses on offer in electrification, electrical wind turbine technician and electric/hybrid vehicle maintenance and repair. These can help support a career in the electrical engineering industry.
High-quality careers information, advice and guidance is key to helping people to make informed decisions about their future, including being able to find out about and consider the different options available to them, including those in construction. The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance. This allows young people to be aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and to have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces, including those in the construction sectors. This will be delivered through the national roll-out of Career Hubs, Career Leader training, and the Enterprise Adviser Network.
The National Careers Service website gives people access to a range of useful digital tools and resources to support them, including ‘Explore Careers’ which includes more than 130 industry areas and more than 800 job profiles. This includes a range of key sector careers available, a description of what those roles entail, qualifications and entry routes. The content team regularly researches and updates content and welcomes updates from industry to ensure content is accurate and up to date.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of introducing paid kinship care leave for new kinship carers on (a) those carers and (b) the children in their care.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Kinship carers play an extremely important role in both their kin children’s lives and in the Children’s Social Care system.
On 2 February 2023, the department published its consultation and Children’s Social Care implementation strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out how the department will achieve broad, system wide transformation. Through this strategy, the department has made a commitment to implement or explore each of the Review’s recommendations on kinship care.
The department has committed to work across government to explore possible additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers with a special guardianship order or child arrangement order.
The department is also committed to publishing a national kinship care strategy by the end of 2023, which builds on feedback the department received following the publication of ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. This will provide an update on reform activity. The strategy will set out a long term vision for kinship care and detail how the department can better support children and carers. The department sees this as a pivotal moment for kinship care and is an opportunity to make real and lasting change.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to make further assessments of the adequacy in the rise in maintenance loans in the context of rising levels of inflation.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government reviews living costs support on an annual basis and has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year. On 11 January 2023, the department announced a one-off reallocation of funding to add £15 million to this year's student premium, to support additional hardship requests. There is now £276 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support students who need additional help. This extra funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship, and hardship support schemes.
The department works with the Office for Students to make it clear that universities can draw on this funding to boost their own hardship funds and support students in need. We welcome the fact that many Universities have allocated additional money to hardship, scholarship and bursary funds to support students. Universities will have detail available about these funds on their websites.
In the 2022/23 academic year, there has been an increase of 2.3%, and there will be a further increase of 2.8% for the 2023/24 academic year. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university. Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the tax year 2022-23 has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
Loans for living costs are a contribution towards students’ living costs while attending university. The highest levels of support are targeted at students who need it the most, such as students from low-income families.
To help with the cost of living all households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Act 2022, passed on 25 October 2022, includes the provision to require landlords to pass benefits they receive from energy price support, as appropriate, onto end users. Further details of the requirements under this act are set out in the legislation.
A Treasury-led review is being undertaken to consider how to support households with energy bills after April 2023.
Any student who has concerns should speak to their university about securing additional support.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to provide English students with additional maintenance support in response to the rising cost of living.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government reviews living costs support on an annual basis and has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year. On 11 January 2023, the department announced a one-off reallocation of funding to add £15 million to this year's student premium, to support additional hardship requests. There is now £276 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support students who need additional help. This extra funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship, and hardship support schemes.
The department works with the Office for Students to make it clear that universities can draw on this funding to boost their own hardship funds and support students in need. We welcome the fact that many Universities have allocated additional money to hardship, scholarship and bursary funds to support students. Universities will have detail available about these funds on their websites.
In the 2022/23 academic year, there has been an increase of 2.3%, and there will be a further increase of 2.8% for the 2023/24 academic year. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university. Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the tax year 2022-23 has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
Loans for living costs are a contribution towards students’ living costs while attending university. The highest levels of support are targeted at students who need it the most, such as students from low-income families.
To help with the cost of living all households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Act 2022, passed on 25 October 2022, includes the provision to require landlords to pass benefits they receive from energy price support, as appropriate, onto end users. Further details of the requirements under this act are set out in the legislation.
A Treasury-led review is being undertaken to consider how to support households with energy bills after April 2023.
Any student who has concerns should speak to their university about securing additional support.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government regarding the impact of the rising cost of living on students from England studying in Wales.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department reviews living costs support on an annual basis and has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year, with a 2.3% increase for the current academic year, 2022/23, and a further 2.8% increase for 2023/24. This would apply to all English domiciled students, including those which are studying at a university in Wales. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
Loans for living costs are a contribution towards students’ living costs while attending university, with the highest levels of support targeted at students who need it the most, such as students from low-income families.
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs.
The department recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year which have impacted students. However, education is a devolved matter, so additional financial support with cost-of-living pressures for students in Wales will be the responsibility of the devolved government.
All households, including those in Wales, will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Act 2022, passed on 25 October 2022, includes the provision to require landlords to pass benefits they receive from energy price support, as appropriate, onto end users. Further details of the requirements under this Act are set out in the legislation.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme provides a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers, including universities and private purpose-built student accommodation providers, are protected from high energy bills this winter.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what marginal rate of taxation a student will be paying every year for the next five years who is repaying a loan on plan 4, earning over the repayment threshold and paying the basic rate of income tax.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The amount that a borrower is required to repay is calculated on the basis of income subject to National Insurance contributions (for UK-resident PAYE borrowers) or income subject to tax (for borrowers required to complete a Self-Assessment Tax form or borrowers resident overseas).
For Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4 undergraduate student loans, borrowers currently repay 9% of earnings over the relevant repayment threshold. This is in addition to tax paid, irrespective of the rate of tax. Current repayment thresholds are £20,195 for Plan 1, £27,295 for Plan 2 and £25,375 for Plan 4 student loans.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what marginal rate of taxation a student will be paying every year for the next five years who is repaying a loan on plan 2, earning over the repayment threshold and paying the basic rate of income tax.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The amount that a borrower is required to repay is calculated on the basis of income subject to National Insurance contributions (for UK-resident PAYE borrowers) or income subject to tax (for borrowers required to complete a Self-Assessment Tax form or borrowers resident overseas).
For Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4 undergraduate student loans, borrowers currently repay 9% of earnings over the relevant repayment threshold. This is in addition to tax paid, irrespective of the rate of tax. Current repayment thresholds are £20,195 for Plan 1, £27,295 for Plan 2 and £25,375 for Plan 4 student loans.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what marginal rate of taxation a student will be paying every year for the next five years who is repaying a loan on plan 1, earning over the repayment threshold and paying the basic rate of income tax.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The amount that a borrower is required to repay is calculated on the basis of income subject to National Insurance contributions (for UK-resident PAYE borrowers) or income subject to tax (for borrowers required to complete a Self-Assessment Tax form or borrowers resident overseas).
For Plan 1, Plan 2 and Plan 4 undergraduate student loans, borrowers currently repay 9% of earnings over the relevant repayment threshold. This is in addition to tax paid, irrespective of the rate of tax. Current repayment thresholds are £20,195 for Plan 1, £27,295 for Plan 2 and £25,375 for Plan 4 student loans.