Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 likely average change in the amount received by workless 18 to 21 year olds as a result of the removal of housing allowance from such people in April 2017.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The amount of Universal Credit awarded where the housing element is payable is not being changed; this policy will simply remove entitlement from certain 18 -21 year olds. Some 18-21 year olds will be unaffected by this change as exemptions will allow support with housing costs to continue in their award.
The Department continues to liaise with a range of key stakeholders as it develops exemptions. This includes discussing this policy with landlords, housing associations and charities. Once this work has been completed we will bring forward detailed proposals.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the removal of housing allowance for 18 to 21 year-olds who receive universal credit in the number of (a) homeless people and (b) claimants living on temporary accommodation.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department continues to liaise with a range of key stakeholders as it develops exemptions to the removal of automatic entitlement to housing support for 18-21 year olds in Universal Credit. This includes discussing this policy with landlords, housing associations and charities.
Once this work has been completed we will bring forward detailed proposals.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2015 to Question 16318, what recent progress he has made on discussions with stakeholders on proposals to exempt certain groups from the removal of automatic entitlement to housing support for 18 to 21 years olds on universal credit; and when he plans to publish proposals resulting from those discussions.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department continues to liaise with a range of key stakeholders as it develops exemptions to the removal of automatic entitlement to housing support for 18-21 year olds in Universal Credit. This includes discussing this policy with landlords, housing associations and charities.
Once this work has been completed we will bring forward detailed proposals.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 workless 18 to 21-year olds who will be enrolled on universal credit in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.
Answered by Priti Patel
The information requested is not available. The number of people on benefits is driven by a range of factors, and because of this the programme measures progress by the successful achievement of its delivery plan rather than numbers of claimants.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the number of people with multiple sclerosis who have moved from disability living allowance to personal independence payment; and what proportion of those people have received a reduced mobility award as a result of that change.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) claims in payment, registrations, clearances and awards for both new claims and reassessed claims (for those previously in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA) are published on Gov.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics.
In particular, breakdowns of reassessed claims in payment by type, main disabling conditions and rate of awards can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
The Department does not have verified data on the proportion of PIP claimants with multiple sclerosis who received a reduced mobility award as a result of the move to PIP. We intend to provide more detailed breakdowns of DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes in due course. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the number of people with multiple sclerosis who have claimed personal independence payment to date and have received an award of (a) up to six months, (b) between six and 12 months, (c) between one and two years, (d) between two and five years, (e) more than five years and (f) more than 10 years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is assessing the quality of the PIP award length data and is considering the future release of such information into the public domain. These statistics will be published when they are ready, with the release pre-announced in line with United Kingdom Statistics Authority release protocols.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the number of people with multiple sclerosis who have claimed personal independence payment to date; and what proportion of those people have had (a) a repeat assessment and (b) more than three assessments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are currently 5,520 recipients of personal independence payment whose main disabling condition is recorded as being multiple sclerosis.
The information requested on repeat assessments could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2015 to Question 224799, whether his Department reached in-principle agreement with the European Commission on the 2014 to 2020 European Social Fund Operational Programme in February 2014; and on what date he expects the European Social Fund Operational Programme for 2014 to 2020 to be formally adopted by the European Commission.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The only issues which we are still discussing with the European Commission relate to the level of some of the targets, and we expect to have agreement on those shortly. The timing of formal adoption will depend on the Commission’s internal processes. We expect it in May or June.
Since the remaining issues are few in number, we plan to launch the 2014 to 2020 ESF programme before the end of March.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the European Social Fund Operational Programme for 2014-20 has been agreed with the European Commission; and when he expects funding from that programme to be released to local enterprise partnerships.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We are working closely with the European Commission on the Operational Programme, and expect that agreement will be reached shortly, after which we plan to invite applications for funding.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents with (a) care commitments and (b) children were in receipt of child maintenance paid via the Child Support Agency on 29 June 2014.
Answered by Steve Webb
As at the quarter ending June 2014, there were 431,700 parents with care receiving maintenance via the Child Support Agency collection service and 595,100 children benefiting from maintenance received.