Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact of rising UK inflation on members of the Pensions Protections Fund who accrued pension benefits before 1997.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No assessment has been made. The information required to carry out such an assessment is not readily available and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
The Government understands that people are concerned about pressure on household budgets as a result of the global inflation crisis and has committed £22 billion in direct support to help people across the country.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of the announced increase of the Household Support Fund will be assigned to (a) Haringey and (b) London.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Individual local authority indicative allocations for the Household Support Fund will be announced shortly.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 length of time it takes to deal with Child Maintenance cases that have been referred to the Financial Investigation Unit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) aim to review all new fraud referrals within 5 working days of receipt. All cases are assessed, and appropriate evidence obtained to fully inform the course of action. The length of time required to complete the FIU action will depend on the complexity of the individual case.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of recent reports that Amazon plans to cut the pay of its yard marshals by 23 per cent; and whether she has made representations to Amazon as a result of those reports.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not made any representations to Amazon with regards to their pay and conditions and no assessment of the impact on DWP policies has been made. The responsibility for employment law and employee rights sits with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to utilise the twelve month discretion to delay a determination of gainful self-employment until 31 July 2022, as contained in Regulation 2(1)(b) of the Social Security (Coronavirus) (Further Measures) Regulations 2020, and continued by Regulation 2 (1) of the Universal Credit (Coronavirus) (Restoration of the Minimum Income Floor) Regulations 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Due to the significant increase of self-employed people claiming Universal Credit during the pandemic, it will take the Department up to 12 months to meet with each of these claimants, consider their circumstances and determine if they are gainfully self-employed.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will commit to permanently removing the minimum income floor when assessing self-employed workers for universal credit.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit supports people into self-employment where self-employment is the best route for them to become financially self-sufficient. The Minimum Income Floor encourages individuals to increase their earnings and make a success of their business through developing their self-employment. It also addresses flaws in the previous Tax Credit system which allowed self-employed claimants to receive full State support while continuing to declare very low earnings and to prevent people from under-declaring earnings in the future. This restores fairness for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that all eligible pensioners receive pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Around 1.4 million eligible pensioners across Great Britain receive some £5 billion in Pension Credit which tops up their retirement income and is a passport to other financial help such as support with housing costs, council tax, heating bills and a free TV licence for those over 75.
On 16 June as part of a media day of action on Pension Credit, DWP joined forces with Age UK as well as the BBC to help reach, via national and local media, older people who may be reticent about claiming it. More recently, on 7 September, I met the BBC Director General to discuss other opportunities to work together to get information about Pension Credit to pensioners and their family members. We have also set up a working group including organisations such as Age UK, Independent Age, the BBC and British Telecom to explore innovative ways to reach eligible pensioners.
Earlier this year, over 11 million pensioners in Great Britain received information about Pension Credit in the leaflet accompanying their annual State Pension up-rating letter. They will do so again next year.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect of the end of the £20 universal credit uplift on levels of child poverty in (a) Haringey and (b) London.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made.
This Government has long championed the principle of work as the best route out of poverty and towards financial independence. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.
Since 1 December 2020, the Covid Winter Grant and Covid Local Support Grant have provided Local Authorities in England with additional funding to support families with food and essential utility bills. On 21 June we extended this temporary scheme for a final time with an additional £160 million in funding through 30 September, taking total funding under the scheme to £429 million. This funding recognises that while restrictions are planned to end in July, families might need additional help to get back on their feet as the vaccine rollout continues and our economy recovers.
Getting people back to work and supporting them to progress is therefore at the heart of our approach to tackling poverty and building back better. Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of (a) employment and (b) income of young people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
(a) Employment levels of young people are published and available in Office for National Statistics Table A06 at:
(b) Family Resources Survey based data on incomes is only available up to financial year 2019/20. More recent trends in median earnings for younger people are published and available from ONS Real Time Information at:
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential effect of removing the additional covid-19 support funding from the Discretionary Housing Payments allocations to local authorities on levels of homelessness.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has made available £140m in DHPs funding for local authorities in England and Wales for 2021-22 to help support vulnerable people with housing costs.
We increased the LHA rates in April 2020 to the 30th percentile of local rents, an investment costing nearly £1 billion and have maintained rates at the same cash level in 2021/22.
In addition to the central government contribution, English and Welsh local authorities are able to top up Discretionary Housing Payments funding up to a maximum of two and a half times this figure, using their own funds.
We consider the allocation of Discretionary Housing Payments to individual local authorities each year. We also monitor evolving demand and trends by analysing the information that local authorities provide regarding the amount of Discretionary Housing Payment funding they are awarding.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have been monitoring the DHPs spend more closely than in previous years and will continue to monitor spend throughout 2021/22.