Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time for Personal Independence Payments applications was as of 12 July 2022.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Data on processing times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Normal Rules New Claims to April 2022 (the latest available data) is published in Table 1A of the PIP Statistics tables which can be found here.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had recent discussions with workers' unions on the potential merits of introducing a maximum working temperature for workplaces.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Workplace temperature is one of the potential hazards that employers should address to meet their legal obligations under health and safety law.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 place a legal obligation on employers to provide a ‘reasonable’ temperature in indoor workplaces. Detailed guidance for employers on workplace temperature and thermal comfort is available on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website. This guidance includes information on how to undertake a thermal comfort assessment and specific measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort.
Responsibility to make workplaces safe and healthy lies with employers, who should consult with employees or their representatives to establish sensible means to cope with high temperatures.
No maximum workplace temperature exists because every workplace is different. No meaningful upper limit can be imposed because in many indoor workplaces extreme temperature is not seasonal, but is created by work activity, for example, in a glass works or foundry. In such environments factors other than air temperature, including radiant temperature, humidity and air velocity, become more significant and the interaction between them becomes more complex with rising temperatures. However, it is still possible to work safely provided appropriate controls are present.
HSE regularly reviews and, where necessary, refreshes the guidance published on its website.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce a maximum working temperature in all workplaces to protect employees.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Workplace temperature is one of the potential hazards that employers should address to meet their legal obligations under health and safety law.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 place a legal obligation on employers to provide a ‘reasonable’ temperature in indoor workplaces. Detailed guidance for employers on workplace temperature and thermal comfort is available on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website. This guidance includes information on how to undertake a thermal comfort assessment and specific measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort.
Responsibility to make workplaces safe and healthy lies with employers, who should consult with employees or their representatives to establish sensible means to cope with high temperatures.
No maximum workplace temperature exists because every workplace is different. No meaningful upper limit can be imposed because in many indoor workplaces extreme temperature is not seasonal, but is created by work activity, for example, in a glass works or foundry. In such environments factors other than air temperature, including radiant temperature, humidity and air velocity, become more significant and the interaction between them becomes more complex with rising temperatures. However, it is still possible to work safely provided appropriate controls are present.
HSE regularly reviews and, where necessary, refreshes the guidance published on its website.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 potential merits for employee wellbeing of introducing a maximum working temperature in work places.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Workplace temperature is one of the potential hazards that employers should address to meet their legal obligations under health and safety law.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 place a legal obligation on employers to provide a ‘reasonable’ temperature in indoor workplaces. Detailed guidance for employers on workplace temperature and thermal comfort is available on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website. This guidance includes information on how to undertake a thermal comfort assessment and specific measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort.
Responsibility to make workplaces safe and healthy lies with employers, who should consult with employees or their representatives to establish sensible means to cope with high temperatures.
No maximum workplace temperature exists because every workplace is different. No meaningful upper limit can be imposed because in many indoor workplaces extreme temperature is not seasonal, but is created by work activity, for example, in a glass works or foundry. In such environments factors other than air temperature, including radiant temperature, humidity and air velocity, become more significant and the interaction between them becomes more complex with rising temperatures. However, it is still possible to work safely provided appropriate controls are present.
HSE regularly reviews and, where necessary, refreshes the guidance published on its website.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is available for disabled people whilst they wait for their Personal Independence Payment application to be processed.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is designed to provide a contribution towards the additional, disability-related costs faced by people with a long-term health condition or disability. PIP is paid in addition to the other financial support that the individual may already be entitled to, including income maintenance benefits designed to help pay for day-to-day and housing costs, such as Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. Once a PIP claim has been determined any arrears of entitlement are paid.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
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 potential impact of the time taken to process Personal Independence Payment applications on disabled people's ability to pay bills and rent.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is designed to provide a contribution towards the additional, disability-related costs faced by people with a long-term health condition or disability. PIP is paid in addition to the other financial support that the individual may already be entitled to, including income maintenance benefits designed to help pay for day-to-day and housing costs, such as Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. Once a PIP claim has been determined any arrears of entitlement are paid.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Social Security (Additional Payments) Bill would give an entitlement to cost of living payments to self-employed Universal Credit claimants who do not receive a regular payment due to the minimum income floor.
Answered by David Rutley
Claimants who had their UC award reduced to zero by the Minimum income floor and did not receive a UC payment during the qualifying period, will not be eligible for a cost-of-living payment.
For those that are not eligible for this support, or for families that still need additional support; the Government is providing an additional £500 million to help households, on top of what has been provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m and is administered by Local Authorities. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the waiting time is between a personal independence payment (PIP) application being submitted and the applicant's PIP assessment being arranged.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Available data on journey times for PIP New Claims is published in Table 1A of Personal Independence Payment statistics to April 2022, published on 14 June 2022 here.