Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the North East Child Poverty Commission entitled Getting the building blocks wrong: Early childhood poverty in the North East, published in September 2022, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the conclusions on the impact of levels of social security payments on people in the North East.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Income-related benefit rates are not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure such as food or fuel charges, and beneficiaries are free to spend their benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual commitments, needs and preferences.
However, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of State pensions and benefits. The outcome of that review will be announced later this year, and the new rates will enter into force from 10 April 2023.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 potential impact of the cost of living crisis on the use of foodbanks by benefits recipients in the Newcastle.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
We understand the data limitations in this area, and thus from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track food bank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. These questions will allow us to gauge where people in low food security are seeking help and over time will allow us to build a time series on the scale of food bank usage.
This Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year.
Included within this £37bn is an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already 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, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. We will publish new guidance for Local Authorities for this latest extension shortly. The Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department are taking to support small businesses in the North East of England recruit staff.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
DWP provides a wide range of support to employers, including small employers, across the North East. This includes discussing and assessing individual need so that subsequently, a tailored package of support can be developed and deployed.
Examples:
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of young people aged 18 to 24 (a) not working or (b) looking for a job in the North East.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Through Jobcentre Plus, the Department of Work and Pensions is helping young people to find the right support, education or training that will ultimately lead to sustained employment opportunities and career progression. The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain. We have extended the DWP Youth Offer to 2025 and expanded eligibility to include 16 and 17-year-olds, in addition to 18- to 24-year-olds, who are claiming Universal Credit and searching for work
We currently have a network of Youth Hubs across North East England which bring together employment support from a Jobcentre Plus work coach and place-based support from local partnerships to help young people into work. The support offered in a Hub is dependent on local needs, but examples include skills, training, and employment provision, alongside a range of dedicated support services such as mental health, housing and debt management delivered by local partners. Through the Kickstart Scheme we saw over 8,000 Kickstart jobs started by young people in the North East.
Core skills are fundamental in securing, retaining, and progressing in work. DWP is delivering a comprehensive package of support for young people in collaboration with the Department for Education and National Careers Service in England, the Devolved Administrations, and other partners. This Government has invested in apprenticeships, vocational and basic skills training, alongside careers advice and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs). SWAP opportunities link skills/employability training with guaranteed interviews and real vacancies – providing a routeway into work for young people. Whilst many opportunities are entry level, they often offer good career pathways and in work progression.
The Job Help campaign offers job search advice and showcases priority sectors and job vacancies to help young people successfully find work. The Job Help website also provides help to get work experience and signposting to initiatives such as Access to work.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to take additional steps to tackle levels of child poverty in (a) Newcastle and (b) the North East.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age.
With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into, and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children. The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. In 2021, compared to 2010, there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 590,000 fewer children in workless households in the UK. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than in 2009/10.
To help parents into work across Great Britain, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.
This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances. To further support parents to move into and progress in work, the government provides a range of childcare offers. For more information on what childcare support may be available, we encourage parents to use the helpful Childcare Choices website.
The government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37bn of support includes the current Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support to those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023 and is being delivered by Upper Tier and Unitary Councils. In the case of Newcastle upon Tyne, the local authority has been allocated £2,898,403.85 for this period. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the cumulative impact of (a) benefits not increasing in line with the Consumer Price Index, (b) the reduction in Universal Credit in October 2021 and (c) the rise in living costs on the living standards of households in receipt of Universal Credit.
Answered by David Rutley
For the past 35 years benefits have been increased by the relevant price index for the 12 months to September and that convention was followed for 2022/23 and benefits were increased by 3.1%.
The Government has always been clear that the £20 increase to Universal Credit was a temporary measure to support those households most affected by the economic shock of Covid-19.
The Government understands the current cost of living pressures many are facing and has taken action to support and help families with a total package worth £37 billion in 2022-23. This includes the the £400 being paid to all domestic electricity customer millions of the lowest income households will get £1,200 of one-off support in total this year to help with the cost of living.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme has been doubled to a one-off £400 grant, and not recovered in future years. Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October. This support is in addition to the £150 Council Tax rebate for households in England in Council Tax bands A-D, which was announced in February
Over 8 million households across the UK in receipt of eligible means tested benefits have started to receive a one-off Cost of Living Payment of £650, paid in two instalments from 14th of July.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 adequacy of the capacity of her Department's Data and Analytics team in relation to its (a) level of resourcing and (b) staff headcount; and what recent assessment she has made of the level of capacity being used within that team in July 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
DWP regularly assess Data and Analytics capability and capacity based on assessment of DWP requirements. Recently, DWP have assessed this requirement as part of the Spending Review settlement process alongside other priorities. This has included looking at the data and analytics outcomes that DWP need to deliver, and whether the technical infrastructure, capability and capacity are appropriately aligned.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential relationship between the rollout of Universal Credit and increasing trends in the level of crime.
Answered by David Rutley
No such assessment has been made.
Universal Credit is a modern benefit which mirrors the world of work, with monthly payments that can adjust to the amount claimants receive as people earn more or indeed less, and there are safeguards in place to help those who are unable to handle their own rent including direct payments to landlords.
Universal Credit provides a strong financial safety net: it is more generous overall than the old system and makes it easier for people to claim support they are entitled to.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many state pension claimants face delays to the first payments of their pension in (a) Newcastle and (b) the North East of England.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The DWP has a process which is the same now as under successive labour and the coalition government. There are claims where we are waiting for additional information which upon receipt of the further information are actioned.
There are no constituency or regional stats on State Pension payments.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking in response to the All Party Parliamentary Group on state pension inequality for women's submission to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's investigation into the communication of changes to women's state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The position has not changed. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has not completed his investigation. This a multi staged process and the report published on 20 July 2021 concluded stage-one of the investigation.
It would not be appropriate to comment on the issue whilst the investigation is ongoing; and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.