Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the impact of rising mortgage interest rates on the levels of household disposable income in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene.
However, we recognise this will be a concerning time for all households with a mortgage, particularly those who are due to come to the end of their existing deal in the immediate future. The Prime Minister has been clear, the best and most important way that we can keep costs and interest rates down for people is to halve inflation, and then return it to the 2% target.
On Friday 23 June the Chancellor met with mortgage lenders, UK Finance and the FCA to discuss a new package of support for those who encounter problems keeping up with their mortgage payments. These commitments include an agreement permitting customers to switch to an interest only mortgage, or extend their mortgage term, for 6 months, after which they can switch back without a new affordability check or it affecting their credit score. Lenders also agreed borrowers won’t have their home repossessed within 12 months from their first missed payment without their consent or unless in exceptional circumstances.
If you are concerned about making your mortgage repayment, you must speak to your lender as soon as possible. Contacting them will not affect your credit score
The Government has also already taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.
The Government also recognises the challenges facing households due to elevated costs of living, so has taken action at Spring Budget 2023 to go further to protect struggling families. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average, across 2022-23 and 2023-24 – one of the largest in Europe. The government’s successful economic strategy will provide further help. The Bank of England forecast that inflation will fall to 5.1% by the end of 2023, before falling close to target by the end of 2024.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of inflation on pensioners in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Households Below Average Income sample size is too small to provide robust estimates of the rates of pensioner poverty in the areas identified. National and regional statistics on the number and percentage of pensioners in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication, and can be found here:
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with their rising bills.
From April 2023, benefits and the State Pension, including the Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee, were increased by 10.1%, in line with prices in the year to September 2022.
Over 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, including the 1.4 million pensioners currently in receipt of Pension Credit, will receive additional Cost of Living Payments totalling up to £900 in the 2023/24 financial year.
In addition, over 8 million pensioner households will receive a £300 pensioner Cost of Living Payment as a top up to their winter fuel payment increasing payments to £500 for those aged 66-79 and £600 for those aged 80 and over.
Specific statistics relating to the pensioner Cost of Living Payments are not available. However, the latest available winter fuel payment statistics (2021/22) show that 14,352 customers in Coventry North East and 46,614 customers in Coventry received a winter fuel payment. We expect a similar number of customers will receive the pensioner Cost of Living Payments in 2022/23 and 2023/24.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and the State Pension. The outcome of that review will be announced later this year following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics, and the new rates will enter into force from April 2024.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support pensioners with increases in the cost of living in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with their rising bills.
From April 2023, benefits and the State Pension, including the Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee, were increased by 10.1%, in line with prices in the year to September 2022.
Over 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, including the 1.4 million pensioners currently in receipt of Pension Credit, will receive additional Cost of Living Payments totalling up to £900 in the 2023/24 financial year.
In addition, over 8 million pensioner households will receive a £300 pensioner Cost of Living Payment as a top up to their winter fuel payment increasing payments to £500 for those aged 66-79 and £600 for those aged 80 and over.
Specific statistics relating to the pensioner Cost of Living Payments are not available. However, the latest available winter fuel payment statistics (2021/22) show that 14,352 customers in Coventry North East and 46,614 customers in Coventry received a winter fuel payment. We expect a similar number of customers will receive the pensioner Cost of Living Payments in 2022/23 and 2023/24.
The DWP continues to work with stakeholders and others to raise awareness of Pension Credit nationwide, with a recent push for pensioners to apply before 19 May 2023 to receive the first £301 Cost of Living payment resulting in a 171% spike in claims over the two-week period before the deadline – over 20,000 claims.
The latest campaign boost was this month’s Pension Credit ‘Week of Action’ 12-16 June. DWP joined forces with a whole range of partners to raise awareness and promote take-up of Pension Credit. As part of the Pension Credit ‘Week of Action’, I wrote to all MPs on 10 June encouraging them to hold their own community event.
On 12 June I announced a new innovative “Invitation to Claim” trial which will launch across 10 local authorities in Great Britain this Summer. This will involve DWP sending letters to approximately 2,600 pensioner households identified via Housing Benefit data as being most likely to be entitled to Pension Credit and encouraging them to contact DWP and make a claim.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure the availability of high-quality childcare in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is determined to support as many families as possible with access to high-quality and affordable childcare. The Spring Budget 2023 announced significant new investments to expand the free early education entitlements from 2024/25, together with uplifts in 2023/24 and 2024/25 for the existing entitlement offers.
Eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.
The government is committed to ensuring that every child in an early years setting, regardless of their background or any additional needs they may have, receives high-quality education and care.
Access to high-quality childcare ensures children and families can fulfil their potential, helping children to learn in their earliest years, and supporting a functioning economy by enabling parents to work.
The department knows that children are accessing high-quality childcare because as of August 2022, 96% of providers on the Early Years Register were rated Good or Outstanding, up from 74% in 2012.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number of stem cell transplant recipients that have applied for temporary accommodation due to the cost of treatments.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This department does not collect information on stem cell transplant recipients in temporary accommodation. Statutory homelessness data (HCLIC) includes information on households in temporary accommodation and can be found here .
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of teachers in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The latest School Workforce Census, which was published on 8 June 2023, shows the number of teachers remains high, with 468,400 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers working in state funded schools across the country. This is over 27,000 more than in 2010. In November 2022, when the latest available data was collected, there were 3,284 FTE teachers in state funded schools in Coventry. This is an increase of 3.2% from the year previous when there were 3,182 FTE teachers in state funded schools in Coventry and an increase of 6.3% since 2010 when the school workforce census began when there were 3,090 FTE teachers in state funded schools in Coventry. Over this period, the number of schools in Coventry included in the school workforce census has ranged between 112 to 120. School Workforce Census data can be found online at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and ensuring teachers across England stay in the profession.
The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. The Department is providing bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing.
The Department provides a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools nationally, including within Education Investment Areas (EIAs). The Department provides the highest payments to teachers in eligible schools in EIAs. Coventry is an EIA. There are seven schools in the Coventry North East constituency eligible for the Levelling Up Premium and 26 schools in the Coventry Local Authority. The eligibility criteria and list of eligible schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-premium-payments-for-teachers.
The Department has also raised starting salaries outside London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching.
To support retention across all areas, the Department has worked with the education sector and published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing. This includes the workload reduction toolkit, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. More than 2,600 schools have signed up to the Charter so far.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential cost of establishing a patient travel fund for (a) stem cell transplant and (b) chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy recipients.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no plans to assess the potential cost of establishing a patient travel fund for stem cell transplant and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy recipients. The Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) provide funded transport where it is considered essential to ensuring an individual’s safety, safe mobilisation, condition management or recovery.
Depending on a patient’s financial circumstances, they may be eligible for financial support with costs via the NHS Low Income Scheme and Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme. This is aimed specifically at those with a low income and allows patients to claim for all or part their travel costs should they meet the eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of stem cell transplant patients and their families have accessed the NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme in England in the last year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people waiting for community musculoskeletal services were provided with an appointment within (a) four and (b) 12 weeks of referral in the past year.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not hold data on how many people waiting for community musculoskeletal services were provided with an appointment within a certain time of referral in the past year.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number of pensioners living in poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
National and regional statistics on the number of pensioners in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication, and can be found at: Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)