Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
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 merits of using Non-Fungible Tokens in the administration of benefits.
Answered by Paul Maynard
DWP has not made any assessment into the potential merits of using Non-Fungible Tokens in the administration of benefits.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to review legislation on farm safety.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The health and safety of people working in or affected by work in agriculture is covered primarily by The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE publishes guidance to assist the industry to comply with their legal obligations and on how to reduce injuries and ill health by identifying causes, eliminating hazards and controlling risks.
Whilst there are currently no plans to review the main legislation, HSE is working together with the industry to promote the benefits of farming safety by active engagement with the Farm Safety Partnerships in England, Wales and Scotland.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether reimbursed fuel expenses from visiting clients in their home during the course of employment is counted as income in Universal Credit claims.
Answered by David Rutley
To keep Universal Credit as simple and clear as possible, the definition of earnings aligns very closely to the rules in tax legislation, namely the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA). This is so that rules across tax and benefits are aligned where possible. Under ITEPA payments classed as ‘allowable expenses’ would not be counted as employed earnings and would be excluded from the calculation of the Universal Credit award.
Reimbursed fuel expenses which would come under the general rule of allowable expenses are those where the employee is obliged to incur and pay these as a holder of that employment and the amount is incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of their employment. Reimbursed expenses which would not come under the general rule of allowable expenses are those that are in the employee’s own interest or benefit, such as the cost of travel to a single place of work.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost of running the Child Maintenance Service was in (a) 2017 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The cost of running the Child Maintenance Service is reported in financial years rather than calendar years, the costs for the four financial years that include calendar years 2017 and 2019 are as follows:
2016/17 - £275.11m (excluding income) or £260.52m net of income
2017/18 - £221.73m (excluding income) or £199.67m net of income
2018/19 - £189.00m (excluding income) or £153.88m net of income
2019/20 - £189.77m (excluding income) or £146.17m net of income
Increasing income over time is due to both increasing caseloads on the CMS 2012 scheme and improvements to case compliance.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints were received about the website of the Child Maintenance Service in (a) 2017 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We have assumed that the website referred to is the Child Maintenance Self-Service system. This information is not produced within our published data, nor collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will extend the Bereavement Support Payment scheme to cover the deaths of parents who were living together or had children together in order to provide support for the remaining partner and their children.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
It is a key principle that all rights to inheritable benefits derived from another person’s contributions, such as Bereavement Support Payment, should be based on the concept of a legal marriage or civil partnership. However, on 7 February the High Court ruled that the higher rate of Bereavement Support Payment (which is paid to those with children) to be incompatible with the ECHR in that it is only payable where the survivor was married to, or in a civil partnership with the deceased. Whilst this ruling does not change the current legislation, we are carefully considering what to do in response to this judgement.