Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of regional job centre closures on trends in the level of homelessness in those regions.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
When closing or merging a Jobcentre, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) undertake an equality analysis as part of the detailed planning for service reconfiguration. This will include feedback from public consultation in those locations where this applied. Details of jobcentres that have closed and/or merged in the last two years can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-the-future-of-dwp-jobcentres
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes local authority data on homelessness applications quarterly.
Reference should also be made to the response given on 9 February 2018 in the reply to PQ 126480.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 financial effect on students in receipt of personal independence payments (PIP) caused by her policy that students in receipt of PIP who are studying abroad must return to the UK every 12 weeks in order to not lose their rights to their benefits.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The rules allowing for temporary absence abroad apply to Attendance Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment and were subject to consultation in 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/dla-reform-and-pip-completing-the-detailed-design). Under that consultation we had originally proposed a temporary absence rule of four weeks. However, respondents to the consultation told us that the time period was too short and would negatively impact on certain people such as:
As a consequence of this consultation, and the suggestions received, we amended our proposal so that a period of 13 weeks would be allowed. This period of time was chosen in part to cover term time absences for students and also to allow people a longer period to visit families living abroad where a long journey may be required.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 196906, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of not adjusting universal credit regulations to allow the housing cost element for renters to be calculated for a 53 week year in 2019-20 on the potential increase in the amount of claimants' debt.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has looked into this issue again and has concluded that neither tenants or landlords suffer financial disadvantage in 53 weekly payment years.
Universal Credit simplifies the welfare system for working age claimants and is paid on a monthly cycle to reflect the fact that the vast majority of people receive their wages monthly. Many social landlords still expect their tenants to pay rent on a weekly basis, a practice based upon a time when both wages and benefits were paid weekly.
This perceived issue is caused by the impossibility of accurately aligning weekly and monthly payment cycles at all points in time. By selecting a random period, it is possible to show a theoretical shortfall which does not exist in practice. Having 53 rent payment days does not mean having a higher rental liability over the course of the year; some of the days covered by the final payment will relate to the next year because a year never contains 53 full weeks.
The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 196906 on Universal Credit: Housing, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect on levels of poverty among universal credit claimants of not amending universal credit regulations to allow the housing cost element for renters to be calculated for a 53-week year in 2019-20; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has looked into this issue again and has concluded that neither tenants or landlords suffer financial disadvantage in 53 weekly payment years.
Universal Credit simplifies the welfare system for working age claimants and is paid on a monthly cycle to reflect the fact that the vast majority of people receive their wages monthly. Many social landlords still expect their tenants to pay rent on a weekly basis, a practice based upon a time when both wages and benefits were paid weekly.
This perceived issue is caused by the impossibility of accurately aligning weekly and monthly payment cycles at all points in time. By selecting a random period, it is possible to show a theoretical shortfall which does not exist in practice. Having 53 rent payment days does not mean having a higher rental liability over the course of the year; some of the days covered by the final payment will relate to the next year because a year never contains 53 full weeks.
The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any funding from the Reducing Parental Conflict programme will be made available for relationship support services for in-work low-income families in addition to the support for workless families set out in Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There is clear evidence that frequent, intense and poorly-resolved parental conflict can lead to poorer mental health, wellbeing, educational attainment, and employment outcomes for children.
While children in workless families face triple the risk of exposure to parental conflict compared with children in families where at least one of the adults is working, we recognise that children in some other low-income families would also benefit from support to reduce conflict in their parents’ relationships.
Local authorities are best placed to decide which families to support in their areas, and we therefore expect a range of disadvantaged families to be supported through the Reducing Parental Conflict programme.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, what proportion of the 11 per cent of children in couple-parent families who experience parental conflict are in (a) workless families, (b) families where one parent is in work and (c) families where both parents work.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Of the 11 per cent of children in couple-parent families living with parents who reported experiencing parental conflict in 2015-16:
(a) 14 per cent were in workless families
(b) 32 per cent were in families where one parent is in work and the other is not in work
(c) 54 per cent were in families where both parents work
These figures are now updated with the Parental Conflict Indicator published on the 22nd March 2018.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 October 2017 to Question 105652 (a) how the £30 million made available for relationship support services between April 2017 and March 2020 has been allocated in 2017/18, (b) what the planned total investment in relationship support programmes was for 2018/19 and 2019/20 prior to the November 2017 Budget, (c) what additional funding the November 2017 Budget allocated to relationship support programmes, (d) what the planned total investment in relationship support programmes is for 2018/19 and 2019/20 following the November 2017 Budget and (e) whether government investing in relationship support programmes includes other projects to strengthen families an relationships in addition to the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families in April 2017 where we announced a spend of up to £30m to launch the new Reducing Parental Conflict Programme. Planned spend in 17/18 is £5.91m. Funding allocations to projects/business areas in future years are decided on an annual basis and are subject to internal prioritisation.
The funding that was announced as part of the 2017 Autumn Budget, safeguards £15m pa investment on relationship support/parental conflict in 18/19 and 19/20. DWP has no plans to fund other projects than those mentioned in the budget statement, however, strengthening families is a cross-government objective and other government departments will be able to confirm their own plans in this area.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the planned investment in relationship support programmes was for 2018-19 and 2019-20 prior to any changes announced in Autumn Budget 2017; what additional funding Autumn Budget 2017 allocated to relationship support programmes; what the planned total investment in relationship support programmes is for 2018-19 and 2019-20 as a result of Autumn Budget 2017; and whether that investment in relationship support programmes relates to (a) the Department for Work and Pensions' Reducing Parental Conflict Programme or (b) other programmes or projects intended to strengthen families and relationships.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families in April 2017 where we announced a spend of up to £30m to launch the new Reducing Parental Conflict Programme. Planned spend in 17/18 is £5.91m. Funding allocations to projects/business areas in future years are decided on an annual basis and are subject to internal prioritisation.
The funding that was announced as part of the 2017 Autumn Budget, safeguards £15m pa investment on relationship support/parental conflict in 18/19 and 19/20. DWP has no plans to fund other projects than those mentioned in the budget statement, however, strengthening families is a cross-government objective and other government departments will be able to confirm their own plans in this area.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it remains his policy to double relationship support funding to £70 million during the course of the current Parliament.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government is committed to supporting vulnerable children and families. Parental conflict can have a damaging effect on children, by significantly increasing their risk of poor social, emotional and educational outcomes. In the light of the strength of the damaging impact of parental conflict on children, we will soon be launching a new programme to embed proven parental conflict provision in local areas. As announced in Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, the programme will have a strong emphasis on children in workless families as they face triple the risk of experiencing parental conflict compared with those where parents are in work. We will work with the Troubled Families programme to support local areas to improve the effectiveness of their family services to address this issue, drawing on the lessons from our Local Family Offer trial.
£17.5m was spent on relationship support services between April 2015 and March 2017. In April 2017 a further £30m was made available for the period April 2017- March 2020 for the new programme to reduce parental conflict. Precise expenditure from this allocation depends on the quality of proposals received by DWP from suppliers.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when tenders for the new £30 million inter-parental conflict programme announced in April 2017 will be published.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to delivering the new programme of support for workless families, as announced in Improving Lives: Workless Families. We acknowledge that there have been some delays to our plans for the new programme, including the election hiatus. We will be coming forward with an opportunity to tender for organisations to deliver face-to-face interventions to reduce parental conflict next year, but at this point we are not able to confirm the exact timescales for this process.