Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that working and benefits provision is in place in the event that expats living abroad must return to the UK after the UK leaves the EU (a) in general and (b) for those expats who may not have made national insurance contributions in recent years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Prime Minister has made clear that she wants to protect the rights of British citizens currently living in European member states, in the same way that we want to protect the status of EU nationals already living here. The reciprocal rights and entitlements that will apply following the UK’s exit are subject to the wider negotiation on our future relationship with the EU. At every step of this negotiation the Government will seek to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people, at home and overseas.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to ensure that the quality of service is consistent at jobcentres around the country.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
There are comprehensive operational instructions available that all Jobcentres are expected to adhere to. This is monitored through internal checking to ensure processes and the quality of our interaction with claimants meets the required standard. Alongside the checking of results, other sources of data, such as DWP Customer Survey and complaints data, are exploited to ensure services meet the required standard. Continuous improvement is a key factor in our approach and examples include providing coaching/training, improving operations instructions and making better use of technology.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the progress that has been made in the rollout of universal credit in Northampton.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Universal Credit live service rolled out to Northampton Jobcentre Plus on 23 November 2015. Official Universal Credit statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.
Every jobcentre across the country is now delivering Universal Credit for single people. The full Universal Credit service begins its national expansion from May 2016.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the New Enterprise Allowance in achieving its aims.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Latest statistics show that 80,830 new businesses have been set up with the support of the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA).
A survey of NEA recipients was published in January 2016 and found that of businesses that had started trading following receipt of NEA support, four in five were still trading giving a sustainability rate of 80%. Of these, over nine in ten had been trading for over 12 months.
This report was published on 28 January and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-enterprise-allowance-survey.