Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers are living in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty.
Answered by David Rutley
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of Gypsy, Roma, and Travellers' poverty rates due to the small sample size.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has in place to reduce the use of foodbanks.
Answered by David Rutley
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 foodbank usage at a constituency or national level.
We understand the data limitations in this area, and therefore from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track foodbank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance.
Our commitment to include questions in the Family Resources Survey show how seriously we take this issue; the data is vital to ensure we understand the full picture.
We understand the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and have taken action to support families. That is why the government is providing over £15bn in further support, targeted particularly on those with the greatest need. This package is in addition to the over £22bn announced previously, with government support for the cost of living now totaling over £37bn this year.
From October 2022, Government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England £421m will be used to further extend the Household Support Fund (October 2022 – March 2023). Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department took to ensure effective application and distribution of funding under the Household Support Fund to different local authorities.
Answered by David Rutley
We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, through the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access the Household Support Fund, which provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England.
Each Local Authority in England was allocated a share of the £421m based on population weighted by the index of multiple deprivation. Kingston upon Hull was allocated £3,038,293.68. Kingston upon Hull used a portion of their funding to establish a Household Support Scheme which ran applications until 17 December. We understand that the rest of their funding was used towards other initiatives, including food vouchers for vulnerable families over Christmas, February half term and the forthcoming Easter holidays.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to information from Hull City Council that the application period for the Household Support Fund went live on 23 November 2021 and closed on 17 December 2021 as a result of the number of applicants exceeding the available funding, what assessment her Department made of the amount of funding required to support that scheme.
Answered by David Rutley
We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, through the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access the Household Support Fund, which provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England.
Each Local Authority in England was allocated a share of the £421m based on population weighted by the index of multiple deprivation. Kingston upon Hull was allocated £3,038,293.68. Kingston upon Hull used a portion of their funding to establish a Household Support Scheme which ran applications until 17 December. We understand that the rest of their funding was used towards other initiatives, including food vouchers for vulnerable families over Christmas, February half term and the forthcoming Easter holidays.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding has been made available for the Household Support Fund (a) nationally and (b) in Kingston upon Hull.
Answered by David Rutley
We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, through the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country are able to access the Household Support Fund, which provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England.
Each Local Authority in England was allocated a share of the £421m based on population weighted by the index of multiple deprivation. Kingston upon Hull was allocated £3,038,293.68. Kingston upon Hull used a portion of their funding to establish a Household Support Scheme which ran applications until 17 December. We understand that the rest of their funding was used towards other initiatives, including food vouchers for vulnerable families over Christmas, February half term and the forthcoming Easter holidays.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
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 implications for his policies of analysis by Citizen's Advice that on average a single adult claiming the basic rate of universal credit will be spend 33 per cent of their standard allowance on energy bills following the estimated energy price cap increase; and if her Department will take steps to assist those claimants.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government is providing £12 billion of support to ease cost of living pressures, with help targeted at working families, low-income households and the most vulnerable. A further £9 billion has been announced to protect against the impact of rising global energy prices.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will take steps with the Treasury to uprate benefits in line with inflation.
Answered by David Rutley
The Secretary of State undertakes an annual review of benefits and pensions based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation in the year to September.