Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of expanding access to the Kickstart Scheme to enable small and medium sized enterprises to use that scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme is already open for small and medium employers, as well as larger ones, to offer jobs to young people. On 3rd February 2021, we removed the requirement for an application to the Scheme to contain a minimum of 30 jobs. This means that employers have greater choice in how they participate regardless of the number of Kickstart jobs they are seeking to offer. All employers also have the option of applying through one of the 900 approved Gateway organisations supporting Kickstart. Sole traders can also participate in the scheme by applying through one of our approved Gateway Plus organisations.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of publishing the number of Kickstart Scheme applications that have been rejected by region.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A regional breakdown of applications to the Kickstart Scheme is not currently held by the Department for Work and Pensions. This is because applications at the approval stage of Kickstart only provide the registered address of the applying organisation (employer or Gateway) and so are not reflective of where the jobs would be based if approved. Employers and Gateway organisations can make multiple applications to the scheme. And some employers within Gateway application may be rejected while others are approved. This data is therefore of limited use for analytical and planning purposes. For these reasons, information is not currently produced on application outcomes by region.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to reply to the letters from the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey of 23 November 2020 passed to the Department for Housing Communities and Local Government and then the Department for Health and Social Care before being returned to her Department for response on 17 March 2021.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 13 April 2021.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending universal credit rent support to adult children living in their familiar home where that rent is not paid to a family member.
Answered by Will Quince
Housing Costs Support in Universal Credit is already available to any claimant with a rent liability for the home they live in, where that liability is on a commercial basis and not owed to a close relative who lives at the same address.
There are no limitations on adult children who live at the same address as their parents from claiming housing costs support, so long as the above conditions are met.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on claimants of having to proactively reapply for personal independence payments as opposed to having an integrated process of automatic renewal of those payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On Personal Independence Payment (PIP), we do not have an integrated process of automatic renewals but review claimants to ensure their award reflects their needs. Once someone has been awarded PIP, which can be paid at one of eight rates, that award will be reviewed. Award rates and their durations are set on an individual basis, based on the claimant’s needs and the likelihood of those needs changing. Regular reviews are a key feature of the benefit and ensure that payments accurately match the current needs of claimants, something fundamentally missing from Disability Living Allowance, which PIP began to replace in 2013. Award durations are based on an individual’s circumstances and can vary from nine months to an on-going award, with a light touch review at the ten-year point.
Some claimants can be given a shorter, fixed-term award which isn’t subject to a review on the basis that the individual’s needs will improve to the point they are not entitled by the end of their award. Claimants subject to such an award are free to make a new claim before their award ends if they consider they may still be entitled.
Since PIP was introduced we have implemented changes and improved guidance which reduces the frequency of reviews for most pensioners and those with the highest needs and where those needs will not improve or will deteriorate.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey of 9 November 2020 and the follow-up sent on 19 February 2021.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A reply was sent to the hon. Member on behalf of the Secretary of State by a Director on 5 March.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce wait times for the Independent Case Examiner to asses a complaint.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2020/21, the Department provided additional funding to the Independent Case Examiner’s Office, to allow it to increase its headcount from 89 to 112. The recruitment and rigorous training of additional Investigation Case Managers, to reduce the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation, is underway.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the average waiting time for decisions to award personal independence payments (PIP) to people whose fixed term PIP awards ended after the 2 October 2020.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Table 1 below shows the median clearance time in working days from registration to initial clearance (end to end clearance time) of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) advanced claim awards made up to 31st October 2020 (the latest data available), following a fixed term award with no review that was due to end after 2nd October 2020. This is broken down by whether the advanced claim was awarded under Normal Rules or Special Rules for the Terminally Ill. This data excludes advanced Claims that were outstanding as of 31st October 2020.
Table 1: Median end to end Clearance time in working days of PIP advanced claims awarded following a fixed term award due to end after 2nd October 2020.
Normal Rules Median Clearance Time* | Special Rules for The Terminally Ill Median Clearance Time |
- | 7 |
*Please note that for Normal Rules advanced claims, there were 20 claimants who were awarded a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) fixed term award at initial decision due to end after 2nd October 2020 who have had their advanced Claim awarded up to 31st October 2020 (the latest data available).
Because of the small number of claims in this category we are unable to provide an average for the clearance time in this instance. Calculating averages for small populations has a risk of misrepresentative results skewed by non-typical values. This is in line with our practice for PIP statistical publications, where averages for populations of less than 50 are suppressed.
Notes
Source: PIP ADS
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of applying a backdated uplift to personal independence payment in line with the increase in universal credit to the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Universal Credit is an income related benefit unlike the disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which is an extra costs benefits. PIP is not means–tested, non-contributory and thus paid regardless of any income or savings. PIP is also tax-free and worth up to £151.40 a week. PIP was not subject to the benefits freeze and was most recently uprated by 1.7 per cent from 6 April 2020. Following the Secretary of State’s most recent statutory review of the rates of PIP, it is due to be uprated again from 12 April 2021, subsequent to the recent approval of the Social Security Up-rating Order 2021 by both Houses of Parliament.
PIP can be paid in addition to other financial support that those with a health condition or disability may be eligible for, such as Employment and Support Allowance, UC (thereby taking advantage of the UC increase), additional amounts and premiums paid within the income-related benefits, Carer’s Allowance or financial and practical help from the NHS or Local Authorities.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the decision not to extend to uplift to universal credit to legacy benefits on the comparative healthcare outcomes for individuals living with disabilities.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support people, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.
There are no plans to extend a benefit increase to legacy benefits. Claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for UC if they believe that they will be better off. Claimants should check carefully their eligibility and entitlements under UC before applying as legacy benefits will end when claimants submit their claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK.