Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Hull West and Hessle constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an assessment has been made of the potential merits of allowing State Pension claimants to choose whether to be paid monthly or four-weekly.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Successive Governments, of different political persuasions, have created a State Pension system that does not provide for monthly payments by law.
A customer can request a change to weekly or bi-weekly payments if they wish, at any point after the initial claim and award payment is made.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to review the tariff income system.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no plans to change the tariff income rule which is a long-standing principle of means-tested benefits.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 reducing the state pension age to 60.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
People in the UK continue to live longer lives, and the proportion of adults that are over State Pension age is increasing. Raising State Pension age in line with life expectancy changes has been the policy of successive administrations over the years.
We committed in legislation to undertake a review of State Pension age every six years, which means that the statutory deadline for the publication of the next Government review is 2023. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the State Pension system is affordable, sustainable and fair to future tax payers.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average timeframe is for Access to Work applications to (a) be allocated an advisor, (b) have evidence gathered and (c) reach a resolution.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested about average timeframes for Access to Work applications for allocations, evidence gathering and reaching resolutions for people who have applied for support from Access to Work is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of covid-19 international travel restrictions on an individual's ability to meet the criteria for the Habitual Residency Test.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Eligibility for Universal Credit and other income related benefits depends on an individual’s immigration status. In order to assess this the Department operates a Habitual Residence Test (HRT). The HRT contains two elements: an assessment of the legal right of residence and an assessment of factual habitual residence.
All claimants to income related benefits must be factually habitually resident in the UK in order to make a claim. Existing benefit recipients who have left the country on a temporary basis and found it difficult to return due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, will satisfy the second element of the HRT upon their return if they can be shown to be resuming a former period of residence. Each case would be dealt with on an individual basis.
Income-related benefits are only payable to people who are in the UK and cannot be claimed by those outside the UK. The Department has put into place measures to support existing benefit recipients in exceptional cases where their absence abroad goes over the period allowed under the temporary absence benefit rules and are awaiting repatriation due to covid-19 travel restrictions.
FCDO consular staff continue to provide advice and support to British nationals who face financial difficulties overseas due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Those in real financial distress whilst stranded overseas can seek advice and support from their local consular team, who will be able to advise on any local support that may be available as well as facilitate contact with friends and families who may be able to help.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 potential merits of increasing the eligibility age of the Mobility Allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Mobility Allowance was incorporated into Disability Living Allowance (DLA), as the lower and higher rates of the mobility component, from 1992 and subsequently the standard and enhanced rates of the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) when PIP was introduced to replace working age DLA from 2013.
Prior to the introduction of changes to State Pension age (SPa), to equalise and increase pensionable age for men and women, the upper age limit for claiming DLA and PIP was the day before reaching age 65. DLA claimants who were age 65 or over on 8 April 2013, when PIP was introduced, can continue to receive the benefit after that age for as long as they satisfy the conditions of entitlement. DLA claimants who were under the age of 65 on 8 April 2013 will be invited to claim PIP regardless of whether they are over the age of 65 at the time they are invited and can gain access to either component, at either rate, regardless of their age.
The upper age limit for claiming PIP by new claimants for the first time was last reviewed prior to the most recent changes to SPa made by the Pensions Act 2014 and is the day before reaching SPa, as set out in the Pensions Act 1995. Once someone is entitled to PIP they can continue to be paid beyond SPa so long as the conditions of entitlement remain satisfied.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest ONS statistics published on 15th December show UK employment is at 32.5 million, or 75.2 per cent. At every stage of this pandemic we have looked to provide support to those impacted, particularly the most vulnerable – this includes £280bn of interventions – such as the furlough scheme.
Updated statistics will be released tomorrow.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to temporarily suspend personal independent payment reviews as a result of the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Throughout the pandemic the department has ensured that claimants continue to receive the benefits that they are entitled to. In March last year, we suspended face to face assessments following public health guidelines and introduced a telephony assessment service to ensure claimants and staff were safe. This service currently covers all claims types including award reviews. There is no plan to suspend assessments for award reviews as a result of this lockdown.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to promote the Disability Confident scheme to employers offering Kickstart placements.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Disability Confident Scheme encourages employers to think differently about how they can improve the way they attract, recruit and retain people with disabilities in their workforce. We encourage all employers to consider each young person fairly and promote a wide-range of roles that will suit all those in need of a Kickstart job. Information on the scheme is included with the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme guidance alongside the existing disability confident employer engagement. This guidance can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-employers-apply-for-a-kickstart-scheme-grant-kickstart-gateway
Our ongoing evaluation of the Kickstart Scheme will consider potential barriers faced by young people from different demographic groups or with particular protected characteristics. Our learning from this exercise will be fed back into the programme.