Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to improve job opportunities for young people with employment access needs.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Jobcentre Plus partnership and employer adviser teams work closely with national and local employers to help address their labour market needs by recruiting suitable claimants.
To promote opportunities for young people with access needs, Jobcentre Plus offers additional support to employers who are committed to helping these young people succeed in the labour market. Through the Disability Confident scheme, for example, DWP is providing advice and support to help employers feel more confident about employing disabled people. This in turn helps to promote the skills, talents and abilities of people with disabilities and health conditions.
As part of the DWP Youth Offer, Youth Employability Coaches work alongside Disability Employment Advisers to support claimants who have a disability or health condition to enter and stay in employment. Some Youth Hubs also offer mental health support and services, alongside skills, training, and employment provision.
There are a range of initiatives businesses can get involved in to give opportunities and experience to young people, including apprenticeships, traineeships, mentoring circles, and work experience. In addition, Access to Work and the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service provide personalised support to enable disabled people and those with a health condition to move into or keep employment.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money has been spent under section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 on (a) the provision of marriage support services, (b) research into the causes of marital breakdown and (c) research into ways of preventing marital breakdown in each financial year since the Act came into force.
Answered by Will Quince
As policy responsibility for relationship issues has moved between departments several times since 1996, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The policy responsibility for relationship issues currently sits with DWP. DWP does not make grants under section 22 of the Family Law Act (1996), however we have funded a range of work to help couples (including those who are married) to improve the quality of their relationships.
Since responsibility for this area moved to DWP, we have spent the following in each financial year:
2014/15 - £7.5m
2015/16 - £11.2m
2016/17 - £6.3m
2017/18 - £5.24m
2018/19 - £15.85m
2019/20 current forecast - £10.2m
Currently, these services are focused on the specific issue of parental conflict, and are delivered through our Reducing Parental Conflict programme.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to increase the financial support parents receive for raising children with disabilities.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Child Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a benefit for children under the age of 16 who, due to a disability or health condition, have mobility issues and/or require substantially more care, attention and supervision than children their age normally would. Parents of disabled children may be also able to claim Carer’s Allowance.
The government is committed to protecting and supporting the most vulnerable in society. It is for that reason the government has continued to uprate disability and carer benefits by inflation, including the disability elements of tax credits.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap and seeing a million more disabled people in work by 2027.
We help disabled people return to and stay in work through programmes including the Work and Health Programme, the new Intensive Personalised Employment Support Programme, Access to Work and Disability Confident.
There were 4.2 million working age disabled people in employment in the UK in Q3 2019. This was an increase of 354,000 since last year (Q3 2018), and an overall increase of 1.3 million since Q3 2013, the earliest comparable figure.
We will publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020. This will look at ways to improve the benefits system, opportunities and access for disabled people in terms of housing, education, transport and jobs
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding the Government has allocated under section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 to (a) the provision of marriage support services and (b) research into (i) the causes of and (ii) preventing marital breakdown in each year since 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
Responsibility for delivering relationship support services moved to the Department for Work and Pensions in 2013. Although DWP does not make grants under s22 of the Family Law Act (1996), we have funded a range of services to support families to improve the quality of their relationships – including those who are married.
DWP is currently delivering the Reducing Parental Conflict programme, which is backed by up to £39m and aims to encourage local authorities and their partners across England to integrate services which address parental conflict into local provision for families. Around a third of this budget is being used to test eight face-to-face interventions, which evidence shows have the potential to be effective at reducing parental conflict.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what research her Department has conducted on life for people with Down's Syndrome in the 21st century.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
This department undertakes research into people’s experience of support into work schemes, including the experiences of disabled people. The Department has not conducted or commissioned research on life experiences for people with Down’s Syndrome in the 21st Century.
Equal rights for disabled people, including people with Down’s Syndrome, are provided for under the reasonable adjustments provisions in the Equality Act and the Public Sector Equality duty. Each Government Department and public authority is under a duty to make adequate provision for disabled people including people with Down’s Syndrome.
Disability in the UK is mainstreamed. This means that every department is ultimately responsible for considering disability in the development and implementation of its policies and services.