Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 ensure people with disabilities are not disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government is providing extensive support to disabled people and those with a health condition to help them live independent lives.
In 2022/23 we will spend over £64bn on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions in Great Britain.
In response to cost of living pressures, the Government announced over £37bn of cost of living support earlier this year, which includes:
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons it is her policy that there should be a managed migration of legacy benefits to Universal Credit.
Answered by David Rutley
Migrating the remaining legacy benefits over to Universal Credit ensures that the advantages of Universal Credit for claimants are fully realised.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on producing social media videos and graphics for use on ministerial social media accounts since January 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a Digital Communications team to create content to communicate departmental policies online via corporate channels. It is often appropriate for this content to be amplified on ministers' own social media accounts where this helps drive wider engagement from the public.
Content creation is one part of the digital team’s responsibilities, there is no individual cost per video or graphic created. The creation of these assets, as well with other communications products, is funded by the DWP’s Strategic Communications staffing budget.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in her Department manage ministerial social media accounts as either (a) their primary responsibility or (b) as part of their role.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a Digital Communications team to create content to communicate departmental policies online via corporate channels. It is often appropriate for this content to be amplified on ministers' own social media accounts where this helps drive wider engagement from the public.
Content creation is one part of the digital team’s responsibilities, there is no individual cost per video or graphic created. The creation of these assets, as well with other communications products, is funded by the DWP’s Strategic Communications staffing budget.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 Putney constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 trends in levels of funding for individual job centres since 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We do not assess funding at individual Jobcentre level. We use forecasts to determine what level of funding is required to meet demand nationally and in districts based on forecast workloads.
There has been an increase in resources dedicated to Jobcentres across all four Nations reflecting the change in the economic environment and increased caseloads since 2019 including recruiting over an additional 13500 Work Coaches.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that job centres run efficiently.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Our Jobcentre teams are committed to delivering a quality service to ensure all claimants receive the best possible support to meet their individual circumstance. We operate a service delivery framework which sets out the service expectations for our Jobcentre network and the requirements for how they deliver their services efficiently. It provides information on why these expectations are set, and ways that Jobcentre leaders and Work Coaches should implement the expectations.
Jobcentre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality, efficient service to all claimants. They receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals. Jobcentre Team Leaders are responsible for monitoring and assuring the quality and efficiency of services provided to individual claimants. Through a combination of observation of interviews, feedback, coaching and appraisal.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate staffing of job centres.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Jobcentre caseload sizes are closely monitored at both a national and sub national level to allow DWP to plan workforce numbers required. This information is then used to assess the size of the workforce needed in each Jobcentre, which then helps to inform the recruitment activity and ensure adequate staffing levels in each Jobcentre site.