Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
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 adequacy of local housing allowance rates.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates are reviewed annually, usually in the Autumn. LHA determines the maximum housing support for tenants in the private rented sector and do not cover all rents in all areas. The Secretary of State’s decision to maintain LHA rates at current levels for 2025/26 considered a range of factors including rental data; the impacts of LHA rates; the fact that rates were increased in April; and the wider fiscal context.
We currently spend around £32bn annually on housing support for renters. The April 2024 one-year LHA increase cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25, and approximately £7bn over 5 years.
For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
We continue to monitor shortfalls and rents and are working with MHCLG on their long-term housing strategy.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number of workers that do not qualify for statutory sick pay because they earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department’s latest estimate is that in Quarter 1 of the financial year 2022/23 there were around 1.5 million employees in the UK who earned below the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL). This figure does not include workers who are self-employed. This is an update to the position from the DWP’s 2019 ‘Health is Everyone’s Business’ consultation using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many workers in Scotland do not qualify for statutory sick pay because they earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Information on those who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit in Scotland is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of workers that earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department’s latest estimate is that in Quarter 1 of the financial year 2022/23 there were around 1.5 million employees, 5% of th, in the UK who earned below the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL). This figure does not include workers who are self-employed.
This is an update to the position from the DWP’s 2019 ‘Health is Everyone’s Business’ consultation using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). In the 2022/23 financial year, the LEL was set at £123 per week.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to introduce a voluntary exit programme for civil servants in his Department.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The DWP currently has no live voluntary exit schemes and no plans to run any at this time. Voluntary exit schemes are a commonly used workforce management process available to departments based on their specific workforce needs.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what payments were made to civil servants in her Department for relocation costs to government offices outside London in 2021
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
No re-location costs were paid to staff for moves from London to other locations during 2021.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of extreme heat temperatures on workers with no access to a cool environment during heatwaves.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 place a legal obligation on employers to provide a ‘reasonable’ temperature in indoor workplaces. In addition, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to make a suitable assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees and take action where necessary and where reasonably practicable.
Employers must make sure indoor workplaces remain at a reasonable temperature and manage the risk of working outdoors in hot environments. It is for each business to make a risk-based decision on how to minimise the health risks to their workers whilst working in extreme heat. As part of this employers may set their own thresholds at which work activity should take place.
Detailed guidance for employers on workplace temperature and thermal comfort is available on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) website. This guidance includes information on how to undertake a thermal comfort assessment and specific measures that can be taken to improve thermal comfort.
Employers should consult with employees or their representatives to establish sensible means to cope with high temperatures. Should an employee consider that their employer is not taking appropriate measures to cope with high temperatures, this should be raised with their enforcing authority.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to provide universal credit claimants who have taken temporary trips overseas special dispensation when that trip has been extended as a result of travel bans or restrictions during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Will Quince
It is a general requirement that a claimant must be in Great Britain (GB) to be entitled to Universal Credit but there are circumstances when a person is still entitled to Universal Credit whilst temporarily being absent from GB.
Claimants generally should notify Universal Credit of the intention to go abroad. Claimants can go abroad on holiday for any reason for up to one month, but they must still satisfy their work related requirements on the claimant commitment. An absence can be extended and in some specific circumstances work-related requirements may be ‘switched-off’.
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.
Foreign, Commmonwealth & Development Office 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: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will publish guidance to advise employers on how to support physically disabled workers to return to the workplace in a covid-safe way, while having their needs met, to ensure that disabled people are able to return to the workplace on an equal basis as covid-19 restrictions ease.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has existing guidance for employers of people with disabilities: https://www.hse.gov.uk/disability/employers.htm which remains applicable to those returning to work following absence related to COVID-19. Employers are required to ensure that their workplaces are COVID secure for all employees and there is extensive guidance on the HSE web site to help them do that.
Under equality law, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure, as far is reasonable, that employees with disabilities have the same access to everything required to do the job as a non - disabled worker.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Government has for a public consultation on the forthcoming National Disability Strategy.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year.
It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people. The Government has already engaged widely to support the development of the National Strategy and future work. This has taken place with a diverse range of stakeholders, including: the Disability Charities Consortium, Disabled People’s Organisations Forum and Regional Stakeholder Network (which includes disability organisations and individual disabled people), as well as businesses and business organisations, regulators, academia, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations.
This engagement will include online surveys and virtual round tables across the UK to enable disabled people to share views and insights on key challenges as the National Strategy is developed and implemented.