Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of women who are entitled to a state pension based on married women's reduced rate national insurance contributions.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information is not available. Married women’s reduced-rate National Insurance contributions do not count for the purposes of entitlement to state pension. Instead, women who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 and who had paid reduced-rate National Insurance contributions may be entitled to a state pension based on the National Insurance contributions of their spouse.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many people in supported housing specifically designated for (a) disabled people, (b) victims of domestic violence, (c) people with substance misuse problems and (d) others will be affected by the change in housing benefit to the Shared Accommodation Rate.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have made representations to his Department about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
So far representations have been made by 93 individuals and 16 housing providers about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.
DWP Ministers and officials will continue to have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many housing providers made representations to his Department about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
So far representations have been made by 93 individuals and 16 housing providers about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.
DWP Ministers and officials will continue to have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland will receive a reply to his letter of 14 December 2015 addressed to Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary to his Department.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Permanent Secretary replied to the hon. Member on 28 January 2015.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many people have received a lower pension credit entitlement as a result of receipt of the carer premium in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The award of the additional amount for caring in Pension Credit (currently £34.60 weekly) does not, in itself, reduce Pension Credit entitlement as it is an additional sum added to the customer’s appropriate amount. Estimates of numbers qualifying for the additional amount in May 2014 were published last year:
However, in order to qualify for the additional amount for caring the customer must be entitled to Carer’s Allowance. If Carer’s Allowance is in payment then it is taken into account as income and the person being cared for does not qualify for the additional amount for severe disability in Pension Credit. We do not have any estimates of the impact on Pension Credit where Carer’s Allowance is in payment.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people no longer receive the disability premium following their transfer from receipt of disability living allowance to personal independence payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Disability premium is an extra amount automatically added to Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for those who qualify.
Information on the payment of this premium for those who were also receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and have now transferred to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were moved from receipt of employment and support allowance to jobseeker's allowance because they did not meet the new points standard in each quarter of 2015.
Answered by Priti Patel
This is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reasonable adjustments will be made to support any disabled young person required to attend boot camp to prepare for employment under the Earn or Learn policy.
Answered by Priti Patel
From April 2017, we will be introducing the new Youth Obligation for Universal Credit (UC) claimants aged 18-21 who will be expected and supported to look for work. This new programme of support will help young people develop skills and experience to get and keep work.
The first three weeks of this will be a Work Coach led Intensive Activity Period (IAP), where young people on the Youth Obligation will complete a set curriculum of activity designed to help establish them as effective full time job-seekers straight away and support them into work as soon as possible.
Any requirements placed on claimants through the Youth Obligation will be reasonable and tailored to their individual needs and capabilities, taking into consideration any health condition they may have.
We will set out our policy design for disabled young people under the Youth Obligation in due course.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to disabled young people who are required to take traineeships or unpaid work experience under the Earn or Learn policy.
Answered by Priti Patel
Jobcentre Plus will help meet the costs of any reasonable adjustments where appropriate to enable the young person to participate in a work experience placement. Certain expenses, such as child care costs and travel can also be reimbursed.
Young people participating in a traineeship can qualify for existing financial support, including the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund, Free Meals, and Learning and Learner Support funding for 19 to 24 year olds. Access to Work is also available for the work experience placement of their traineeship if they have a disability or health condition that affects their ability to do a job, or means they have to pay extra work-related costs.
Any policy changes under the Youth Obligation will be set out in due course.