Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help people save for the future.
Answered by Paul Maynard
Retirement saving has been transformed with over 11 million employees put into workplace pensions since 2012.
We are committed to the expansion of Automatic Enrolment in the mid-2020s. Our reforms will benefit younger workers and increase overall amounts being saved, with 3m people saving £2bn extra a year.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on supporting disabled people into work.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It was a pleasure in February to visit Crawley Job Centre and meet the Work Coaches with My Honourable Friend.
He will know we have helped over one million more disabled people into work and our Health and Disability White Paper and the budget support will do so much more.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department’s review into economic inactivity will take into account the barriers to employment faced by disabled people and the support needed to overcome them.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The review will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a key focus of the review.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 Universal Credit claimants who will receive a cost of living payment in Crawley constituency.
Answered by David Rutley
Universal Credit claimants who were entitled to at least 1p during assessment periods that ended between 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022 will be eligible for the £326 Cost of Living Payment.
Statistics on the number of households that had an assessment period which covered the monthly count date and received a Universal Credit payment are available by Westminster parliamentary constituency at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
The latest statistics show the number of households with Universal Credit in payment on 10th February 2022.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has issued guidance to work coaches on avoiding recommendations for in-person work for people who are immunocompromised.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
As mentioned in my previous response, the Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with a health condition or disability, including those who are immunocompromised, continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances, including considering the impact of their health and wider situation.
Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied including that work search reflects the type and location of jobs which are appropriate to the individual.
Although DWP does not routinely provide guidance specifically on supporting people who are immunocompromised, we do ensure that staff are aware of the sources of information available to them relating to medical conditions that are associated with this. Staff are signposted to tools, guidance support and websites to effectively use resources from both internal and external sites, such as information directly from the NHS found here.
This ensures that staff can access the most up to date advice and can use this to inform how they support individual customers.
We empower our Work Coaches to use all available resources to best support each claimant, however they are not trained to provide comprehensive healthcare advice, therefore while we do discuss the implications certain jobs may have on their health, we would not advise against jobs the claimant wishes to apply for.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Work Coaches are being given guidance on immunocompromised patients; and whether that guidance includes avoiding recommendations for in-person work for those individuals.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with a health condition or disability, including those who are immunocompromised, continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances, including considering the impact of their health and wider situation.
Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied including that work search reflects the type and location of jobs which are appropriate to the individual.
Although DWP does not routinely provide guidance specifically on supporting people who are immunocompromised, we do ensure that staff are aware of the sources of information available to them relating to medical conditions that are associated with this. Staff are signposted to tools, guidance support and websites to effectively use resources from both internal and external sites, such as information directly from the NHS.
This ensures that staff can access the most up to date advice and can use this to inform how they support individual customers.