Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
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 employers in (a) Liverpool West Derby constituency, (b) Liverpool City Region, (c) England and (d) the UK fully support menopausal employees in their workplaces.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Department does not collect data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours.
The former Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July.
Alongside this, and separately, The Women’s Health Strategy sets out a range of commitments including encouraging employers to implement evidence-based workplace support and introduce workplace menopause policies.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures the Government is taking to improve support in the workplace for menopausal employees in (a) Liverpool West Derby constituency, (b) Liverpool City Region, (c) England and (d) across the UK.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Department does not collect data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours.
The former Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July.
Alongside this, and separately, The Women’s Health Strategy sets out a range of commitments including encouraging employers to implement evidence-based workplace support and introduce workplace menopause policies.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of the menopause on employees reducing their working hours.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Department does not collect data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours.
The former Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Department does not collect data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours.
The former Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people in the UK who may potentially move into poverty as a result of the predicted rise in fuel bills in Autumn 2022.
Answered by David Rutley
No such assessment has been made.
This government is committed to supporting those on low incomes. We will spend over £242bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2022/23 including £108bn on people of working age and over £134 billion on pensioners. Of the total amount, around £64 billion will be spent on supporting disabled people and people with health conditions.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, that is why it is providing over £37 billion of support this year. This includes the £650 Cost of Living Payment, made in 2 instalments, which is designed to target support at low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off, disability Cost of Living Payment of £150. And pensioner households will receive a separate one-off payment of £300 (through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment). All households with a domestic electricity bill will also benefit from the £400 support being provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances.
We are also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, the current Household Support Fund is already providing £421m of support for the period 1 April – 30 September 2022 and will be extended until March 2023 with a further £421m.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to take steps in response to the End Child Poverty coalition statistics on local child poverty rates.
Answered by David Rutley
This Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families, and believes work is the best route out of poverty. With a record 1.27 million vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.
The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. In October to December 2021 there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 540,000 fewer children living in workless households in the UK compared to 2010. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty before housing costs than in 2009/10.
To help parents into work, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. Our plan for jobs is providing results, over 539,000 unemployed Universal Credit claimants and Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign.
We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work. This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances.
To further support parents to move into and progress in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month up to a maximum of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. This is on top of the free childcare offer in England which provides 15 hours a week of free childcare for all 3- and 4-year-olds and disadvantaged 2-year-olds, doubling for working parents of 3- and 4-year-olds to 30 hours a week.
Around 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free school meal, saving families around £450 per year. In addition, around 1.25 million more infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime as well as over 90,000 disadvantaged further education students. We are also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Vouchers by a third to £4.25 a week.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. These are global challenges and that is why the government is providing over £15bn in further support, targeted particularly on those with the greatest need. This package is in addition to the over £22bn announced previously, with government support for the cost of living now totalling over £37bn this year.
This includes an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, the current Household Support Fund is already providing £421m of support for the period 1 April – 30 September 2022, at least a third (£140m) will be spent on families with children. Liverpool City Council has been allocated £6,054,020.20.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what inter-ministerial group exists to discuss (a) poverty and (b) matters relating to the cost of living; when that group last met; and which departments are represented in its membership.
Answered by David Rutley
We are committed to working across Government to support households, which is why we convened the cost of living Inter-Ministerial Group to ensure a cross-Government understanding of the cost of living challenges particular for those on lower incomes and to encourage a joined up approach to future work in this area.
Ministers have had extensive and wide-ranging discussions around the cost of living and will continue to do so in the future. The Inter-Ministerial Group last formally met on 9 November 2021.
Ministers and officials from across Government have constant discussion on policy development and implementation, including ahead of the announcement on help with energy bills on 3rd March and the Spring Statement on 23rd March 2022.