Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 impact of the £20 uplift in universal credit on levels of child poverty in (a) England and (b) Wansbeck.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
We introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed during the coldest months. It will now until June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many prohibition notices for each sector have been served by the Health and Safety Executive to employers for breaching covid-19 safety.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) takes Covid-19 safety at work very seriously and it is playing a critical role in the national response to the pandemic. The Government has provided additional funding of £14 million to HSE to strengthen its capacity to tackle Covid-19.
Since the start of the pandemic HSE has carried out over 110,000 Coivd-19 spot checks and responded to over 18,000 concerns. Over 700 checks a day are currently taking place. Spot checks have been targeted in those industries where workers are most likely to be vulnerable to transmission risks.
HSE’s evidence is that more than 90% of the businesses checked have the right precautions in place or are willing to make necessary changes promptly and without the need for enforcement notices. HSE will continue to take enforcement action where appropriate, but the best use of its time and resource to ensure employers take the right action promptly is often to educate, persuade or require matters to be put right immediately.
HSE has to date issued two prohibition notices for breaches of workplace COVID-secure standards, both in the oil and gas industry (part of the extractive utilities sector).
A further 212 COVID-19 related interventions have resulted in improvement notices, 1,422 in written correspondence and 6429 in verbal advice.
The tables below provide the breakdowns by industry sector. To note, sector comparisons cannot be made as the figures are not like for like in each sector due to our targeting approach.
Table 1: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of improvement notice
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of an improvement notice |
Agriculture | 0 |
Construction | 107 |
Extractive Utilities | 2 |
Manufacturing | 38 |
Services | 53 |
Water / Waste Management | 7 |
(Sector not specified) | 5 |
Total | 212 |
Table 2: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of written correspondence
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related cases resulting in an outcome of written correspondence |
Agriculture | 8 |
Construction | 457 |
Extractive Utilities | 24 |
Manufacturing | 474 |
Services | 367 |
Water / Waste Management | 65 |
(Sector not specified) | 27 |
Total | 1,422 |
Table 3: COVID-19 related interventions resulting in an outcome of verbal advice
Industry sector | Number of COVID-19 related cases resulting in an outcome of verbal advice |
Agriculture | 69 |
Construction | 1,165 |
Extractive Utilities | 107 |
Manufacturing | 2,724 |
Services | 2,030 |
Water / Waste Management | 299 |
(Sector not specified) | 35 |
Total | 6,429 |
Note: This data was extracted from HSE’s live operational database on 9th February 2021 and is subject to change e.g. as there can be a delay of up to 10 working days before actions are updated on the database.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will assess the potential merits of introducing time-bound targets for increasing Pension Credit uptake.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics covering 2018-19 were published on 29 October 2020, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019. They show a small but encouraging improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit. Take-up of Guarantee Credit – the safety-net element of Pension Credit – has risen from 68% to 70% of those eligible to claim it. The statistics also show a significant improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit by expenditure, with some 76% of Pension Credit being claimed, up from 70% in the previous year.
This year we took steps to raise awareness of Pension Credit by launching a campaign aimed at dispelling some of the common misconceptions about Pension Credit eligibility. We engaged with our stakeholders to ensure that the key campaign messages could be widely disseminated because we know that trusted organisations working in the community are often one of the first places that people are likely to go to seek information.
We have updated our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May we also launched the digital ‘Apply for Pension Credit’ (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim) service as part of our Covid 19 response to help people claim Pension Credit online with minimal delay and to ensure they can do so while adhering to social distancing or shielding measures. This online claim service for Pension Credit supplements the existing free Pension Credit claim line number (0800 99 1234) and postal claim facilities and around 50% of claims are being made using it.
We continue working with stakeholders to find the best ways to reach eligible pensioners and raise awareness of Pension Credit.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to develop new awareness raising campaigns to boost Pension Credit uptake.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics covering 2018-19 were published on 29 October 2020, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019. They show a small but encouraging improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit. Take-up of Guarantee Credit – the safety-net element of Pension Credit – has risen from 68% to 70% of those eligible to claim it. The statistics also show a significant improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit by expenditure, with some 76% of Pension Credit being claimed, up from 70% in the previous year.
This year we took steps to raise awareness of Pension Credit by launching a campaign aimed at dispelling some of the common misconceptions about Pension Credit eligibility. We engaged with our stakeholders to ensure that the key campaign messages could be widely disseminated because we know that trusted organisations working in the community are often one of the first places that people are likely to go to seek information.
We have updated our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May we also launched the digital ‘Apply for Pension Credit’ (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim) service as part of our Covid 19 response to help people claim Pension Credit online with minimal delay and to ensure they can do so while adhering to social distancing or shielding measures. This online claim service for Pension Credit supplements the existing free Pension Credit claim line number (0800 99 1234) and postal claim facilities and around 50% of claims are being made using it.
We continue working with stakeholders to find the best ways to reach eligible pensioners and raise awareness of Pension Credit.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to implement innovative technological solutions to increase the uptake of Pension Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics covering 2018-19 were published on 29 October 2020, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019. They show a small but encouraging improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit. Take-up of Guarantee Credit – the safety-net element of Pension Credit – has risen from 68% to 70% of those eligible to claim it. The statistics also show a significant improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit by expenditure, with some 76% of Pension Credit being claimed, up from 70% in the previous year.
This year we took steps to raise awareness of Pension Credit by launching a campaign aimed at dispelling some of the common misconceptions about Pension Credit eligibility. We engaged with our stakeholders to ensure that the key campaign messages could be widely disseminated because we know that trusted organisations working in the community are often one of the first places that people are likely to go to seek information.
We have updated our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May we also launched the digital ‘Apply for Pension Credit’ (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim) service as part of our Covid 19 response to help people claim Pension Credit online with minimal delay and to ensure they can do so while adhering to social distancing or shielding measures. This online claim service for Pension Credit supplements the existing free Pension Credit claim line number (0800 99 1234) and postal claim facilities and around 50% of claims are being made using it.
We continue working with stakeholders to find the best ways to reach eligible pensioners and raise awareness of Pension Credit.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will produce an action plan for increasing the uptake of Pension Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics covering 2018-19 were published on 29 October 2020, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2018-to-2019. They show a small but encouraging improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit. Take-up of Guarantee Credit – the safety-net element of Pension Credit – has risen from 68% to 70% of those eligible to claim it. The statistics also show a significant improvement in the take-up of Pension Credit by expenditure, with some 76% of Pension Credit being claimed, up from 70% in the previous year.
This year we took steps to raise awareness of Pension Credit by launching a campaign aimed at dispelling some of the common misconceptions about Pension Credit eligibility. We engaged with our stakeholders to ensure that the key campaign messages could be widely disseminated because we know that trusted organisations working in the community are often one of the first places that people are likely to go to seek information.
We have updated our online Pension Credit toolkit (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit) with the recent awareness campaign materials to supplement the resources it already contains for those working with pensioners, such as guides to Pension Credit and information designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit.
In May we also launched the digital ‘Apply for Pension Credit’ (https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim) service as part of our Covid 19 response to help people claim Pension Credit online with minimal delay and to ensure they can do so while adhering to social distancing or shielding measures. This online claim service for Pension Credit supplements the existing free Pension Credit claim line number (0800 99 1234) and postal claim facilities and around 50% of claims are being made using it.
We continue working with stakeholders to find the best ways to reach eligible pensioners and raise awareness of Pension Credit.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full time equivalent staff members of the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit team have been redeployed to other benefits teams during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff members of the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) team that have been redeployed to other benefits teams during the covid-19 outbreak is 110 FTE. This was in response to a fall- off in IIDB claims and to support the departments other priority work areas. A small number of residual FTE (23) remain on the IIDB team to deal with SRTi cases and customer enquiries.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full time equivalent staff members of the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) team have been dealing with asbestos related IIDB cases only, during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
During the COVID-19 outbreak and whilst IIDB medical assessments have been paused, we have continued to deploy 8 Full Time Equivalent staff members to ensure that the “special rules” cases which do not require a medical assessment have continued to be processed. All claims received have been progressed to the point of where they are now awaiting a medical assessment.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many members of full time equivalent staff were working in the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit team in January 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
In January 2020, the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff working on the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) Team was 134 FTE.
The number of FTE staff members that deal with asbestos related IIDB Claims as ‘Business as Usual’ is 23 FTE.