Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of trends in youth employment.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Employment amongst 16 to 24 year olds in the UK is up by 200,000 since 2010 to reach 3.915 million. Unemployment amongst this age group has fallen by over 40% since 2010 to reach 528,000 – close to its lowest level on record.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's policies in getting women into work.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We have made great progress in getting women into work.
The female employment rate is 70.8% - which equates to a record 15.12 million women in work.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent comparative assessment he has made of rates of unemployment in the UK and other European countries.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The UK has the joint 4th lowest unemployment rate in the EU - better than France, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The UK’s unemployment rate (4.3%) is the lowest in 42 years and is less than half that of the Euro area (9.1%) and 3.3% points below the EU28 average (7.6%).
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 the Disability Confident scheme.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Disability Confident scheme was launched in November 2016. As of 22 September 2017 5,162 employers had signed up to it, across a wide range of sizes, industries and locations, with this number continuing to grow.
The Disability Confident Business Leaders Group, comprising of prominent national businesses, is leading efforts to promote Disability Confident to employers, as are industrial and professional membership bodies. Those businesses signed up as Disability Confident Leaders are encouraging and supporting other employers to sign up. Disability Confident is being promoted to employers via a wide range of Government activities including press releases, social media, events, conferences and links to the Gov.UK site.
The Department is constantly looking to improve the Disability Confident offer to employers that sign up to the scheme and to do this we have introduced a specialist themed approach, offering additional advice, guidance and support on a wide range of topics such as Mental Health, Autism and Neuro-diversity and Reasonable adjustments. By utilising the expertise of Disability Confident Leaders, we are able to share best practice via events, webinars, blogs, video-links to benefit all Disability Confident employers.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 children living in workless households.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The number of children living at workless households in the UK stood at 1.3 million in April–June 2017 – a record low – and down by over 600,000 since 2010.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 support disabled entrepreneurs.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government provides schemes such as the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) that offers business mentoring and financial support to people, including those with disabilities, aged 18 and over and on eligible benefits, who want to start a business. Latest statistics (to end April 2017) show that around 1 in 4 (44,080) people who have participated in the NEA have declared a disability, with 23,120 of these progressing to set up a business.
Access to Work can also help disabled entrepreneurs who are self-employed or running a small business, by providing a discretionary grant as a contribution towards extra disability related workplace costs, for example funding for support workers, travel costs, and aids and adaptations, subject to qualifying criteria being met.
The Office for Disability Issues is engaging with external experts to explore the potential for collaborative work on events and initiatives to support entrepreneurs that are disabled. The recently launched OpenLab community and website links together entrepreneurs with ideas around disability and technology with big businesses and others who may be able to support them in progressing their innovations.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to implement a separate back to work support system for people suffering from mental health conditions to provide them with personalised help and specialist support.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Work is an important factor in improving the quality of life for people with mental health problems. Jobcentre Plus, the Work Programme and Work Choice support many claimants with mental health conditions. Jobcentre Plus flexibilities enable a tailored approach to each claimant and we provide training for all work coaches in how best to support people with mental health conditions.
Work Programme providers have the flexibility to design an innovative, personalised approach to help people into work. Many providers offer mental health support, either in house or through specialist sub-contractors.
With the Department of Health, we have launched pilots aimed at further improving support for people with mental health conditions.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants there are of housing benefit in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Steve Webb
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on the 03 November 2014 to Question UIN 212673.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants there are of higher rate disability living allowance in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
These are devolved matters which are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive Minister for Social Development.
Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employment and support allowance claimants there are in each constituency in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
These are devolved matters which are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive Minister for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm