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
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
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.