Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 potential merits of removing the two-child limit from universal credit as recommended by the Social Mobility Commission in its State of the Nation 2021 report.
Answered by David Rutley
No assessment has been carried out since the Social Mobility Commission’s report. However, latest figures from April 2021 indicate that over 50% of those households with three or more children who are in receipt of Universal Credit, are not affected by the two-child policy, with over 4% of those being in receipt of an exception. Statistics relating to this policy are published annually, most recently on the 15 July 2021, and are available on GOV.UK.
Statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2020, of all families with dependent children, 85% had a maximum of two in their family. For lone parent families, this was 83%.
The government therefore feels it is proportionate to provide support through Universal Credit for a maximum of two children. A benefits structure adjusting automatically to family size is unsustainable.
On 9 July 2021, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the judicial review of the two-child policy. The court found the two-child policy lawful and not in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights
This policy ensures fairness by asking families on benefits to make the same financial decisions as families supporting themselves solely through work. We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, which is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups.
.
Exceptions to the two-child policy are any child in a household who is:
- additional children in a multiple birth;
- likely to have been born as a result of non-consensual conception (which for this
purpose includes rape or where the claimant was in a controlling or coercive
relationship with the child’s other biological parent at the time of conception).
More information regarding this policy and its exceptions, can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many frontline (a) enforcement officers and (b) inspectors were employed on average in the Health and Safety Executive for the 2020-21 annual reporting period.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
On average, in 2020/21, HSE employed (a) 85 full-time equivalent (FTE) visiting health and safety officers and (b) 967 FTE Inspectors.
1. Please note that HSE does not use the category ‘enforcement officer’. Visiting health and safety and Inspector figures are provided, as published in The Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a classification of the matters being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive for the 2020-21 annual reporting period.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no plans to routinely publish the classification of the matters being investigated.
For information, Table 1 below provides details of incidents which occurred in 2020/21 which were investigated or are under investigation following a report received under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).
Please note these figures do not include 183,632 COVID related spot checks carried out by HSE in 2020/21
RIDDOR INVESTIGATIONS | Count |
Dangerous Occurrences | 260 |
High fall (over 2m) | 152 |
Contact with machinery | 146 |
COVID-19 non-fatal | 134 |
Dangerous Gas Fittings | 112 |
Struck by object | 92 |
Other ill health | 88 |
COVID-19 fatal | 68 |
Low fall (up to & inc. 2m) | 67 |
Struck by moving vehicle | 59 |
Another kind of accident | 48 |
Slip, trip, fall same level | 40 |
Injured by an animal | 32 |
Trapped by something collapsing | 32 |
Exposure to harmful substance | 23 |
Struck against | 20 |
Gas Incidents | 19 |
Contact with electricity | 16 |
Exposed to fire | 16 |
Lifting and handling injuries | 13 |
Physical assault | 10 |
Fall (height not known) | 8 |
Drowned or asphyxiated | 5 |
Exposed to explosion | 5 |
TOTAL | 1465 |
Table 2 below provides details of workplace concerns which were raised in 2020/21 and investigated or are still under investigation by an Inspector.
CONCERNS | Count |
Construction | 2211 |
Gas | 391 |
COVID* | 1192 |
Other | 5813 |
Pesticides | 37 |
Working Time | 5 |
TOTAL | 9649 |
|
|
Table 2
*in the reporting year 2020/21, HSE dealt with almost 21,000 COVID related workplace concerns with the majority being resolved by the national Concerns and Advisory Team without the need to be passed to an Inspector for investigation.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full-time equivalent inspectors have been employed in each region of the country by (a) the Health and Safety Executive and (b) Local Authorities in each year since 2009.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) also recently announced an additional £14m funding that has been made available to HSE until March 2021. Changes in intervention approaches have enabled the HSE to remain effective as a regulator despite fewer inspectors however HSE is developing a rolling programme of activity and will draw down funds throughout the year to bring in additional inspectors, call centre staff and equipment.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many job seeker's allowance claimants in Bradford East who were subjected to sanctions in each year from 2010 successfully overturned the sanction decision.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The number of job seeker's allowance claimants who have been sanctioned, including information on mandatory reconsiderations and appeals by parliamentary constituency is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance for users is available at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many successful mandatory reconsiderations against decisions there were for (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment claimants in Bradford East in each year from 2010.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Employment and Support Allowance
Information on appeal outcomes in relation to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments by several geographical areas is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
The mandatory reconsideration process was introduced in 2013. The latest available information for Great Britain on the number of mandatory reconsiderations can be found in the ESA Outcomes of Work Capability Assessments quarterly statistics published here:
It is the intention to produce further geographical breakdowns of these statistics in the future.
Between April 2014 and June 2018, 3.7m ESA (post WCA) decisions have been made in Great Britain, of these 8% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.
Personal Independence Payment
The information requested for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Appeals in Bradford East is shown in the table below, by year of appeal clearance.
Since PIP was introduced 3.7m decisions have been made in Great Britain up to September 2018, of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned.
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 (Jan – Sep) | |
Decision Overturned at Appeal | 10 | 30 | 130 | 130 | 120 |
Decision Maintained | 10 | 40 | 120 | 80 | 40 |
Appeal Overturn Rate | 56% | 45% | 52% | 61% | 74% |
From 2014 through to September 2018 in Bradford East, of the 720 appeals, 430 (59%) saw the decision overturned. Since PIP was introduced up to September 2018 9,650 initial decisions have been made in Bradford East and 4% have been overturned at appeal.
The information requested for PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) in Bradford East is shown in the table below, by year of MR clearance.
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 (Jan - Oct) | |
New Decision – Award Changed at MR | 20 | 80 | 130 | 170 | 150 |
Decision Unchanged/Not Revised at MR | 90 | 400 | 610 | 780 | 630 |
Percentage of MRs where the Decision was Changed | 15% | 16% | 17% | 18% | 19% |
Note:
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.
PIP Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
PIP was introduced in 2013 to replace Disability Living Allowance for working age people.
The geography relates to the origin of the claim (i.e. derived from claimant’s postcode) rather than the location of where the tribunal was held.
Decisions overturned at appeal may include a number of appeals that have been lapsed (which is where DWP changed the decision after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at Tribunal).
Some decisions which are changed at MR, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Therefore the number of people who had a decision changed at MR and the number of people who had a decision changed at tribunal appeal cannot be added together.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many successful appeals there have been against decisions on (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment claims in Bradford East in each year from 2010.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Employment and Support Allowance
Information on appeal outcomes in relation to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments by several geographical areas is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
The mandatory reconsideration process was introduced in 2013. The latest available information for Great Britain on the number of mandatory reconsiderations can be found in the ESA Outcomes of Work Capability Assessments quarterly statistics published here:
It is the intention to produce further geographical breakdowns of these statistics in the future.
Between April 2014 and June 2018, 3.7m ESA (post WCA) decisions have been made in Great Britain, of these 8% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.
Personal Independence Payment
The information requested for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Appeals in Bradford East is shown in the table below, by year of appeal clearance.
Since PIP was introduced 3.7m decisions have been made in Great Britain up to September 2018, of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned.
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 (Jan – Sep) | |
Decision Overturned at Appeal | 10 | 30 | 130 | 130 | 120 |
Decision Maintained | 10 | 40 | 120 | 80 | 40 |
Appeal Overturn Rate | 56% | 45% | 52% | 61% | 74% |
From 2014 through to September 2018 in Bradford East, of the 720 appeals, 430 (59%) saw the decision overturned. Since PIP was introduced up to September 2018 9,650 initial decisions have been made in Bradford East and 4% have been overturned at appeal.
The information requested for PIP Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) in Bradford East is shown in the table below, by year of MR clearance.
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 (Jan - Oct) | |
New Decision – Award Changed at MR | 20 | 80 | 130 | 170 | 150 |
Decision Unchanged/Not Revised at MR | 90 | 400 | 610 | 780 | 630 |
Percentage of MRs where the Decision was Changed | 15% | 16% | 17% | 18% | 19% |
Note:
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.
PIP Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
PIP was introduced in 2013 to replace Disability Living Allowance for working age people.
The geography relates to the origin of the claim (i.e. derived from claimant’s postcode) rather than the location of where the tribunal was held.
Decisions overturned at appeal may include a number of appeals that have been lapsed (which is where DWP changed the decision after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at Tribunal).
Some decisions which are changed at MR, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Therefore the number of people who had a decision changed at MR and the number of people who had a decision changed at tribunal appeal cannot be added together.