Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants currently have a managed payment to landlord in each London borough.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This information is not currently available.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has for the number of full-time equivalent staff to be in the benefit cap processing team when the lower benefit cap is implemented; and what estimate he has made of the cost of those staff to the public purse.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The implementation funding for additional benefit cap processing is circa £1.4m to provide an additional 44 FTE staff in steady state for Universal Credit and current benefit claimants.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 September 2016 to Question 45327, what proportion of claimants affected by the lower benefit cap in (a) Tower Hamlets and (b) London are in receipt of (i) jobseeker's allowance, (ii) employment support allowance and (iii) income support.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information is provided in the table below.
Estimated breakdown of households affected by the lower cap levels by benefit receipt, 2016/17, GB
Benefit Received | Proportion of Capped Households | |
London Borough of Tower Hamlets | London | |
Employment and Support Allowance | 25% | 22% |
Income Support | 36% | 39% |
Jobseeker's Allowance | 27% | 25% |
Other | 12% | 14% |
Total | 100% | 100% |
Notes:
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2016 to Question 38327, when his Department plans to publish its Work and Health Green Paper.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We will publish a Green Paper later this year.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 27 June 2016 to Question HL691, if the Government will publish the information it holds on the proportion of claimants affected by the lower benefit cap who are in receipt of (a) jobseeker's allowance, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) income support.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information is provided in the table below.
Estimated number of households affected by the lower cap levels by benefit receipt, 2016/17, GB
Benefit Type | Estimated number of Households affected (000’s) | Proportion of affected households |
Employment and Support Allowance | 19 | 21% |
Income Support | 43 | 49% |
Jobseeker's Allowance | 19 | 21% |
Other | 8 | 9% |
Total | 88 | 100% |
Notes:
The benefit cap will be lowered from 7th November from £26,000 to £20,000, except in London where it will be lowered to £23,000. To help ensure Local Authorities are able to protect the most vulnerable Housing Benefit claimants and to support households adjusting to our welfare reforms, the Government will provide £870m funding for Discretionary Housing Payments over the next 5 years. Information about this and other measures to ease the transition for families affected by this policy change is included in the latest impact assessment at the link above.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what response he plans to make to the serious concerns raised by the recent UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its concluding observations to its Fifth Period Report.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In section V. paragraph B92 of the UN concluding observations, the UN Committee has invited the UK to submit its combined sixth and seventh periodic reports (including a response to the observations from this year’s examination) by 14 January 2022; it would therefore not be appropriate for me to pre-empt this report by anticipating what we might say in 2022. In any event, the Government regularly assesses the impacts of its policies and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of households in Tower Hamlets which will be affected by the proposed single person benefit cap; and what the average reduction in household income will be as a result of this cap.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20 July. A link to the impact assessment is included.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many new (a) private rented and (b) social tenancies households will be affected by the proposed benefit cap; and what the average reduction in household income will be for both such households.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20 July. A link to the impact assessment is included.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential annual reduction in benefits for residents in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets due to the cap on household benefits.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20 July. A link to the impact assessment is included.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what provision for Discretionary Housing Payments he plans to make for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in (a) 2015-16 and (b) each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The allocation for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) in 2015/2016 for Tower Hamlets is £1,565,107.
No decisions have been made on allocations to local authorities for the next three financial years, however as announced in the Budget, overall DHP funding will be increased to £800 million over the next five years. The Department considers the allocation of Discretionary Housing Payments each year, based on each local authority’s Housing Benefit expenditure and the local impact of reforms.