Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 potential impact of the two child benefit cap on children in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to tackling child poverty and the Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy which we will publish in the autumn. We are considering all available levers, including social security reforms, to give every child the best start in life. The causes of child poverty are wide-ranging and deep-rooted, and so it is right that the Taskforce carefully considers and assesses the available levers as it develops this Strategy.
In the meantime, we are pressing ahead with action.
As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year including Barnett impact, investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap.
In August, we confirmed funding of £600m for the Holiday Activities and Food programme for the next three years, ensuring that children and young people can continue to benefit from enriching experiences and nutritious meals during the school holidays.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20593 on Social Security Benefits: Suicide, how many deaths by suicide her Department has investigated in each year since 2010.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The National Audit Office recently published their briefing note on information held by the DWP on deaths by suicide of benefit claimants. This report can be accessed via the following link:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of claimants of social security benefits who have died by suicide in the last twelve months for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department interacts with millions of people, and among them are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. When we are informed a claimant has, tragically, died as a result of suicide, the Department will investigate. However, the fact that we have carried out a review does not mean that DWP has been found culpable in the circumstances or events leading to a death. This is up to a coroner to establish.
We are continuously improving support and guidance to staff on how best to support vulnerable people, and we are constantly looking at our processes, striving for improvement.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce unemployment in (a) Oldham West and Royton constituency and (b) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The rate of unemployment in the Oldham Local Authority District – using the Annual Population Survey (APS) – was estimated to be 10.0% for the year to December 2010. By comparison the estimate for the year to December 2017 was 5.9%, a reduction of 4.1%. Nationally, the UK unemployment rate, currently at 4.2%, has fallen by 3.8 percentage points since 2010.
In the Oldham West and Royton constituency the Department offers a range of support to help more people move into work and to progress in work. These include ‘Super ESOL’ courses, which focus on the needs of claimants with little or no English speaking skills and ‘Your Experience Matters’ workshops, which are aimed at our older claimants. Through the Jobcentre Plus ‘Support for Schools’ initiative, Oldham Jobcentre is engaged with seven secondary schools in Oldham; supporting careers sessions, careers fairs and ‘mock interview’ days.
Additionally, we continue to work with a range of partners to ensure customers are referred to appropriate services such as Mind, Raise and Groundwork according to their individual needs, and we are working closely with Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council as part of the Universal Support offer to claimants. Jobcentres across the country offer similar support.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent from the public purse on support for 18-24 year olds in Oldham who are not in employment, education and training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The information requested is not routinely recorded, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to 18-24 year olds in Oldham who are not in employment, education and training.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Youth unemployment in the UK is at a near record low; 5 per cent of young people aged 16-24 are unemployed and not in full time education. The latest claimant count for 18-24 year olds in the Oldham local authority area is 1,415, an increase of 485 on the year, which is due in part to Universal Credit expanding the ‘Searching for Work’ conditionality group*. However, this a fall of 720 since April 2010. The Government remains committed to providing targeted support for young people so that everyone, no matter what their start in life, is given the very best chance of getting into work. That is why we offer a range of support to young people to help them prepare for and move into work or an apprenticeship.
Young jobseekers, aged 18-21, in Oldham are being supported by the Youth Obligation Support Programme. This programme helps claimants become effective jobseekers from the start of their claim, provides tailored support and access to work-related training, including the offer of a guaranteed work experience placement if they are still unemployed after 6 months.
Young people up to the age of 25 also receive intensive work-focused coaching and referral to additional support tailored to their individual needs, drawn from a wide menu of available local provision within Oldham. This includes work experience, sector-based work academies, traineeships and other provision.
* The claimant count is currently designated as an experimental statistic by the Office for National Statistics as a result of the roll out of Universal Credit. Universal Credit full service expands the ‘Searching for Work’ conditionality group to cover a wider group of claimants, to encourage these claimants into work or to work more. This policy decision has the effect of bringing additional people into the claimant count compared to the pre-Universal Credit system and the number of people recorded as being on the Claimant Count is therefore likely to rise. DWP have published a consultation on developing a new measure for labour market performance over time. this can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposals-for-a-new-statistical-series-to-count-unemployed-claimants
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many FTE employees were based in Oldham Job Centre in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The requested information for the numbers of FTE (full time equivalent) employees based in Oldham Job Centre since 2010 is:
November 2010 – 168.35 FTE
April 2011 – 153.01 FTE
April 2012 – 128.08 FTE
April 2013 – 134.57 FTE
April 2014 – 136.29 FTE
April 2015 – 128.93 FTE
April 2016 – 79.99 FTE*
April 2017 – 73.77 FTE*
2018 (as of May) – 120.76 FTE
* The lower FTE figures at April 2016 and April 2017 reflect natural attrition (resignations, promotions and transfers), a Voluntary Early Severance package (part of a national DWP scheme), and the continuing improvement in employment figures. From April 2017 onwards additional staff were recruited due to the roll-out of Universal Credit in Oldham, in July 2017.
All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal point due to DWP’s FTE calculation process.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money from the public purse was paid to work programme providers in Greater Manchester in each relevant year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department’s Work Programme does not have a contract covering just Greater Manchester, so the information can not be provided at the level of detail requested.
However, there is a contract covering Greater Manchester, Chester and Warrington. The expenditure on this contract is shown in the table below.
| 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
| £m | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m |
Greater Manchester, Chester & Warrington | 18 | 32 | 46 | 46 | 32 | 23 |
Notes:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department plans to provide to Jobcentre Plus employees affected by the closure of Shop Direct centres in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Lord Sharma
DWP representatives attended an initial meeting on Friday 13 April called by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Council Leaders, local MPs, representatives from the Manchester Growth Company, the USDAW Trade Union, and the Shop Direct Executive Board also attended.
It was agreed at the meeting that a task force would be established and become the principal point of engagement with Shop Direct in the run up to the closure of the Greater Manchester sites. The initial task force meeting was held on 30 April with DWP in attendance.
DWP detailed our Response to Redundancy offer of support for employees facing immediate redundancy which will be provided at the appropriate time, as agreed with the company. Response to Redundancy support is implemented within a timeframe of 13 weeks before and up to 13 weeks after the notified redundancy date. The next meeting for the taskforce is 29 May and DWP’s Employer Engagement Team for the Oldham area will be representing DWP at the meeting
We will support individual employees with tailored packages of support which we can enhance with use of Flexible Support funding, such as by removing barriers to employment, providing pre-employment training and support and skills training.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
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 effect of recent changes in welfare provision on the number of children living in poverty in Oldham West and Royton constituency.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on the number of children in relative low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The number and proportion of children in relative low income is not available at local authority or constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography.
Latest 3-year estimates for the North West of the proportion and number of children in low income are available in Table 4.16ts and Table 4.17ts in the file “4_children_timeseries_risk” from this link:
Impact Assessments of policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Act of 2016 were published in 2015. Evidence shows work is the best route out of poverty; nearly three-quarters of children from workless families moved out of poverty when their parents entered into full-time work. Children in workless households are five time more likely to be in poverty than those in households where all adults were working. Welfare reforms are designed to incentivise parents to make the choice to move into and progress in work.
This Government is committed to action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage with policies that incentivise employment as the best route out of poverty. In Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress in tackling the disadvantages that affect families and children. Four of these measures are set out in primary legislation which places a duty on the Government report annually to Parliament on the parental worklessness and educational attainment indicators. Data on the non-statutory indicators will also be published each year.