Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full-time equivalent staff worked in his Department’s Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt unit in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please see the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) numbers for Counter Fraud Compliance & Debt (CFCD) and its predecessor Counter Fraud & Compliance (CFC). To ensure compliance with GDPR, seven years of data is the maximum that we hold.
Paid Staff at specified date, Full Time Equivalent | ||
Date | FTE | CFC/CFCD |
31-Mar 2018 | 5209.8 | CFC |
31-Mar 2019 | 5488.3 | CFC |
31-Mar 2020 | 7519.4 | CFCD |
31-Mar 2021 | 6941.6 | CFCD |
31-Mar 2022 | 8289.7 | CFCD |
31-Mar 2023 | 9080.2 | CFCD |
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people opted out of auto-enrolment workplace pension schemes in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The data requested for the number of people who opted out of automatic enrolment workplace pension schemes in each of the last ten years is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
The department makes regular publications of the data that is held, including the Workplace Pension Participation and Savings Trends, which is available on GOV.UK. This publication includes aggregated data from large private pension providers in which the proportion of new member enrolments to have opted-out of workplace pension saving stood at 11.79% in July 2023. Over the period from January 2020 to July 2023, these opt-out rates have fluctuated between a low of 7.03% and a high of 12.23%. From the same aggregated private pension provider data, the proportion of pension scheme members making an active decision to cease saving was 0.50% in July 2023.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is his planned timetable for announcing local housing allowance rates for 2025; and if he will launch a consultation on the level of those rates.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State (SoS) has recently completed his review of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for 2024/25. As announced by the Chancellor in the recent Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit, or the Housing Element of Universal Credit will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. This is a significant investment of £7bn over five years.
The SoS has committed to reviewing LHA rates annually, usually in the Autumn. The rates for 2025/26 have not yet been reviewed.
The department works closely with stakeholders, jobcentres, and local authorities to understand the impact of its policies.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is (a) a minimum, (b) a maximum and (c) an optimal number of universal credit cases overseen by each case manager.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no set minimum/maximum or optimum caseload size. We do look to equalise pressures/caseloads in the network via recruitment in or pivoting work out of a site
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4331 on Unemployment: Chronic Illnesses, what assessment he has made of the impact of NHS waiting lists on long-term sickness in the labour market.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department monitors trends in economic inactivity and works closely with other departments and organisations to understand the relationship between health and economic inactivity. In addition, organisations, such as the Office for Budget Responsibility, Health Foundation, Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics, have all published analysis on the relationship between health and economic inactivity. However, there is currently no consensus, and further work is needed to establish the nature and extent, if any, of the relationship between NHS waiting lists and long-term sickness.
The ONS reported in February 2023 that 33% of those who were economically inactive (excluding retired) were waiting for NHS treatment, of which 42% said it had “strongly impacted” their lives. The ONS also reported in July 2023 that for those individuals suffering with long-term health conditions who were in employment, the sickness absence rate in 2022 was 4.9%, the highest it has been since 2008, compared with 1.5% for those in employment without a long-term health condition. However, analysis published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in July 2023 states that “the rising NHS waiting list itself looks unlikely to have been a significant causal driver of rising long-term sick inactivity in recent years”, one reason being that “there appears to be limited correlation in waiting list trends by age and ‘treatment function’ between mid-2021 and the end of 2022 and concurrent changes in inactivity due to long-term sickness.”
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children live in households where at least one adult is in work which are affected by the benefit cap.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vacancies there were in his Department for the most recent date for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does have ambitious recruitment plans over 2023/24 and latest plans are to fill approximately 4,850 posts a quarter, through internal and external recruitment to manage attrition and also grow key priority areas to respond to changing demand and commitments.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of how many children would be lifted out of poverty if the household benefit cap was (a) uprated with inflation since 2016 and (b) abolished.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is not possible to produce robust estimates of the effect of the impact of uprating the household benefit cap by inflation on the number of children in child poverty or similar impacts of the removal of the household benefit cap on the same group.
There was a significant increase to the benefit cap levels following a review last year. The benefit cap continues to provide a strong work incentive and fairness for working taxpaying households and encourages people to move into work, where possible.
Where possible it is in the best interests of children to be in working households and, of course, returning to employment will significantly increase the likelihood of a household not being affected by the cap.
Both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute low income after housing costs than in 2009/10.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ending the two-child limit on the number of children living in poverty; and if he will make an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of such a decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to review this policy.
The latest available estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of such a decision was made in 2019, and can be found here.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of how many and what proportion of children were living in poverty in 2010 based on his Department's households below average income data.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest available National statistics on child poverty covering 2021/22 are available here.
This Government has overseen significant falls in absolute poverty since 2009/10. Both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10.
In 2009/10, 28% (3.7m) children were living in absolute poverty after housing costs.
In 2021/22, 23% (3.3m) children were living in absolute poverty after housing costs.
This means that, in 2021/22, there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, a decrease of 5 percentage points.