Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many in-work households were living in poverty in (a) Hemsworth constituency, (b) Wakefield Council area and (c) West Yorkshire Combined Authority area as at (i) 15 July 2010 and (ii) 15 July 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for an application for universal credit to be processed in each of the last three years.
Answered by Will Quince
The latest available information on Universal Credit payment timeliness is published and can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pensioners in Hemsworth constituency are in receipt of pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As of November 2019, there were 2,626 Pension Credit claimants in Hemsworth.
The department does not hold information on the number of pensioners in Hemsworth constituency.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the general public is aware that statutory sick pay is payable from the first day of sickness.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) guidance is available for the general public to access at https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay.
The guidance states that employees may get SSP for every day they are off work if they cannot work because of coronavirus (COVID-19). The SSP guidance can also be accessed through the coronavirus (COVID-19) hub on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
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 the covid-19 oubreak on the level of unemployment in Hemsworth consistency.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates of the number of people who are unemployed for sub-regional geographies in the UK are compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). At parliamentary constituency level these estimates are subject to a high degree of statistical uncertainty. This is because the sample of the Annual Population Survey, upon which the estimates are based, includes small numbers of people matching this description at this level.
The latest available data is available on the NOMIS website (https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/) and covers the period January to December 2019.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit there were in Hemsworth consistency in each month since January 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of people on Universal Credit, by Parliamentary Constituency, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support the Government is providing to self-employed people who have to self-isolate as a result of covid-19 symptoms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chancellor has announced a Self-Employed Income Support Scheme that will help millions of people across the UK, with those eligible receiving a cash grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the last three years. This covers 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.
The government has also announced a package of temporary welfare measures to support those on low incomes through the outbreak, including relaxing the Minimum Income Floor for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of COVID-19. Taken together, these measures provide over £6.5bn of additional support through the welfare system.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how long after first applying can claimants for universal credit receive their first advance.
Answered by Will Quince
Universal Credit new claim advance payments have long been an integral part of the UC system, allowing claimants to access up to 100% of their total expected monthly award at the start of their claim, which can be paid back over a period of up to 12 months, which will be extended to 24 months from October 2021.
Applications are accepted by phone or online and payments can be issued on the same day.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of time taken to speak to a call handler on the universal credit helpline.
Answered by Will Quince
Since mid-March we have seen a huge volume of calls to the Universal Credit helpline, with over 2 million calls on a single day at one point. We are aware that this demand has meant that some claimants were not able to get through.
People making new claims for Universal Credit no longer need to call the Department as part of the process. Once they have completed their online application we will call them if we need to check any of the information they have given us. We have also introduced new processes to ease pressure on waiting times for identity verification over the phone and other processes.
The Department’s priority is to continue to ensure those who are entitled to benefit receive the support they need at a time when new claims for Universal Credit are at an unprecedented level.
Since 16 March 2020, we have received more than 1.5 million new claims for Universal Credit. 10,000 members of staff from other parts of DWP are being redeployed to support work on new claims and we are urgently recruiting additional people to assist with the processing of claims.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to manage an increase in claims for universal credit as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
Since mid-March we have seen a huge volume of calls to the Universal Credit helpline, with over 2 million calls on a single day at one point. We are aware that this demand has meant that some claimants were not able to get through.
People making new claims for Universal Credit no longer need to call the Department as part of the process. Once they have completed their online application we will call them if we need to check any of the information they have given us. We have also introduced new processes to ease pressure on waiting times for identity verification over the phone and other processes.
The Department’s priority is to continue to ensure those who are entitled to benefit receive the support they need at a time when new claims for Universal Credit are at an unprecedented level.
Since 16 March 2020, we have received more than 1.5 million new claims for Universal Credit. 10,000 members of staff from other parts of DWP are being redeployed to support work on new claims and we are urgently recruiting additional people to assist with the processing of claims.