Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times the Child Maintenance Service has taken formal action against an employer that has failed to meet the requirements of a deduction of earnings order in each of the last three years.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Child Maintenance Group policy allows for its Financial Investigation Unit to attempt to try and establish compliance in all cases before looking to see if the case may be prosecutable.
If the employer does not comply immediately a warning of Interview Under Caution and possible prosecution is sent. It is only after this notice expires that a notice that we intend to carry out an Interview Under Caution is sent, which would signal prosecution even if the employer then complies.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of percentage of deductions of earnings orders put in place by the Child Maintenance Service which are subject to delayed payment to the parent with responsibility for the child due to employer error.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The percentage of Deduction from Earnings Orders put in place by Child Maintenance Group which are subject to delayed payments due to employer error amount to 40% of missing payments generated. This equates to 2,360 per month or 5% of all Deduction from Earnings Orders in operation.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the outcome of the High Court case (R [Blundell & Ors] v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) whether her Department permits the placing of deductions for Child Maintenance payments ahead of all other deductions.
Answered by Will Quince
Child Maintenance can be recovered from Universal Credit where claimants who should contribute towards their non-resident children have no earnings.
Schedule 6 of the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013 sets out the priority order in which Departmental staff must consider all deductions from Universal Credit, including Child Maintenance.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
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 number of people in receipt of income based jobseekers' allowance who have not been migrated to universal credit and have not received the £20 uplift to their benefit payments since spring 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
138,000 people were on income-based JSA in 2019/20.
Legacy JSA claimants retain the option of claiming Universal Credit instead if they believe they will benefit from the temporary increase in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment she has made of the adequacy of social security support for (a) mortgage costs and (b) renters during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Guy Opperman
No comparative assessment has been made of the adequacy of social security support for mortgage costs and renters during Covid-19.
Support for mortgage costs during the covid-19 outbreak is as follows:
Support for renters during the covid-19 outbreak is as follows:
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of the Disability Benefits Consortium report on the benefit losses that disabled people experienced during the benefit freeze.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The benefit freeze was in place for 4 tax years from 2016/17 and ended in April 2020. During the freeze we excluded benefits and payments relating to the additional costs of disability and for carers. In April 2020 these rates were increased by 1.7% in line with inflation.
The Department is bringing forward the Health and Disability Support Green Paper which will explore how the welfare system can better meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions now and in the future. We will be considering the range of feedback we have had from stakeholders and disabled people through our engagement events whilst developing the Green Paper.