Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many resettled refugee families arriving in the UK since 2015 under the (a) Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme, (b) Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme and (c) Gateway Protection Programme are subject to the benefit cap.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not hold this data on our administration system for capped households under Housing Benefit or Universal Credit.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the ratio between Disability Employment Advisors and Work Coaches employed in JobCentre Plus centres.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) have been recruited in every country and region of Great Britain. As of July 2018, there are 458 full time equivalent DEAs in place across the Jobcentre network, with the actual headcount being above 500 when taking account of part time and dual role workers.
As of July 2018 the ratio of Disability Employment Advisers to Work Coaches is 1:28.
Table of full time equivalent DEAs for the last 5 years.
DEA (FTE) | Year |
458.12 | July-18 |
480.28 | April-17 |
202.78 | April-16 |
306.71 | April-15 |
413.28 | April-14 |
DEAs, in partnership with Community Partners and Work Psychologists, are working to improve the capability of all Work Coaches to better support claimants, including those with disabilities.
Disability Employment Advisers have a tailored learning journey that equips them with the skills and knowledge to support work coaches and other DWP staff when they are working with customers with a wide range of health conditions. This includes researching local healthcare and disabled services organisations and identifying sources of support for claimants with physical health conditions.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Disability Employment Advisers were employed by her Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) have been recruited in every country and region of Great Britain. As of July 2018, there are 458 full time equivalent DEAs in place across the Jobcentre network, with the actual headcount being above 500 when taking account of part time and dual role workers.
As of July 2018 the ratio of Disability Employment Advisers to Work Coaches is 1:28.
Table of full time equivalent DEAs for the last 5 years.
DEA (FTE) | Year |
458.12 | July-18 |
480.28 | April-17 |
202.78 | April-16 |
306.71 | April-15 |
413.28 | April-14 |
DEAs, in partnership with Community Partners and Work Psychologists, are working to improve the capability of all Work Coaches to better support claimants, including those with disabilities.
Disability Employment Advisers have a tailored learning journey that equips them with the skills and knowledge to support work coaches and other DWP staff when they are working with customers with a wide range of health conditions. This includes researching local healthcare and disabled services organisations and identifying sources of support for claimants with physical health conditions.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timescale is for removing the experimental status of quarterly Child Maintenance Service statistics.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Experimental badging is used so that users and stakeholders can be involved in the assessment of the publications’ suitability and quality while it is being developed. We are still expanding the Child Maintenance Service Publication and will be performing a full review of our overall Child Maintenance publication strategy over the next 6 months in the light of the completion of the Child Support Agency case closure process.
Once those changes are complete we plan to release Child Maintenance Service statistics under standard Official Statistics guidelines in 2019.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the paper, Strategy for the publication of information about the 2012 scheme, updated 30 November 2016, whether the Data Warehouse has been replaced by the new Data and Analytics Platform.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Significant progress has been made in designing a new approach to the delivery of data analytical platforms. This has been successfully deployed in Universal Credit with work underway in Pensions and Finance.
Development of the new Data and Analytics platform for Children was originally planned to complete in late 2017 but was delayed. However, transformation has now begun of the current 2012 Data Warehouse to this new platform and we expect to complete this work in 2020.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the monthly receipts accrued to the public purse were from (a) the fee charged for applications to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), (b) the collection fee for paying parents using the CMS Collect and Pay service, (c) the collection fee for receiving parents using the CMS Collect and Pay service and (d) enforcement fees levied on paying parents in each month since March 2017.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information on fees in the financial year to date will not be available until audit of the 2017/18 Client Funds Account has been completed.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
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 money that will accrue to the public purse of the (a) fee charged for applications to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), (b) collection fee for paying parents using the CMS Collect and Pay service, (c) collection fee for receiving parents using the CMS Collect and Pay service and (d) enforcement fees levied on paying parents in (i) 2019-20 and (ii) 2020-21.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of estimates for receipts to the public purse from Child Maintenance Service charges are not yet available. We expect to have estimates for 2019-20 early in 2019. Estimates for 2020-21 will form part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with mobile phone providers on enabling their customers to make online claims for benefits and access online information without incurring a mobile data usage charge.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DWP has not held any discussions with mobile phone providers around free access to online information without incurring a mobile data usage charge.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2018 to Question 135706, on Flexible Support Fund, what estimate he has made of the average funding received per person from the Flexible Support Fund in each of the last five financial years for which data is available.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 135706, on Flexible Support Fund, what assessment her Department has made of trends in (a) claimant needs and (b) volumes between 2013-14 and 2016-17.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that unemployment fell by 1 million (just under 40%) between April 2013 and March 2017. Because of this fall in unemployment we have been able to reduce the size of the Flexible Support Fund (FSF). The Department keeps the FSF and other budgets under continuous review.
In January to March 2018 our unemployment rate currently stands at 4.2% - it has not been lower since 1975.