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, whether the Government plans to support one million more people with disabilities into employment over the next 10 years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people. The manifesto commitment underpins this with a clear and time-bound goal - to see 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years.
We know that there is much more that needs to be done, so that everyone who can work is given the right support and opportunities to do so.
That is why we published Improving Lives; the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which set out the action we plan to take and consulted on proposals for wider reform. We will respond to the consultation and set out our plans in due course.
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, when he plans to extend the Access to Work scheme to (a) internships and (b) apprenticeships.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We will publish our response to “Improving Lives: The Work, Health, and Disability Green Paper“ this autumn, in which we will explore options for improving the service offered through AtW.
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 evidence he has that releasing the work capability assessment outcome report in answer to Freedom of Information request FS50645849 would damage the reputation of the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments, Maximus or Atos.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
As this Freedom of Information request is the subject of an on-going appeal, the Department is unable to comment further at this stage.
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 progress has been made on bringing forward legislative proposals to give unemployed disabled claimants personalised and tailored employment support.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We rolled out the Personal Support Package (PSP) from April 2017 for people with health conditions, including a £330m package to deliver a broad range of employment and health support for new ESA Work Related Activity Group and UC Limited Capability for Work claimants. This also includes an expansion of the national employment support provision.
We have additionally recruited 300 new Disability Employment Advisers, assigned an additional £15 million to the Flexible Support Fund, made changes to the permitted work rules, and almost completed the roll out of the Health and Work Conversation. This is in line with our ambition to provide a support system which can be personalised and tailored to the needs of the individual.
Moreover, we consulted on a range of proposals in the Green Paper, Improving Lives, and we are carefully considering how to take these forward in consultation with a range of stakeholders.
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 and what proportion of claimants in Stretford and Urmston constituency have had their personal independence payments decisions overturned in their favour as a result of (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) an appeal hearing in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) clearances split by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
In respect to part (a) of the question, the information you requested is not held by the department. This is because the department only holds information on whether an outcome at Mandatory Reconsideration resulted in a changed or unchanged award; it does not contain information on whether a change was in favour of the claimant.
In respect to part (b) of your question, please see the table below.
Table 1 below shows the Number of appeals found in favour of appellant by financial year, data from the Ministry of Justice.
Table 1
Year | Number Found in Favour of Appellant | Percentage Found in favour of Appellant (at hearing) |
2013/14 | ~ | ~ |
2014/15 | 38 | 30% |
2015/16 | 458 | 41% |
2016/17 | 716 | 48% |
Ministry of Justice Notes to Appeals Table 1;
The data is a subset of official statistics extracted from the case management system on a different date.
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 plans his Department has to reduce the disability employment gap.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people. The manifesto commitment gives a clear and time-bound goal to achieve this, which is to see 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years.
Since quarter 1 2016, the number of working aged disabled people in employment has increased by around 170,000 to 3.5 million in quarter 1 2017. The disability employment rate has increased by over 2 percentage points and now stands at 49 per cent.
The number of disabled people in employment, according to the Labour Force Survey, is publicly available here:
We know that there is much more that needs to be done, so that everyone who can work is given the right support and opportunities to do so. That is why we published Improving Lives: the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which set out the action we plan to take to achieve this and start a far-reaching, national debate on what more we can do to ensure everyone is supported to reach their full potential. We are considering next steps, taking account of the Green Paper consultation, and will set out our response to this and future plans in due course, including supporting local effort and reporting arrangements.
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, whether his Department has regional strategies for reducing the disability employment gap.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people. The manifesto commitment gives a clear and time-bound goal to achieve this, which is to see 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years.
Since quarter 1 2016, the number of working aged disabled people in employment has increased by around 170,000 to 3.5 million in quarter 1 2017. The disability employment rate has increased by over 2 percentage points and now stands at 49 per cent.
The number of disabled people in employment, according to the Labour Force Survey, is publicly available here:
We know that there is much more that needs to be done, so that everyone who can work is given the right support and opportunities to do so. That is why we published Improving Lives: the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which set out the action we plan to take to achieve this and start a far-reaching, national debate on what more we can do to ensure everyone is supported to reach their full potential. We are considering next steps, taking account of the Green Paper consultation, and will set out our response to this and future plans in due course, including supporting local effort and reporting arrangements.
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, if he will make it his policy to report annually to Parliament on progress in tackling the disability employment gap as part of the annual report on full employment.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people. The manifesto commitment gives a clear and time-bound goal to achieve this, which is to see 1 million more disabled people into work over the next 10 years.
Since quarter 1 2016, the number of working aged disabled people in employment has increased by around 170,000 to 3.5 million in quarter 1 2017. The disability employment rate has increased by over 2 percentage points and now stands at 49 per cent.
The number of disabled people in employment, according to the Labour Force Survey, is publicly available here:
We know that there is much more that needs to be done, so that everyone who can work is given the right support and opportunities to do so. That is why we published Improving Lives: the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, which set out the action we plan to take to achieve this and start a far-reaching, national debate on what more we can do to ensure everyone is supported to reach their full potential. We are considering next steps, taking account of the Green Paper consultation, and will set out our response to this and future plans in due course, including supporting local effort and reporting arrangements.
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 he has made of the number of people who will be affected by removal of support for mortgage interest in April 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
From 6 April 2018 a new loans-based system of support for mortgage interest will replace the current benefits-based provision. Changing this support from a benefit into a loan is intended to ensure that owner-occupier claimants continue to have the same protection against the risk of having their homes repossessed, whilst providing increased fairness to taxpayers. Eligibility to support for mortgage interest loans is the same as the the support for mortgage interest as a benefit.
There are currently an estimated 124,000 existing support for mortgage interest benefit recipients who will be affected by the change.
The Impact Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum published alongside the Loans for Mortgage Interest Regulations in July 2017 provide information on the affected groups (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/725/impacts).
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 Written Ministerial Statement of 15 September 2016 HCWS154, what progress has been made on the administration of the supported accommodation top-up fund.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Developing a workable and sustainable funding model for supported housing is a priority for the Government. We will set out further details on the Government’s plans in the autumn.