Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which spending programmes their Department devolves for administration to (a) local government in England and (b) other local spending bodies; and what the budget is of each such programme for each year for which budgets are agreed.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government has set itself a mission that, by 2030, every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal, with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution, with a simplified, long-term funding settlement. At Spring Budget, the government announced the trailblazer devolution deals with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and West Midlands Combined Authorities (WMCA), which included a commitment to introduce single funding settlements at the next Spending Review for these MCAs.
At Autumn Statement, the government published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GMCA and WMCA, setting out how the single settlements will work. The government also announced an ambitious new ‘level 4’ of the devolution framework, including a single transport funding settlement for eligible institutions, and a ‘consolidated’ pot at the next multi-year SR covering two DLUHC investment themes – local growth and place, and housing and regeneration. Following successful delivery of the ‘consolidated’ pot, and learning from the trailblazers, Level 4 institutions will then become eligible to receive a single settlement from the subsequent multi-year Spending Review.
Details of major funding programmes, including those administered by local government or other local bodies, are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will (a) list the spending programmes her Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP has the following spending programmes which it devolves for administration to local government in England and to other local spending bodies.
We have provided 2021/22 values for each programme.
Please note that we have not included any ESF-funded spend in this list
Programme name | Value 2021-22 (£m) |
Reducing Parental Conflict (Workforce Development Grant) | 3.8 |
Reducing Parental Conflict (CPA) | 0.6 |
Household Support Fund Grant | 421.0 |
Covid Winter Grant Scheme | 59.0 |
Covid Local Support Grant | 198.0 |
Housing Benefit Admin Subsidy | 164.1 |
Housing Benefit New Burdens | 18.6 |
HB Fraud and error initiatives - VEP and HBAA | 22.2 |
Discretionary Housing Payments | 131.8 |
Work and Health Programme | 16.7 |
Work and Health Programme JETS | 40.5 |
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) policies and (b) grant and funding programmes her Department has introduced to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and what funding has been allocated to each of those programmes in the 2020-21 financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Throughout this pandemic, this Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support to protect jobs and businesses and, for those in most need, injected billions into the welfare system.
As of 5 January, England entered nationwide restrictions to manage a new variant of Coronavirus. With these restrictions, businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure facing forced closure in England are eligible for a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 to help them through to spring. This is on top of the existing Local Restriction Support Grant (Closed) which will continue to offer businesses support of up to £3,000 for each month they’re closed.
Local authorities are being provided with a top up to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) worth £500 million, bringing the total value of ARG to over £1.6 billion. This grant ensures local authorities can support, on a discretionary basis, businesses not eligible for other grants but still affected by restrictions. Business grant policy remains a fully devolved area, with the Devolved Administrations receiving their share of this funding through the Barnett formula in the usual way.
Businesses across the UK can continue to apply for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which as of mid-December had supported 9.9 million jobs at the cost of over £45 billion, and its extension until the end of April 2021 will give many businesses and workers much-needed security. The Government has also extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) until the end of April 2021, with a boosted package of support providing the self-employed with grants covering 80% of average trading profits. So far SEISS has seen 2.7 million self-employed workers make claims under the scheme totalling £13.7 billion.
Businesses needing access to liquidity can also apply for guaranteed loans through various loan schemes, including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, until the end of March 2021. Over 1.4 million small and medium sized companies have received government-backed loans, worth over £68 billion.
This support comes on top of billions of pounds’ worth of business rates reliefs, tax deferrals, and other labour market schemes.
To support those on low incomes through the outbreak, DWP introduced a package of temporary welfare measures. Taken together, these measures provide over £7bn of additional support through the welfare system for people affected by COVID-19. These include the £20 Universal Credit uplift, increasing the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants, and suspending the Minimum Income Floor for self-employed UC claimants.
DWP also introduced a number of programmes and policy changes to offer support to individuals and organisations. Funding was received to support Covid-19 measures of £1.2bn which include £870 million for Restarting the Job Market and £170m for the Winter Support Grant Scheme).
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs have been created by the Kickstart programme in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to PQ 145013.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs have been created by the Kickstart programme in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
So far applications from Gateways and employers covering 32,113 jobs have been approved.
We are currently finalising our MI data at a local level and we will be able to provide further information such as regional figures early in the new year.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the value for money of the system for paying housing benefit to providers of exempt accommodation.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made.
We are working with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to improve value for money and quality in the supported housing sector through our joint oversight regime. An important step in this programme was the launch of Local Authority pilots in Birmingham and four other areas, to test innovative ways of ensuring good quality and value for money in supported housing, including exempt accommodation.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to section 2.9 of of the Spending Review 2020, if she publish the value of the average job subsidy in the Restart programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The chancellor announced at Spending Review £2.9bn for three years of referrals to Restart. Restart will provide intensive, tailored employment support to help over 1 million people back towards sustained employment.
There will be no job subsidies paid as part of the Restart programme. Further detail on the scheme will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when legal approval will be granted to the Federation of Small Businesses and Adecco to enable participation in the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are aware that the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has teamed up with Adecco Working Ventures to act as a Gateway organisation for the Kickstart Scheme, we look forward to receiving their bid.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in the Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates.
I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as of August 2019.
In the Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency, since 2012, approximately 6,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1,360 employers have met their duties.
Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have died in the last 12 months after having been assessed by her Department as fit for work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.