Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether further engagement events are planned as part of the national strategy for disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to transforming the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year.
It will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people. The Government has already engaged widely to support the development of the National Strategy and future work. This has taken place with a diverse range of stakeholders, including: the Disability Charities Consortium, Disabled People’s Organisations Forum and Regional Stakeholder Network (which includes disability organisations and individual disabled people), as well as businesses and business organisations, regulators, academia, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations.
This engagement will include online surveys and virtual round tables across the UK to enable disabled people to share views and insights on key challenges as the National Strategy is developed and implemented.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of people (a) with hearing loss, and (b) who list their primary medical condition as difficulty in hearing who were (i) in employment, (ii) economically inactive and (iii) unemployed in the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The latest available statistics are for the year 2018/19. These show that of working age disabled people who self-reported difficulty with their hearing there were 38% (166,000) in employment and 62% (270,000) not in employment in the UK. Amongst those who reported difficulty with their hearing, 61% (42,000) were in employment and 39% (27,000) were not in employment who self-reported reported difficulty with their hearing as their main health condition.
These figures are shown in table 3.3 of ‘The employment of disabled people 2019’ official statistics publication which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2019. The next release of these statistics, covering 2019/20, is due in Spring 2021.
The not in employment category includes people who are unemployed and economically inactive. Reliable estimates for these two sub-categories are not possible due to small sample sizes.
Background
Source: Annual Population Survey, April 2018 to March 2019.
Notes:
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many families with children have received the £20 per week uplift in universal credit standard allowance payments in (a) Nottingham South and (b) the UK in each month since that uplift was introduced.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of households with children with Universal Credit in payment, 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: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on its Safeguarding Policy Review which was due for completion in Autumn 2019.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It would be inappropriate to comment on the Safeguarding review due to current legal proceedings. However, as part of our commitment to improving vulnerable customers’ experience with the Department; we currently have 10 Senior Safeguarding Leaders in place and plan to have 25 in place by Autumn. They will work across all services and with key partners to support and deliver a consistent service to vulnerable customers. We have also established the Customer Experience Directorate to co-ordinate policy development, guidance and learning as well as monitor the implementation of change.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2020 to Question 592 on Social Security Benefits, on what dates the Independent Serious Case Panel has met since 7 November 2019.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel now considers systemic themes and issues taken from serious cases, rather than the specific cases themselves. The Serious Case Panel in its new form met on 19 March 2020 and 2 July 2020. The Terms of Reference for the Panel and the minutes of the meetings from the 19 March and the 2 July are published on Gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/dwp-serious-case-panel).
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2020 to Question 18385 on Independent Serious Case Panel, if she will publish the agenda for each meeting of the Independent Serious Case Panel since 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel now considers systemic themes and issues taken from serious cases, rather than the specific cases themselves. The Serious Case Panel in its new form met on 19 March 2020 and 2 July 2020. The Terms of Reference for the Panel and the minutes of the meetings from the 19 March and the 2 July are published on Gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/dwp-serious-case-panel).
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2020 to Question 18385 on Independent Serious Case Panel, if she will publish the qualifications the independent members have for membership of the panel.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel is comprised of the DWP Permanent Secretary, DWP Directors General and the Independent Case Examiner. The membership of the Senior Executive Team on the Panel ensures views from all parts of DWP business are represented. This allows actions and recommendations at the Panel to be driven through the Department. Independent members provide additional external expertise. External experts might be invited to support specific discussions at the Panel where this is appropriate.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to update its British Sign Language translation of the Access to Work factsheet for customers.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant scheme administered by Jobcentre Plus (JCP). The scheme de-risks the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers by contributing towards covering the costs of support above the level of reasonable adjustment for disabled people at work.
Since the Access to Work factsheet was published in October 2012, it has been amended 12 times in subsequent years. Access to Work recognises the importance of providing information in accessible formats and works with stakeholders to gain an understanding of the key issues. To ensure accessible information was made available during the coronavirus pandemic. British Sign Language (BSL) videos reflecting the new measures Access to Work introduced to support disabled people were developed. These videos can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC0aQWFFHARyXcQd-0mz0lOTZOfI15L8H
To provide accessible information Access to Work continues to work with stakeholders including UK Council on Deafness (UKCOD) to ensure key communications are translated into British Sign Language. Access to Work engages regularly with stakeholders to prioritise communications, and will be publishing advice on Access to Work “Reconsiderations” in the near future, with more communications to follow.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria her Department uses when deciding which Access to Work materials are translated into British Sign Language.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant scheme administered by Jobcentre Plus (JCP). The scheme de-risks the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers by contributing towards covering the costs of support above the level of reasonable adjustment for disabled people at work.
Access to Work guidance is available in English and Welsh in html, word and PDF formats on the gov.uk website, and in addition information on DWP services is produced in accessible formats, including BSL videos.
When deciding which communications are translated into British Sign Language, Access to Work will consider the following:
Using feedback from these groups and taking account of the wider Departmental communication priorities, Access to Work will identify communications that are causing the most concern and will be the most beneficial for British Sign Language users.
Disabled people who are British Sign Language users who have queries about Access to Work can contact Access to Work via the BSL video relay service (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) to discuss queries.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham 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 accuracy of the current British Sign Language translation published in 2015 of the Access to Work factsheet for customers.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to Work have been working hard to ensure high standards of their British Sign Language (BSL) translations, including working with the British Deaf Association (BDA) to obtain feedback on their videos and BSL translations and to better understand what matters to BSL users.
Access to Work works with one professional translator when developing BSL products. Recognising the need to ensure the translator has enough time to understand the key messages and interpret them in a way that can be easily understood by BSL users, additional time is built into the contract. The additional times enables Access to Work to work closely with the translator to go through the draft scripts and ensure information is accurately translated and that key messages are interpreted in a way that makes sense for BSL users whilst ensuring accuracy.
Wherever possible, post-production testing is included as part of the assurance process, to ensure user comprehension. This has been more difficult during the COVID-19 outbreak, due to the pace of change and social distancing measures.
Please note that the Access to Work factsheet was not published in 2015 – it was first pub-lished on 1 October 2012 and has been amended 12 times in subsequent years.