Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any Minister of his Department has visited Cambuslang Jobcentre Plus in Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency in the last 30 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This information is not available; to obtain the visits made in the last 30 years could only be provided at disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many blank (a) employment support allowance claim forms and (b) income support claim forms have been issued in the last year from Jobcentres in (i) Scotland, (ii) England and (iii) Wales.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It should not be necessary for a claimant to visit a Jobcentre to obtain any claim form for Income Support or Employment and Support Allowance.
The preferred method for making a claim for either benefit is by telephone, where the claimant can also request an alternative format. However, there may be individual instances where printing claim forms in the Jobcentre will be helpful and appropriate. Information is not recorded on the number of occasions this has happened.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, what percentage of claims made online for (a) jobseeker's allowance and (b) universal credit are made using computer equipment at a jobcentre.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Internet devices in Jobcentre Plus offices provide a safe and secure environment for claimants to search for work and access a variety of DWPs services, including making a claim to UC and JSA.
Privacy of claimant’s information is our highest priority and Jobcentre Plus staff do not record specific data on use of Internet access devices at a local level.
This information is not centrally captured as an information requirement within the department.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, how many of the 2,500 work coaches who are expected to be in post by March 2018 will be located in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There are currently around 11,000 work coaches across DWP in Wales, Scotland and England. By the end of March 2018 we plan to have around 2,500 more Work Coaches in Jobcentres in every nation and region of Great Britain. However, the final allocation of work coaches will be based on claimant activity and determined by need.
The face to face support our work coaches offer at Jobcentres will continue to be a core part of the service we deliver.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many additional work coaches will be employed in (a) Rutherglen Jobcentre and (b) total across Glasgow's jobcentres as a result of the planned jobcentre closures there.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Detailed site level information on anticipated work coach levels is not yet available, but we are recruiting and expect to have more work coaches in 2018 than we have today.
The face to face support our work coaches offer at Jobcentres will continue to be a core part of the service we deliver.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West to receive a reply to her freedom of information request of 8 November 2016; and what the reason is for the time taken in responding to that request.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
A reply to the hon. Member’s freedom of information request was issued on 16 January 2017.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2016 to Question 56414, if he will establish a programme to make regular contact with a group of people who are subject to a benefit sanction in order to discern whether they have used food banks at any time over the duration of the sanction for the purposes of collecting data and determining whether there is a link between benefit sanctions and food bank usage.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Lady to my previous Answer of 12 December 2016 to Question 56414.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Employment of 22 June 2015, Official Report, column 608, whether it is his Department's position that there is no robust evidence that directly links sanctions and food bank use.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It continues to be widely acknowledged that food bank use cannot be attributed to a single cause and the reasons that people use foodbanks are complex and overlapping.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have used the services of jobcentre offices in each of the last five years in (a) Aberdeen, (b) Dundee, (c) Edinburgh, (d) Glasgow, (e) Inverness, (f) Perth, (g) Stirling, (h) Cardiff, (i) London, (j) Scotland, (k) England, (l) Wales and (m) the UK.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not measure the number of people visiting its network of Jobcentres.
Statistics on the claimant count, which shows the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit claimants by geography, can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2016 to Question 55470, if he will (a) make it his Department's policy to make regular contact with people who are subject to a benefit sanction in order to discern whether they have used food banks at any time over the duration of the sanction, (b) make it his Department's policy to offer assistance with an application for a hardship payment to individuals who are identified as food bank users and (c) regularly publish data related to the use of food banks by people subject to benefit sanctions.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As part of providing on-going employment-related support, work coaches maintain contact with claimants who have been sanctioned. They also offer information about how to challenge a sanction decision and about the availability and application process for hardship payments. Usage of any other form of assistance is not needed to assess a person’s ongoing entitlement to benefit and so we do not need to collect this information.
Claimants are provided with information about hardship payments at the point at which a referral is made to a decision maker and also following the application of a sanction. This includes assistance, if required, with applying for a hardship payment. This support is provided to all claimants, regardless of whether individual’s volunteer information on assistance received from another source. A person does not need to disclose whether they have used any particular source of assistance, in order to qualify for hardship payments.