Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing single-parent specific work coaches.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Parents claiming Universal Credit have support from Work Coaches, who provide individual, tailored help to all customers across the country. This includes supporting the development of skills needed to look for and obtain sustained employment, advice to parents on childcare support and funding through Flexible Support Fund to remove immediate barriers to employment.
We are also considering how we can improve our employment support to parents as part of our Child Poverty Strategy.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure that children are safeguarded in cases where allegations of parental abuse have been made but no formal legal restrictions are yet in place.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The welfare of children is the paramount concern in family proceedings.
Established multi-agency safeguarding arrangements are in place to ensure that children are protected swiftly and effectively in both public and private family proceedings. Where needed, there are clear referral routes for communicating cases to Local Authorities. These procedures ensure that concerns about the immediate welfare of children are identified and escalated promptly with the appropriate agencies.
This government is delivering a package of reform to the family courts to ensure that children continue to be safeguarded and supported. This includes the expansion of the Pathfinder programme, which promotes child safeguarding through early multi-agency collaboration, expert domestic abuse support, and greater emphasis on the voice of the child.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department’s review of Universal Credit will consider (a) the potential impact and effectiveness of the conditionality scheme and (b) the necessity of sanctions for lead carers of children.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The review of Universal Credit is exploring the policy design and structures of Universal Credit and is focused on three main areas:
We have already shown our ambition with the changes made to the Fair Repayment Rate, enabling 1.2m households to retain an average of £420 per year.
Conditionality and sanctions are not in scope of the review. We do, however, continuously review both the policy and how they are applied, as well as how they affect claimants and their outcomes.