Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of unemployment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Latest ONS Labour Market data puts the unemployment level in the West Midlands region at 145,000.
Due to the Pandemic, the rate has risen nationally and DWP is working closely across government and with external organisations and local partners to ensure a tailored local response for communities.
We are recruiting additional Work Coaches in our Jobcentres who are supporting new and existing claimants into work.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
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 potential effect of reducing universal credit and working tax credit by £20 a week in April 2021 on (a) working age and (b) child poverty.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates as a temporary measure for the 20/21 tax year.
Future decisions on spending will be made by the Chancellor at the next appropriate fiscal event, and Parliament will be updated accordingly.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial support her Department provides for extremely clinically vulnerable people advised by their health care teams to continue shielding during the covid-19 outbreak beyond 1 August 2020 and as a consequence are unable to work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Where an individual is notified by their doctor or health service to continue to shield in cases of local lockdown and where shielding guidance is reinstated, they will be eligible for ESA or SSP. If an individual is no longer required to shield they may still be entitled to ESA or SSP where they are sick, or self-isolating and meet the eligibility conditions. People can also apply for Universal Credit.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
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 effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in enforcing payments for resident parents during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Where payments have been missed we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal.
In order to ensure that receiving parents do not lose out in the long run, we will update cases with notified changes as soon as possible. Where payments have been missed the Service will take action to re-establish compliance and collect any unpaid amounts that may have accrued.
No one will get away with giving false information. Those found to be abusing the system can be subjected to the full extent of our enforcement powers and the Child Maintenance Service will pursue these, where appropriate.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
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 potential merits of increasing legacy benefits in line with the increase in universal credit during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made. The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic.
We estimate that 2.5 million households receiving Universal Credit will benefit straight away from the increase in the standard allowance rates which was announced on 20 March, and which is additional to the planned annual uprating. New claimants who have either become unemployed, or whose earnings or work hours have decreased because of the outbreak, will benefit too; subject to their eligibility.
We have also made a number of changes to legacy and other working age benefits in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including increasing certain entitlements, such as Local Housing Allowance. Up-to-date information about the employment and benefits support available, including Universal Credit, Statutory Sick Pay, New style Jobseeker's Allowance, and Employment and Support Allowance, can be found here: www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/employment-and-benefits-support/.
It has always been the case that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for UC if they believe that they will be better off.
However, claimants should check their eligibility before applying to Universal Credit as legacy benefits will end when they submit their claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future. For this reason, prospective claimants are signposted to independent benefits calculators on GOV.UK. Neither DWP nor HMRC can advise individual claimants whether they would be better off moving to UC or remaining on legacy benefits.