Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 automating pension credit payments without an application process for claimants reaching retirement age on universal credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Households in receipt of Universal Credit are likely to see a significant change in their financial situation on reaching state pension age – at which point they may become entitled to retirement income such as the state pension, occupational or private pension or other financial product.
It cannot therefore be assumed that entitlement to Universal Credit will also mean entitlement to Pension Credit.
Eligibility to Pension Credit and the amount of any award will depend on a household’s particular financial and personal circumstances on reaching retirement age. This can only be established once a successful claim is made and will be based on a range of decisions which cannot all be automated.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the threshold for pension credit was last reviewed; and when it is next set for review.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The rates of Pension Credit were last reviewed in Autumn 2023 as part of the Secretary of State’s annual statutory review of State pension and benefit rates. Following that review, the Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee was increased by 8.5%, in line with the percentage increase in average earnings, to £218.15 a week for a single pensioner and £332.95 a week for a pensioner couple, with effect from 8 April 2024. Other Pension Credit amounts, including the maximum rate of Savings Credit and additional amounts for those with a severe disability or caring responsibilities, were increased by 6.7% in line with price inflation.
The next review will be undertaken following the publication in October by the Office of National Statistics of the earnings and prices indices used to inform the review, with the new rates taking effect from 7 April 2025.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people applying for pension credit have been in receipt of universal credit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the application process for Pension Credit was last reviewed.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We continually review the Pension Credit application process, with improvements made as recently as 3 September 2024. This led to the introduction of the online claim process, providing customers with a convenient alternative claim route, alongside the existing telephony and paper application methods. As the Department continues to modernise the Pension Credit service, we continue to review the user experience, balancing simplification of application with capturing the right information to ensure accuracy of award.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
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 role of (a) small and medium sized enterprises and (b) community interest companies in helping to deliver the Youth Guarantee.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Our plan to get Britain Working includes a Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or employment support. This will sit alongside; a new national jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, work health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open new opportunities for young people.
We have not yet made any assessment on the potential role of small and medium sized enterprises and community interest companies in helping to deliver the Youth Guarantee. In the early development stages, we will engage with our stakeholders who represent young people on the design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee.
We will set out further detail in the upcoming ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of setting a target for the level of food bank usage by the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are committed to tackling poverty and ending the mass dependence on emergency food parcels. We will be considering the best way to achieve these important objectives over the coming weeks and months working through the new Ministerial Taskforce on Child Poverty which will oversee the development of a cross-government Child Poverty Strategy.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the proposed child poverty strategy will examine the potential impact of (a) trends in the use of food bank usage and (b) the No Recourse to Public Funds policy on levels of childhood poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are committed to tackling child poverty and ending the mass dependence on emergency food parcels. The new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.
After initial engagement, the formal work to develop the new child poverty strategy will begin and we will publish a Full Terms of Reference in the coming weeks. We will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were on the WorkWell pilot on 15 May 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
WorkWell, backed by £64m investment, will provide support for up to 59,000 disabled people and people with health conditions to start stay and succeed in work.
The 15 successful WorkWell pilots were announced on 7 May 2024. The pilot areas will now develop a delivery plan with a view to services going live from October 2024.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department holds data on the number of job offers for disabled people withdrawn due to the time taken to arrange Access to Work packages.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested about the number of job offers for disabled people withdrawn due to the time taken to arrange Access to Work packages is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. However, applications which have a start date of 4 week or less are prioritised to ensure customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market.
The Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2021/23.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found on Access to Work statistics on GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the press release entitled 25,000 people to be helped into work as Government ramps up roll-out of flagship Universal Support scheme, published on 13 September 2023, what recent estimate his Department has made of when it will reach its target of assisting 25,000 disabled people through the Universal Support scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We have interpreted your question as referring to the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) initiative and Work and Health Programme (WHP) Pioneer, both of which form part of the first phase of Universal Support.
We explained in our press release that we expect to help 25,000 people by September 2024. Progress will be reported in the WHP official statistics publication on GOV.UK. Information relating to IPSPC is not currently available; however, the Secretary of State has committed to the publication of data for the IPSPC initiative as part of the first phase of Universal Support. This will be pre-announced prior to publication.
The next release of published statistics for the WHP is planned for 30 May 2024. This release will include statistics on starts, referrals and individual referrals to WHP Pioneer. Statistics on job outcomes and first earnings from employment will be released in later publications.