Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Child Poverty Action Group’s 2021 Budget Representation, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the real terms reduction in child benefit since 2010 on child poverty in (a) Newcastle East constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made.
This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures, including a temporary increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance of £20 per week
National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Data for Newcastle East is unavailable due to insufficient sample size, however, data for the North East region is available.
The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in the North East, and in the UK, covering up to 2019/20, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2020 , “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables” in table 4.16ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in table 4.22ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).
Across the UK, there were 100,000 fewer children in absolute low income, before housing costs in 2019/20 than in 2009/10.
The Department now publishes supplementary official statistics on the number of children in low income families at constituency level, including Newcastle East. Children in Low Income Families data is published annually.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2020
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to reduce child poverty in Newcastle East constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is wholly committed to tackling child poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect family incomes by spending £407 billion to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and help families get by. This includes spending an additional £7.4 billion last year to strengthen the welfare system for those most in need, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112bn in 2020/21. Our Covid Winter Grant Scheme has provided £229m to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. Building on this, we have now introduced the £40m Covid Local Support Grant which will run to the 20th June. For Newcastle upon Tyne District Council this means funding of £1,817,131.52.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help parents move into and progress in work as quickly as possible, based on clear evidence around the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty. The In-Work Progression Commission will report this year on the barriers to progression for those in persistent low pay and set out a strategy for overcoming these.
We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country. We have fulfilled our commitment to recruit 13,500 extra Work Coaches who through our Jobcentre network will provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce child poverty in working households.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is wholly committed to tackling child poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect family incomes by spending £407 billion to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and help families get by. This includes spending an additional £7.4 billion last year to strengthen the welfare system for those most in need, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112bn in 2020/21. Our Covid Winter Grant Scheme has provided £229m to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. Building on this, we have now introduced the £40m Covid Local Support Grant which will run to the 20th June. For Newcastle upon Tyne District Council this means funding of £1,817,131.52.
As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help parents move into and progress in work as quickly as possible, based on clear evidence around the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty. The In-Work Progression Commission will report this year on the barriers to progression for those in persistent low pay and set out a strategy for overcoming these.
We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country. We have fulfilled our commitment to recruit 13,500 extra Work Coaches who through our Jobcentre network will provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential savings to the public purse from applying the Local Housing Allowance cap to supported housing; and whether he has carried out an impact assessment for that policy.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This policy is still under development and full impact and equality impact assessments will be undertaken in due course.
This measure is not being introduced until April 2018 and only then where new tenancies have been taken out or existing tenancies renewed from 1 April 2016, (or 1 April 2017 for supported housing).
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of housing benefit for (a) council, (b) social, (c) supported housing and (d) private sector tenants was in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information on council, social and private sector housing is already published and can be found at:
The information on supported housing is not available. An initial estimate from the supported housing evidence review, commissioned by DWP and DCLG, suggests the figure may be around £4 billion. A final report will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to extend the time limits on applications for bereavement allowance.
Answered by Priti Patel
The time limit for claiming Bereavement Allowance is three months from the date of death, which is consistent with the time limit for other welfare entitlements. We are not considering extending this at this time. We are, however, currently developing the new Bereavement Support Payment due to be implemented for new claims from April 2017, and we will assess the merits of further flexibilities on backdating as part of this work.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to (a) notify recently bereaved spouses of the existence of bereavement benefits and (b) encourage those people to check their entitlement.
Answered by Priti Patel
Information about Bereavement Benefits is widely available through GOV.UK. We also work closely with third party organisations who the bereaved traditionally contact such as registrars, hospitals, funeral directors and voluntary groups ensuring that they have the correct information available to signpost the bereaved to the DWP Bereavement Service.
Upon contacting the DWP Bereavement Service our staff will ensure that any benefits and pensions arrears are claimed and will also initiate a claim for Social Fund Funeral Payments and Bereavement Benefits if appropriate.
.
We continue to look for opportunities to improve the availability of advice about these particular benefits and as a result we have improved the information available on GOV.UK, and are currently exploring ways in which to to join up the Tell Us Once and Bereavement Service offers.
Tell Us Once is a cross-government service delivered through Local Authorities whereby notification of the death is cascaded out to other agencies, thus reducing the number of contacts an individual has to make.
The time limit for claiming Bereavement Allowance is three months from the date of death, which is consistent with the time limit for other welfare entitlements. We are currently developing the new Bereavement Support Payment due to be implemented for new claims from April 2017, and we will assess the merits of further flexibilities on backdating as part of this work.
Information available on the number of people in receipt of Bereavement Allowance by duration of current claim can be found at:
http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/tabtool.html
Guidance for users can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance