Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the staffing levels were in (a) the Child Maintenance Service and (b) Financial Investigation Unit in each year since 2015.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Child Maintenance Group (CMG) was made up of The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and the Child Support Agency (CSA) up until the CSA closed in 2019, therefore the staffing levels used are from 2019 to show CMS only.
Year | Child Maintenance Service | Financial Investigation Unit |
December-2019 | 6536 | 85 |
December-2020 | 5643 | 87 |
December-2021 | 5325 | 67 |
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Child Maintenance Service funding is allocated to the Financial Investigation Unit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Financial Investigation Unit is allocated 2% of Child Maintenance Service funding.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the ability of the Child Maintenance Service to respond effectively to atypical cases and resolve errors.
Answered by Guy Opperman
There have been no recent assessments made on atypical Child Maintenance cases.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the winter fuel payment available to all people in receipt of state pension for winter 2021-2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department has made no such assessment.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory number of Forestry England site visits to (a) publicly managed and (b) privately managed UK forests to monitor workers’ conditions and ensure sites are PPE-compliant.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has responsibility for the regulation of health and safety law for forestry work in Great Britain (GB). HSE achieves this through a blend of activities, including work with stakeholders, targeted communications, specific guidance and, where appropriate, site visits to maximise impact.
Key to HSE’s influence with forestry stakeholders is work with and support for the Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA). FISA is an organisation comprised of leading organisations within the forestry industry who have made a commitment to raise the standard of health safety and welfare in the forestry workplace[1]. Forestry England are a member of FISA. The work by FISA and HSE covers the provision and use of the correct equipment for workers, including PPE.
Throughout 2020, HSE continued to work with stakeholders within the forestry industry to ensure health and safety standards were met on site.
HSE is not aware of any assessments about introducing statutory Forestry England visits to forestry worksites to monitor conditions for workers. Forestry England do not have a statutory role to monitor compliance but will visit sites in their control as part of their normal site management arrangements.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 24 March 2020 to Question 30051 on Pension Credit stating that her Department will carry out a full evaluation of the 12-week Pension Credit awareness campaign that started on 12 February 2020, if she will outline (a) the results of that evaluation including how successful it was in meeting its objectives and (b) her Department’s plans for future awareness raising of Pension Credit following that evaluation.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The purpose of the campaign was to support Pension Credit take-up and test impact.
There was a 20% increase in telephone calls to the Pension Credit claim line (during the course of the campaign the weekly average was 2,493 phone calls compared to a weekly average in 2019 of 2,079 phone calls).
There was also significant engagement with social media and a spike of activity on viewing the Pension Credit website pages with more than 5,000 sessions on the launch day, 10 February (compared to 1,000 on 3 February).
However, it should be stressed that other factors may affect these numbers, including the BBC TV licensing decision and the effect of the Pandemic.
Due to the Pandemic, all pensions campaigns are currently on hold.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing carers' allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Government recognises and appreciates the vital role played by unpaid carers now more than ever. In November 2019 there were around 510 carers in the Sheffield Hallam constituency that were receiving Carer’s Allowance (CA) and in 2018/19 we spent approximately £1.7 million on CA there.
During the current emergency, we have focussed on ensuring carers do not inadvertently stop receiving CA because of changes to patterns of care. This includes allowing emotional support to count towards the 35 hours of care being provided by the carer as well as relaxing the rules around breaks in care. These changes aim to support carers whose role has, in many cases, become harder due to the need to self-isolate or shield the person they care for.
The rate of CA was also increased in early April as part of the annual uprating process. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £67.25 a week, meaning nearly an additional £700 a year for carers. We continue to support those carers in most need through additional amounts (premiums) in means-tested benefits and have also announced increases to the standard allowance in Universal Credit. Meaning claimants will be up to £1040 better off this financial year, which some carers receiving Universal Credit will benefit from.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the additional staff time required for administering managed migration from legacy benefits to universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
The impact and pressure that moving existing legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit (UC) will put on the Department is often overstated. Our Move to UC pilot will help to understand any additional support and resources required to migrate claimants to UC, so that we can tailor support for those who need it.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that universal credit claims received as part of managed migration are processed within the month-long assessment period.
Answered by Will Quince
Our current Move to Universal Credit (UC) pilot allows work coaches to support claimants and ensures they have the correct evidence to verify their claim in order to ensure they are paid in full and on time.