Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any companies that participate in his Department's work trial programme for claimants who are in receipt of jobseeker's allowance are known to use unpaid trial shifts as part of their general recruitment process.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Department does not keep records of the general recruitment practices of companies that offer a Work Trial opportunity.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of employer's using unpaid trial shifts, particularly in the hospitality sector.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Department does not make any assessment of employers using unpaid trial shifts for any sectors including hospitality.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of in-work conditionality under universal credit on the number of people offered (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The in-work progression Randomised Control Trial is currently being expanded following a successful proof of concept stage. It is too early to provide any assessment of its impact.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for core regulatory activities within the Health and Safety Executive in the next three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
HSE, like many other public bodies, will deliver further budgetary savings over the next three years. HSE has set out in its 2016/17 Business Plan its priorities and key deliverables up to April 2017, including its commitment to securing effective management and control of risk in GB workplaces. For the longer term it has a financial strategy to deliver the required savings whilst seeking to maintain current levels of its core regulatory activities and sustaining regulatory excellence.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the security of pensions invested in the British Steel pension fund.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The government continues to work closely with Tata on the future for the members of the British Steel pension fund. Members of defined benefit occupational pension schemes in the UK are covered by a robust framework of protection.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of the personal independence payment assessment contract with ATOS; what the main key performance indicators (KPIs) are under that contract; and what the (a) financial and (b) other penalties are for failure to meet KPIs.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department has two Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts with Atos, each covering a geographical area. North of England & Scotland (Lot 1) has a value of £206,703,507. London & South of England (Lot 3) has a value of £183,894,556.
There are a number of Service Levels (Key Performance Indicators are not used in PIP contracts) which Atos are required to deliver to meet the Department’s service requirements. These are detailed in the attached Annex 1. In addition, a number of interim Service Levels have been introduced to address specific performance targets.
In the event Atos fail to achieve a key service level, contracts provide for Service Credits to be applied. Service Credits are a contractual remedy applied to Atos to recognise the loss of service received and to ensure any performance issues are rectified quickly.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his polices of the conclusion of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, entitled Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2015, that the number of people in low-income working households has risen from 5.2 million to 6.7 million in the last 10 years.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Department carefully considers all relevant publications.
The number of people in in-work relative low income is 200,000 lower than at its peak in 2008/09. Moreover, Universal Credit, our investment in childcare, the National Living Wage, and our increase in the personal tax allowance will support individuals and working households by enabling them to earn more and keep more of what they earn.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his polices of the conclusion of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, entitled Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2015, that the proportion of families in the bottom fifth of income distribution with no savings rose to 69 per cent over the last 10 years partly due to the rising cost of living
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Department carefully considers all relevant publications.
The Prime Minister recently announced that the Government is bringing forward a ‘help to save’ scheme to encourage those on low incomes to build up a rainy day fund. The Government has also taken significant steps to support the credit union movement to help people to save and access responsible credit.
Asked by: Philip Boswell (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his polices of the conclusion of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, entitled Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2015, that people in the bottom fifth of income distribution saw their living costs increase faster than average because they spent more money on essential goods.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Department carefully considers all relevant publications.
We know that work is the best route out of poverty and that is why we are reforming welfare and cutting taxes to make sure work always pays and people get to keep more of what they earn. The annual average income of the poorest fifth of households has risen in real terms, compared to 2007/08. Looking forward, working families can expect to see their earnings increase, with average earnings growth expected to reach around 4% a year by 2020, while the current OBR forecast is for inflation to remain relatively low over the next two years.