Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 effect of child burial charges on parents living in poverty.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of child burial charges on parents in poverty.
Funeral Expenses Payments are available to help parents, and others, on certain income-related benefits with the costs of funerals, and will pay the full fees levied for adult or children’s burials or cremations.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit on levels of child poverty.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The impact of Universal Credit cannot be considered in isolation. Tackling child poverty and disadvantage is a priority for this government and Universal Credit is a key component of a broader strategy to move Britain to a higher wage, lower welfare and lower tax society. This strategy includes increasing the personal tax allowance and introducing the national living wage.
In line with this strategy, Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work, and it is working. Universal Credit claimants move into work faster and spend more time looking for work.
In addition, Universal Credit provides improved support for childcare for parents, enabling them to reclaim up to 85% of their eligible childcare costs, which is expected to help 500,000 additional families at a cost of around £350m per year.
At the Budget, the Chancellor announced a number of further improvements to Universal Credit which will help ensure that claimants are supported until they receive their first monthly Universal Credit payment.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2016 to Question 42446, how many people have (a) claimed and (b) received payment under the vaccine damages payment scheme where one of the vaccines cited in the claim was (i) whole cell vaccine for pertussis used up to 2003 and (ii) acellular vaccine used after 2003.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Of the 4236 claims identified in answer to Question 42446, 256 cited the DTaP/IPV/HIB or DTaP/IPV, the acellular vaccine for pertussis, on the claim form. As stated in answer to Question 42446, 710 of the 4236 claims noted resulted in award, of which 2 cited the acellular vaccine on the claim form. As previously advised it is not possible to state how many, if any, of the claims listed above were made specifically in relation to pertussis.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for the Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payment Scheme his Department has (a) received and (b) accepted in each of the last five years in (i) Birmingham, Northfield constituency, (ii) West Midlands and (iii) England.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Table 1 below gives the number of applications for Funeral Expenses Payments received in England and in the West Midlands government office region for each of the last 5 financial years from 2011/12 to 2015/16. Table 2 gives the number of awards for Funeral Expenses Payments made in those two areas.
DWP does not hold data on Funeral Expenses Payments at constituency level.
Table 1: Applications received for Funeral Expenses Payments in West Midlands and England between 2011/12 and 2015/16
| 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | |
West Midlands | 6,800 | 6,600 | 6,000 | 4,900 | 4,500 |
|
England | 55,700 | 53,200 | 48,000 | 40,900 | 35,900 |
|
Source: Policy, Budget and Management Information System
Table 2: Awards made for Funeral Expenses Payments in West Midlands and England between 2011/12 and 2015/16
| 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2014/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | ||
West Midlands | 3,800 | 3,700 | 3,300 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
|
|
England | 30,200 | 28,000 | 26,600 | 25,600 | 22,800 |
|
|
Source: Policy, Budget and Management Information System
Notes
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent representations his Department has (a) received and (b) made to the Scottish Government on its approach to funeral expenses.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
My Department has been working closely with Scottish Government officials to facilitate the effective handover of powers and responsibilities under the Scotland Act 2016. The progress we have made is testament to the constructive approach we are taking; we have already commenced the vast majority of the welfare powers and discussions are underway on the steps that we will take to commence the remaining sections including funeral expenses.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2016 to Question 42446, how many people have (a) claimed and (b) received payment under the vaccine damages payment scheme where one of the vaccines cited in the claim was one used for whooping cough.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Since the inception of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, 4236 claims have been made where whooping cough is amongst the vaccines cited on the claim form. Of those, 710 resulted in an award. The figures include claims where whooping cough was administered as a single vaccination or as part of a combined vaccine e.g. DTaP/IPV (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis/Whooping Cough and Polio). As previously advised it is not possible to state how many, if any, of the claims listed above were made specifically in relation to whooping cough.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2016 to Question 41943, how many people have (a) claimed and (b) received payment under the vaccine damages payment scheme in respect of a vaccine used for whooping cough.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I refer the honourable gentleman to my response to his question dated 31 May 2016. Information regarding claims and awards in respect of a particular disease or vaccine is unavailable.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 31 May 2016 to Question 37766, if he will assess the potential merits of collating information about vaccinations given to people claiming or receiving payment under the vaccine damage payments scheme.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In order to effectively administer the scheme, details of all vaccinations that a claimant may have received is requested when a claim is submitted. Determining which vaccine may have caused the adverse reaction may not be possible as a number of vaccinations are often given in close proximity. There are no plans to change how the scheme is currently administered.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 May 2016 to Question 38312, if he will provide details of the relevant legislative criteria for payment of child maintenance to carers of children looked after under a special guardianship order.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The relevant legislative criteria to be a person with care are in Section 3(3) of the Child Support Act 1991, which states:
S3. Child Support Act 1991
(3) A person is a “person with care”, in relation to any child, if he is a person–
(a) with whom the child has his home;
(b) who usually provides day to day care for the child (whether exclusively or in conjunction with any other person); and
(c) who does not fall within a prescribed category of person.
There are no provisions prohibiting a Special Guardian from being a person with care in any supporting secondary Child Support legislation (in other words, they do not “fall within a prescribed category of person”).