Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of the rising cost of (a) food and (b) domestic bills, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional targeted support to people with terminal illnesses.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government wants to do all it can to alleviate the pressures on those nearing the end of their lives, and on their families
The main way that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does this is through special benefit rules, sometimes referred to as “the Special Rules”. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. For many years, the Special Rules have applied to people who have 6 months or less to live and now they are being changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.
Once the change has been fully rolled out across all benefits, each year, between 30,000 and 60,000 people may benefit from these changes to the Special Rules. This will mean that the Government is spending approximately £115 million a year more on people who are nearing the end of their lives.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 merits of granting the £650 cost of living payment to people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises that disabled people face extra costs, which is why 6 million disabled people who are in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment worth £150. This includes people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. Households will receive a payment for each eligible disabled person.
Many disabled people are also in receipt of a means-tested benefit. Therefore, they will be eligible for both the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment and the £650 Cost of Living Payment. Disabled pensioners will in addition benefit from the £300 increase in the Winter Fuel Payment.
The Government is also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, £421m will be used to further extend the Household Support Fund from October 2022 to March 2023.
Guidance and individual local authority indicative allocations for this further extension to the Household Support Fund will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when any Minister in her Department last held a meeting with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign; and when they next intend to do so.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A Departmental Minister met with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) on 29 June 2016. There are currently no plans to the meet with representatives of the group.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of pre-arranged calls with Universal Credit advisors are made within (a) an hour of the arranged time, (b) made on the day of the arranged time and c) not made at all.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 merits of publishing a plan for consulting with disabled people on the National Disability Strategy.
Answered by Chloe Smith
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 National Audit Office's projections of the Child Maintenance Service arrears reaching £1 billion by 2031.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has not forecast caseloads beyond 2025. The National Audit Office (NAO) forecast is a simple linear projection that assumes the legislative and economic environment will remain unchanged over the next nine years and does not account for the Child Maintenance Service’s (CMS) ageing population of qualifying children.
Up to December 2021, the CMS has arranged £5.4 billion of child maintenance and £451 million (8%) was unpaid.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the total number of work capability assessments overturned on appeal.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Information on appeal tribunal outcomes in relation to Employment Support Allowance Work Capability Assessments (WCA) is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
Similar information on appeals for Universal Credit WCA is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 merits of uprating benefits in line with inflation at the Spring 2022 Budget.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The increase in benefits is linked to the rate of inflation to September 2021 which is published in October. This is the latest date the Secretary of State can use to deliver the required legislative and operational changes before new rates can be introduced at the start of the following financial year.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support more autistic people into employment.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government has ambitious plans to support disabled people and people with health conditions to achieve their full potential and live better for longer. In 2017, we committed to seeing 1 million more people with disabilities into employment by 2027. In the first four years we saw an increase of 850,000. We have also pledged to narrow the disability employment gap, and this has reduced by 4.8 percentage points since 2013.
The Government’s “National Strategy For Autistic Children, Young People And Adults: 2021 – 2026” specifically recognised the importance of employment support for autistic people. Some key actions are outlined below.
Starting this autumn, we will invest £7.2m in Local Supported Employment services, working with around 20 Local Authorities to enable more social care users with learning disabilities and autism to access the support needed to help them get into work and remain in employment.
We are working with the National Autistic Society to test ways to make Jobcentres more autism-inclusive.
We have strengthened our Disability Employment Adviser role, delivering direct support to claimants who require additional work related support and supporting all work coaches to deliver tailored, personalised support to claimants with a disability or health condition including those with autism.
Access to Work offers disabled customers, including those with autism, tailored packages of support and advice to help them access or remain in work.
The Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people who want to work but have complex needs or barriers and require specialist support to achieve sustained employment such as autism.
The Labour Force Survey questionnaire now includes a question about autism. This allows us to track improvements in the employment status for people with autism,
Through the Disability Confident scheme, DWP is engaging with employers and helping to promote the skills, talents and abilities of people with autism.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.