Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 impact of the Money Advice and Pension Service debt advice tender process on local provision of debt advice.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) debt advice recommissioning is expected to materially increase the amount of debt advice available to people in England and ensure services are built around customers’ needs.
MaPS is taking proactive steps to ensure the debt advice tender process retains a set level of debt advice delivery at the regional and local level.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people applied for (a) attendance allowance, (b) pension credit and (c) carers' allowance in (i) the UK and (ii) Rotherham from April to September in (A) 2019 and (B) 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to amend the availability for work requirements for claimants of universal credit with child care responsibilities as a result of amended school timetables during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
Where a claimant is the lead carer of a child under the age of 13, their work related requirements can be tailored to take into account amended school timetables during the covid-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that universal credit payments made to key workers are not reduced as a result of bonus payments made by their employer in recognition of their work during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
A Universal Credit award is calculated on the basis of the set benefit rate against money coming in to ensure fairness of treatment for all claimants against the money that they have earned. This means as earnings increase Universal Credit is gradually reduced. This is a long-standing principle of means-tested benefits.
Bonuses are earnings for all workers and are treated in the same way as any other earnings. This is already true for tax and other purposes, regardless of whether or not an individual is claiming a benefit. All earnings are subject to the taper rate and the Universal Credit award is calculated on that basis.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training her Department provides to Jobcentre Plus staff on economic abuse as a form of domestic abuse.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants, including the most vulnerable in society. This includes those who are, or have been, victims of domestic abuse.
Our Work Coaches undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. All Work Coaches receive training on how to support claimants with complex needs, which includes a module on identifying, supporting and signposting victims of abuse.
In addition around 600 DWP staff across the UK are currently undergoing specialist training from expert organisation Women’s Aid. The newly assigned points of contact will be trained to identify and support the needs of anyone experiencing domestic abuse, and will work closely with local services to share knowledge and signpost women to additional, external support.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department collects on needs of claimants of universal credit that are survivors of domestic abuse.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is sensitive to the fact that it can be difficult for any victim of domestic abuse to come forward and disclose this. Universal Credit claimants are assigned to a single Work Coach, with whom they can build a trusting relationship. All of our work coaches have received mandatory training, developed with input from domestic abuse charities in order to help them recognise the signs of abuse. If it becomes apparent that a claimant has been, or is a victim of domestic abuse, as soon as they feel able to disclose this personal and sensitive information, a discussion should take place about their circumstances to enable their work coach to tailor the support they provide to their needs. This includes signposting the claimant to expert organisations. Almost all Jobcentres have private rooms available so that individuals can discuss these sensitive issues in private.
With the permission of the claimant, their Work Coach is able to record the information they disclose, in a free text format, through the use of pinned notes, which supports staff in identifying and managing relevant experiences and circumstances of individual claimants.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on the development of universal credit management systems to enable the collation of the number of domestic violence easements.
Answered by Will Quince
We are continuing to develop our approach to capture accurate, aggregate data on vulnerable claimants, including those who are victims of domestic and economic abuse. This work is ongoing and has been prioritised for the current Universal Credit development phase. This involves us meeting with claimants and expert users such as third parties and Work Coaches to see how people will respond to being asked about their circumstance and support they may require. We are also working on how we can use the Claimant Commitment to capture information about when easements have been applied for claimants.
We are also implementing other improvements across our service for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and in response to one of the Joint Committee’s recommendations on the Domestic Abuse Bill, we have committed to review and evaluate the effectiveness of a new feature to encourage payments of UC to the main carer and the introduction of domestic abuse specialists in every Jobcentre.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what account is taken of income from compensation payments under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in employment and support allowance calculations.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Payments for Criminal Injuries Compensation come under payment for personal injury. Once the claimant has provided the information the Decision Maker would disregard for 52 weeks from the date of the award and if the award is put in trust the Decision Maker would disregard indefinitely. If the claimant was to take an income from the Trust it is treated as income from capital.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what account is taken of income from compensation payments under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in disability benefit calculations.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The disability benefits (Attendance Allowance, Personal independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance) are non–contributory and are not means–tested. No account is taken of income from compensation payments or any other income when assessing entitlement to a disability benefit.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training and guidance her Department provides to Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches and other staff in her Department on (a) the specific vulnerabilities of women at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation and (b) specialist services that staff may refer to that support women to exit prostitution.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants, including the most vulnerable in society. We are continuously reviewing and improving the service for vulnerable people to ensure that it is accessible and responsive to their needs.
Specific training and guidance is provided for all staff on working with different vulnerable groups. This includes developing the skills they need to support and communicate with a diverse range of customers.
All DWP staff have access to the ‘Safeguarding Vulnerable People’ guidance, which highlights the importance of having arrangements in place which assist in the protection of vulnerable adults and children from physical abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation.
To assist with identification and claimant support, each Jobcentre Plus site has a complex needs toolkit in place and these are maintained and reviewed locally.
Additionally, Jobcentre staff have access to a District Provision Tool which provides access to the full range of provision and support delivered by DWP, providers, local authorities and independent volunteer/charity organisations. However, if Work Coaches are unable to identify local provisions that meets the needs of the claimant, they liaise with DWP Partnership Managers, who have the flexibility to work alongside local organisations to source appropriate provision helping our most vulnerable, at risk, claimants to access the support they need.
We have also been closely engaging with key stakeholders on a range of topics and we will continue to work closely with them on improving our services, policies and support for victims of abuse.