Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in (a) North Cornwall, and (b) Cornwall, were living below the poverty line in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on the number of people in relative low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The number and proportion of people in relative low income is not available at local authority or constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography.
3-year estimates for the South West of the proportion and number of people in relative low income are available in Table 3.17ts and Table 3.18ts in the file “3_population_timeseries_region” from this link:
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to change the level of financial support provided by his Department under the personal independence payment scheme for claimants who have Primary Orthostatic Tremor.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and the level at which it can be paid, is based on the daily living and mobility needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability, rather than being based on the condition or disability itself. People with movement disorders, such as primary orthostatic tremor, are able to access PIP in the same way as other people with long-term health conditions or disabilities.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
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 level of child poverty in North Cornwall on the basis of the four measures of poverty set out in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is committed to action that improves long-term outcomes for children and families by focusing on tackling the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. The four ‘Life Chances’ measures introduced through the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, which replaced the income based targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010, are designed to drive action and measure progress in the areas that we know can make the biggest difference - parental worklessness and children’s educational achievement.
The measures are based on official statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics on the proportion of children in workless households and the proportion of children in long-term workless households; and on Department for Education statistics on the educational attainment at Key Stage 4 of all pupils, and of disadvantaged pupils.
Although these statistics do not all provide data for individual constituencies, local authority-level data is generally available for the measure of all children in workless households and for both the educational attainment measures. However the ONS states that the estimate of children in workless households in Cornwall Local Authority in 2016 is not sufficiently reliable, due to sample size issues. Latest figures for the South West show that there were 8.1 per cent of children in workless households in July to September 2017.
Sources
Children by the combined economic activity status of household members by local authority (Table C1 LA):
Children in households by type of household and combined economic activity status of household members (Table M):
In 2017, pupils sat reformed GCSEs in English language, English literature and maths for the first time, graded on a 9 to 1 scale. 38.4 per cent of all pupils and 20.7 per cent of disadvantaged pupils in Cornwall Local Authority achieved 9-5 in English and maths.
Source: Characteristics local authority tables: SFR01/2018: GCSE and equivalent results in England 2016/17 (revised) (Table LA11):
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017
GCSE outcomes by constituency are available for all pupils but not broken down by disadvantaged pupils. In 2017, 36.7 per cent of all pupils in the North Cornwall constituency achieved 9-5 in English and maths.
Source: Pupil residency and school location tables: SFR01/2018 (Table PC1):
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial support his Department has provided to Wheels to Work schemes in rural areas, including Cornwall in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DWP has provided £360 in support to Wheels to Work Schemes in the last 5 years, the payments were made during 2012/13. These were made specifically in Helston, Bodmin and Liskeard Job Centres.