Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 proportion of the support available under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme that will be granted to families with children who are eligible for Free School Meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The primary focus of the £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including, but not restricted to, families who are eligible for free school meals. As local authorities have flexibility to decide how best to identify and support those most in need in their local area, within the grant conditions, no such assessment has been made.
Detailed guidance for local authorities was published on gov.uk on 24 November.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps families of children who are eligible for Free School Meals will need to take to access support from the Covid Winter Grant Scheme during the Christmas holidays.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Support Grant is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities in England to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. To ensure those most in need benefit from this funding, grants to local authorities are being made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and carry conditions to ensure the primary focus of the scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including but not restricted to households who are eligible for free school meals. Local authorities will develop their own criteria.
We have provided these grants to upper tier authorities, recognising they have the statutory responsibility regarding children and are well placed to identify and respond to local need. A wide range of data is already available to them to help target their support, including access to the benefits system, social services, health visitors and relationships with schools. Local authorities already have local welfare assistance responsibility and many have support programmes already in place. Jobcentres will share information with claimants about the support available in their local area.
Detailed guidance has been shared with local authorities and was published on gov.uk on 24 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to (a) inform families of children who are eligible for Free School Meals how to access support under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme and (b) support those families to access that scheme.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Support Grant is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities in England to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. To ensure those most in need benefit from this funding, grants to local authorities are being made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and carry conditions to ensure the primary focus of the scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including but not restricted to households who are eligible for free school meals. Local authorities will develop their own criteria.
We have provided these grants to upper tier authorities, recognising they have the statutory responsibility regarding children and are well placed to identify and respond to local need. A wide range of data is already available to them to help target their support, including access to the benefits system, social services, health visitors and relationships with schools. Local authorities already have local welfare assistance responsibility and many have support programmes already in place. Jobcentres will share information with claimants about the support available in their local area.
Detailed guidance has been shared with local authorities and was published on gov.uk on 24 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department will take to ensure families with children who are eligible for Free School Meals access support under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Support Grant is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities in England to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. To ensure those most in need benefit from this funding, grants to local authorities are being made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and carry conditions to ensure the primary focus of the scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including but not restricted to households who are eligible for free school meals. Local authorities will develop their own criteria.
We have provided these grants to upper tier authorities, recognising they have the statutory responsibility regarding children and are well placed to identify and respond to local need. A wide range of data is already available to them to help target their support, including access to the benefits system, social services, health visitors and relationships with schools. Local authorities already have local welfare assistance responsibility and many have support programmes already in place. Jobcentres will share information with claimants about the support available in their local area.
Detailed guidance has been shared with local authorities and was published on gov.uk on 24 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 families of children who are eligible for Free School Meals are aware of the need to access the Covid Winter Grant Scheme to receive food provision support over the Christmas holidays.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Support Grant is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities in England to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. To ensure those most in need benefit from this funding, grants to local authorities are being made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and carry conditions to ensure the primary focus of the scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including but not restricted to households who are eligible for free school meals. Local authorities will develop their own criteria.
We have provided these grants to upper tier authorities, recognising they have the statutory responsibility regarding children and are well placed to identify and respond to local need. A wide range of data is already available to them to help target their support, including access to the benefits system, social services, health visitors and relationships with schools. Local authorities already have local welfare assistance responsibility and many have support programmes already in place. Jobcentres will share information with claimants about the support available in their local area.
Detailed guidance has been shared with local authorities and was published on gov.uk on 24 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many families with children received the £20 per week uplift in universal credit standard allowance payment in the North East in each month since that uplift was introduced.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of households with children with Universal Credit in payment, by parliamentary constituency and by region, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many families with children received the £20 per week uplift in universal credit standard allowance payments in Washington and Sunderland West constituency in each month since that uplift was introduced.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of households with children with Universal Credit in payment, by parliamentary constituency and by region, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to publicise the availability of the Tech Fund for employees applying for Access to Work to (a) organisations and (b) disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Access to Work Tech Fund is only available for people applying for Access to Work where assistive technology replaces existing or proposed human support.
Since its announcement in Spring 2018, take up of Tech Fund has been low (fewer than 10 applicants). As a result, we are currently reviewing this and engaging with stakeholders to further understand the issues that they may be facing or those preventing them from benefiting from the Tech Fund. We are keen to find new ways of helping Access to Work recipients to become aware of, and benefit from, the latest assistive technology that best meets their needs, and would welcome further views on this.
Access to Work has not undertaken any publicising of the Tech Fund specifically. Access to Work continues to undertake targeted marketing and awareness raising activities. For example, the scheme is promoted to benefit claimants through Jobcentre Plus and to a range of business leaders through the Disability Confident scheme. We have also worked with a variety of stakeholder organisations to market Access to Work to their clients, including sharing information about how individuals can apply for support.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many disabled people have (a) applied for and (b) received funding for technology through the Tech Fund.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Access to Work Tech Fund is only available for people applying for Access to Work where assistive technology replaces existing or proposed human support.
Since its announcement in Spring 2018, take up of Tech Fund has been low (fewer than 10 applicants). As a result, we are currently reviewing this and engaging with stakeholders to further understand the issues that they may be facing or those preventing them from benefiting from the Tech Fund. We are keen to find new ways of helping Access to Work recipients to become aware of, and benefit from, the latest assistive technology that best meets their needs, and would welcome further views on this.
Access to Work has not undertaken any publicising of the Tech Fund specifically. Access to Work continues to undertake targeted marketing and awareness raising activities. For example, the scheme is promoted to benefit claimants through Jobcentre Plus and to a range of business leaders through the Disability Confident scheme. We have also worked with a variety of stakeholder organisations to market Access to Work to their clients, including sharing information about how individuals can apply for support.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with dyslexia (a) applied for and (b) received funding for technology through the Tech Fund.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Access to Work Tech Fund is only available for people applying for Access to Work where assistive technology replaces existing or proposed human support.
Since its announcement in Spring 2018, take up of Tech Fund has been low (fewer than 10 applicants). As a result, we are currently reviewing this and engaging with stakeholders to further understand the issues that they may be facing or those preventing them from benefiting from the Tech Fund. We are keen to find new ways of helping Access to Work recipients to become aware of, and benefit from, the latest assistive technology that best meets their needs, and would welcome further views on this.
Access to Work has not undertaken any publicising of the Tech Fund specifically. Access to Work continues to undertake targeted marketing and awareness raising activities. For example, the scheme is promoted to benefit claimants through Jobcentre Plus and to a range of business leaders through the Disability Confident scheme. We have also worked with a variety of stakeholder organisations to market Access to Work to their clients, including sharing information about how individuals can apply for support.