Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent representations she has received from women in Jarrow constituency affected by measures taken to equalise the state pension age; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The policy of increasing State Pension age due to changes in life expectancy and equality legislation is enshrined in the 1995, 2007 and 2011 Pensions Act. It is a policy agreed by all governments in the last 23 years whatever their political persuasion – in 1995 Conservative, Labour in 1997-2010 and Coalition 2010-2015.
The Department for Work and Pensions receives a number of recent representations on the measures taken to equalise the State Pension age from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf, as it does on many issues. We are unable to state specifically how many representations are from Jarrow constituency
This matter has been comprehensively debated on many occasions in Parliament. The Government will not be making changes to its policy on state pension age for women born in the 1950s.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of people using food banks in the North East.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We do not record the number of people using food banks or other types of food aid. We are currently reviewing research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust, to add to our understanding of food bank use, and will consider requirements to add to our evidence base.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential for an increase in food bank use during the school summer holidays in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We are currently reviewing research carried out by organisations including the Trussell Trust, to add to our understanding of food bank use, and will consider requirements to add to our evidence base.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints her Department has received from people affected by legislative changes in 1995 and 2011 to the women's state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The number of complaints received and investigated from August 2016 to May 2018 is 7835.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2018 to Question 125594 on Personal Independence Payment, what assessment she has made of the reasons that 59 per cent of Personal Independence Payment appeals were decided in favour of the appellant in HMCTS North East Region between October 2016 and September 2017.
Answered by Sarah Newton
As of March 2018, of the 3.3m decisions made since PIP was introduced, 4% have been overturned at appeal.
The majority of decisions are overturned because of the oral evidence provided by the claimant at the hearing; and because of new written evidence not previously seen by the Department’s decision makers.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
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 reasons why unemployment is higher in the North East than in other regions of the UK.
Answered by Lord Sharma
In the three months to March 2018 the unemployment level in the North East was 63,000, a joint record low for the area. The unemployment rate stood at 4.9%, 0.1 percentage points above the record low for the North East.
Estimates of unemployment differ in different areas of the country due to a range of factors such as the demographics of the local area and local labour market conditions, as well as the effects of sample variability in the Labourforce Survey on which the ONS’s Labour Market Statistics are based.
(Data from the Labourforce Survey for the period January – March 2018)
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the effect of changes to the state pension age on women born in the 1950s in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Successive governments did not do a constituency or regional specific assessment of the effect of changes to the State Pension age for men or women born in any individual constituency. Therefore, this process is not proposed for the Jarrow constituency, South Tyneside or the North East.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of child poverty in the North East.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
National statistics on the percentage of children in low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. Figures on the percentage of children in low income in the North East can be found in the link below, in table 4.16ts for relative low income, and 4.22ts for absolute low income. These are split into before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC). Due to small sample sizes at a regional level, figures are available as three-year rolling averages.