Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will bring forward legislation to introduce target dates to eradicate poverty for vulnerable groups.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are committed to tackling poverty. As set out in our manifesto, good work will be the foundation of our approach for people of working age. Our New Deal for Working People, including ensuring that the minimum wage is a genuine living wage, along with reformed employment support will mean that many more people will benefit from the dignity and purpose of employment.
We have also announced a number of initial steps to support children and families including free breakfast clubs in every primary school so children don’t go hungry, protecting renters from arbitrary eviction and banning exploitative zero hours contracts.
Our Ministerial Taskforce, jointly chaired Work and Pensions and Education Secretaries, has started urgent work on an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy and will explore all available levers to drive forward actions across government to reduce child poverty, tackle its root causes and give every child the best start in life. The Strategy will be published in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to close the disability employment gap by 2030.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has ambitious plans relating to employment, including disability employment, and we will be setting this out through a forthcoming White Paper, the Employment Rights Bill and the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. We know that there is more to do to address the labour market challenges of today and tomorrow. A fully inclusive labour market that enables disabled people and people with health conditions to have access to the same opportunities as everyone else to the benefits of work is crucial to meeting our ambition for an 80% employment rate.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
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 applying for child Disability Living Allowance waited longer than 20 weeks in Bournemouth East constituency in the last 12 months for which data is available; and what proportion of benefit decisions for applicants from residents of Bournemouth East constituency were not made within the target timeframe set by her Department in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on waiting times for a child disability living allowance decision is not readily available. To provide this would incur a disproportionate cost.
The current waiting period at national level for child DLA claims, under normal rules, is 86 days on average. Whilst we do not have a target timeframe, we aim to make decisions as quickly as possible to ensure that families of disabled children receive the support to which they are entitled and are always working towards reducing waiting times.