Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to support people who are self-employed where they have to (a) self-isolate and (b) take sick leave in response to covid-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that everyone should be supported to do the right thing.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in which non-UK countries UK pensioners (a) receive and (b) do not receive an annual uprating to their state pension in accordance with the triple lock.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A list of overseas countries where the State Pension is up-rated annually is available at:
A list of countries where State Pensions are in payment but are not uprated can be generated by accessing: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in Gower were in receipt of support for mortgage interest in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department does not hold the data requested. The data needed to make robust estimates of the number of recipients of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) at geographies smaller than Government Office Region is not available to Departmental analysts.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to digitise the application processes for (a) personal independence payments, (b) attendance allowance and (c) other benefits.
Answered by Sarah Newton
DWP is fully committed to improving the way customers access the support they need in the simplest way possible. A range of online services are already available and we continue to work directly with the users of our services to understand their needs and build services to meet those needs.
Although it remains on our longer-term road map, there are no current plans to digitise the process for Personal Independence Payments although we are introducing improved Digital services for the health assessment.
Similarly, we are not currently planning any digitisation of the Attendance Allowance.
We have introduced Digital services for a number of our other benefits/ services including Universal Credit, Job Seekers Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, and to support state pensions. We are continuing to prioritise further digital investment for other benefits where we can see improvements for Citizens.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to change the application processes for personal independence payment and attendance allowance to allow third parties to help claimants.
Answered by Sarah Newton
There are no plans to change the application process for Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance as third parties can already assist the claimant throughout the claim process and beyond.
A third party can assist the disabled person in making the telephone claim for PIP. They can also help the person complete any paper claim form where necessary. Further within the claim process, they can help the claimant complete any evidence gathering forms and can also accompany them to any face to face consultation with a Health Care Professional, at the claimant’s request.
Separately to this, a third party can make a claim under the Special Rules for the Terminally Ill provisions where the claimant has a life expectancy of less than 6 months, without any involvement from the disabled person, although all notifications are sent to the customer.
For claims to Attendance Allowance a third party can assist the disabled person by completing a clerical claim form. In addition, claims to Attendance Allowance can be made via Alternative Offices. These are offices authorised by the Secretary of State, with nominated staff trained from specified partner organisations to receive and check Social Security claims made by Attendance Allowance customers. They can also collect and validate information and supporting evidence and record the first date of claim.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
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 Gower constituency had personal independence payments overturned as a result of (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) an appeal hearing in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The data requested was provided in the answer of 12 September 2017 (UIN 6928).
It should be noted that the appeals data provided by the Ministry of Justice in this response referred to claimants’ appeals heard in the hearing venue nearest to the appellants’ home address. For appellants identified as living in Gower those appeals are attributed to the Llanelli, Port Talbot or Swansea venues.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been helped to (a) remain in and (b) return to work by the Fuller Working Lives initiative in (i) the UK, (ii) Wales and (iii) Gower constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The data requested is not held, however the number of older workers in the UK currently stands at 10 million workers aged 50 years with over 8.8 million individuals aged 50-64 in employment; an increase of 1.2 million people compared to five years ago. There are 1.2 million individuals in employment aged 65 and over.
Employment rates for older workers have also been increasing steadily. In the past ten years, the employment rate for people aged 50-64 has increased by 6.0 percentage points (from 65.2% in 2007 to 71.2% in 2017). The employment rate for individuals aged 65 and over has almost doubled to 10.1%, from 5.1% twenty years ago.
Further information on estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics for the UK can be found in the “UK labour market: December 2017” statistical bulletin published at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website:
Further information on labour market statistics for separate UK countries, as well as local areas, can be found at the NOMIS website:
The Government is committed to supporting people aged 50 years and over to remain in and return to work; the ‘Fuller Working Lives: A Partnership Approach’ strategy was published on 2nd February. This, crucially, is led by employers, but it also sets out the case for action by individuals, and the role of Government in supporting them in planning their careers and their approach to retirement. The Strategy and supporting evidence base are available at the attached web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuller-working-lives-a-partnership-approach
Analysis on the headline measures that the government uses to monitor progress on Fuller Working Lives can be found in this statistical release:
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) Gower, (b) Wales and (c) the UK are not eligible for the new state pension due to having less than 10 years of national insurance contributions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The New State Pension was introduced for those persons reaching State Pension age on, or after, 6th April 2016. Our latest data on the number of qualifying years people have are for the 2015/16 financial year, so we do not yet have any data on the numbers of people reaching State Pension age under the New State Pension with less than 10 years of National Insurance contributions.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of children were living in poverty in Gower in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
National statistics on the number of children in relative low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The number and proportion of children 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.
Latest 3-year estimates for Wales of the proportion and number of children in low income are available in Table 4.16ts and Table 4.17ts in the file “4_children_timeseries_risk” from this link:
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussion he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) others on reinstating implicit consent for terminally ill claimants of universal credit; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We are committed to ensuring that terminally ill patients are treated with the utmost sensitivity and care and receive the support they need to make a claim to Universal Credit. This can include a home visit to support a claimant with making their initial claim and completing any other administrative tasks required to ensure that they receive the correct payment. As we continue to deliver the full Universal Credit service, with its expanded claimant base, we are continuing to review and further develop the customer journey for claimants with complex needs, including how we support terminally ill claimants to engage in the process.
We are aware of concerns raised about the process of notifying DWP about a claimant’s terminal illness. However, we do not need to change the consent rules in Universal Credit to support these claimants. We can already accept information directly from claimant representatives, such as claimant appointees and third party organisations representing the claimant as well as details supplied to DWP Universal Credit partnership managers or external engagement officials. However, we are also aware that there are instances where this is not happening as intended in some limited circumstances and we are working to confirm that the guidance and processes are in place to ensure that it does.
The Department and the Universal Credit Programme have regular meetings with key stakeholders, including MacMillan, Maggie’s Centres and Mind, to understand how our policies are working and discuss potential areas for improvement. The design of Universal Credit for terminally ill claimants is based on the well tested processes that have been in place in Employment and Support Allowance as have the proof of illness requirements. We continue to keep these under review to ensure that they work as effectively as possible.