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 assessment her Department has made of the impact of not being considered the primary caregiver, where a shared custody agreement is in place, on Child Maintenance payments for subsequent children.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Where a paying parent has overnight care of a child for whom they pay child maintenance, for at least 52 nights a year (i.e. an average of one night per week), their overall liability is reduced to reflect this.
Reductions are made according to bands, reflecting each additional night per week of overnight care.
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 assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on receipt of benefits for people with joint custody of their children but who are not considered the primary parent in the years (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, (d) 2018, (e) 2019 and (f) 2020.
Answered by David Rutley
No assessment has been made. DWP does not hold information on custody arrangements between all parents claiming benefits and therefore would be unable to make an assessment of the effect on the parent who is not the primary carer.
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 parents or guardians with joint custody of their children were not considered the primary care giver in relation to receiving benefits in each year since 2016.
Answered by David Rutley
The information requested is not held. DWP does not hold information on custody arrangements between all parents claiming benefits so cannot provide the information requested.
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 long her Department takes on average to make a decision on accepting or declining a job advert under the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department of Work and Pensions works closely with employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme to ensure that jobs are created for young people as quickly as possible. A Kickstart job can start at any time over the lifetime of the scheme and some employers choose to delay the commencement of roles for a variety of reasons.
Our data indicates that between the 27/07/2021 and 08/09/2021 the average time between receipt of an application by DWP to confirmation of its approval was 14 days. Within the same period the average time between receipt of an application and the job being made available for young people to apply for was 43 days. A significant portion of this time includes engagement with employers to return grant funding agreements and job description templates promptly so that applications can be progressed.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
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 assessment she has made of the timescale and average speed of a submission to the government approved gateway to the publication of the job advert at the job centre under the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department of Work and Pensions works closely with employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme to ensure that jobs are created for young people as quickly as possible. A Kickstart job can start at any time over the lifetime of the scheme and some employers choose to delay the commencement of roles for a variety of reasons.
Our data indicates that between the 27/07/2021 and 08/09/2021 the average time between receipt of an application by DWP to confirmation of its approval was 14 days. Within the same period the average time between receipt of an application and the job being made available for young people to apply for was 43 days. A significant portion of this time includes engagement with employers to return grant funding agreements and job description templates promptly so that applications can be progressed.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
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 assessment she has made of the standard of communications with the employer at each stage of the process from submission to the gateway to the publication of the job advert as part of the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department of Work and Pensions continues to work closely with employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme. We are pleased that as of 08/09/2021 we have made over 188,000 jobs available for young people to apply to.
Officials continue to assess the effectiveness of this process and have developed a suite of products to support employers during the application process. These products are regularly reviewed and updated to provide the most up to date advice and guidance.
In addition, we have established a network of Kickstart District Account Managers (KDAMs) in every Jobcentre Plus district to support employers and who act as points of contact. Our KDAM network complements our existing National Employer Partnership managers who engage with a wide portfolio of employers to provide support on Kickstart and the Government’s Plan for Jobs initiatives.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason Kickstart job offers involving a person working home are tagged as national by default rather than local jobs.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Work and Pension’s Kickstart is creating valuable jobs for 16-24 year olds on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. To ensure that as many young people across Great Britain can access a Kickstart opportunity, jobs that require a young person to work from home are listed as ‘national’ roles. This also supports the employer with a wider range of candidates. Any requirement for a young person to attend a workplace in person is made clear in the job advert and as such would be allocated to the appropriate geographical location.
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 assessment she has made of the benefit of the Kickstart scheme to local jobs in the city and county of Swansea.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Work and Pension’s Kickstart Scheme is having a positive impact on both national and local labour markets by providing young people at risk of long-term unemployment with the experience they need to find sustainable work.
As of 08/09/2021 over 10,600 jobs have been made available for young people to apply for in Wales and over 3,390 have started. We are currently not able to publish a breakdown below the regional and national level although expect to be able to do so in due course, to do so now would be at a disproportionate cost.