Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish further details on the Covid Winter Grant Scheme.
Answered by Will Quince
Detailed guidance for local authorities was published on gov.uk on 24 November and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether every child eligible for free school meals will be eligible for support from the Covid Winter Grant Scheme over the Christmas holidays.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 23rd November to Parliamentary Question 116602.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-11-17/116602
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support will be available under the Covid Winter Grant Scheme to ensure that shielding children on free school meals receive food support through the holidays.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Grant Scheme is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. That fund builds on the £63 million already distributed earlier this year and, as then, funding will be disbursed according to an authority’s population, weighted by a function of the English index of multiple deprivation. Any Barnett consequentials are already included in the guaranteed £16 billion funding for the devolved Administrations, so there is funding available for every child in the UK.
Grants to local authorities will be made under Section 31 of the Local Authorities Act 2003 and will 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 to free school meals. Within those conditions, local authorities will have flexibility to decide how best to identify and support those most in need in their local area. Detailed guidance is being developed in consultation with local authorities and will be published shortly on gov.uk.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 who claimed support for childcare through universal credit in the last 12 months also applied for (a) advance payment of that benefit or (b) the flexible support fund.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is committed to helping parents into work and childcare costs should not be a barrier to this.
Universal Credit pays up to 85% of childcare costs, compared to 70% in legacy benefits and can be claimed up to a month before starting a job. In cases where people need to pay for childcare upfront, prior to starting work, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to meet these costs until their first wage is received.
For the 110,000 Universal Credit households with at least one childcare element in payment from December 2018 to November 2019 inclusive, 52,000 (47%) have received an advance payment.
The reasons for advances are not recorded, therefore these could have been utilised for many reasons.
The Department does not hold a breakdown of its Flexible Support Fund expenditure for childcare for the last 12 months.
Notes:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000.
Figures include all types of advances, including advances paid after the first assessment period.
Figures provided to November 2019 are in line with published statistics relating to households on Universal Credit.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of enabling childcare costs to be paid directly to providers through universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government recently submitted its response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s follow-up report into Universal Credit: Childcare which sets out an assessment of the position in relation to payments direct to childcare providers. The response will be published in due course.
Universal Credit is paid in a single monthly amount directly into people’s bank accounts, giving them control over their own money and making the move into work easier.
The Government is committed to supporting parents with moving into work and, as part of this, we have increased the level of support for childcare costs from 70 per cent in legacy benefits to up to 85 per cent in Universal Credit. The Universal Credit childcare policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer, which includes free childcare hours and tax free childcare. This offer means that reasonable childcare costs should not form a barrier to work.
Where upfront childcare costs or deposits may prevent a claimant from starting work, jobcentres will use the Flexible Support Fund to support the transition into work. When parents have good reason for late reporting of their childcare costs, the Department is piloting a more flexible approach to enable parents to be reimbursed at a later point.
Since February 2018, Universal Credit claimants have been able to upload digital copies of their childcare cost receipts or invoices through their online Universal Credit account.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2019 to Question 260085 on Department for Work and Pensions: Ministerial Policy Advisers, for what reason her Department does not routinely publish the number of alleged breaches of the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct by her Department's Special Advisers.
Answered by Will Quince
In line with standard departmental practice, we are mindful of our data protection obligations when considering what information should be part of our publication scheme.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2019 to Question 237786 on Department for Work and Pensions: Ministerial Policy Advisers, for what reason her Department has no plans to publish the number of alleged breaches of the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct by her Department's Special Advisers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not routinely publish this information.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2019 to Question 235371, if she will publish the number of alleged breaches of the Special Advisers Code of Conduct by her Department's Special Advisers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department has no plans to publish this information.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alleged breaches of the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct by his Department's Special Advisers have been investigated by the Minister responsible for the appointment in the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The conduct of all civil servants, including special advisers, is taken very seriously. Special advisers act in accordance with the Special Adviser Code of Conduct, which includes clear guidance on appropriate conduct in public life. The Code can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-advisers-code-of-conduct
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on promoted content on (a) Twitter, (b) Facebook and (c) Instagram in each month since June 2017.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We are the biggest Government Department with a day to day operation on which around 22 million citizens depend. However we are conscious that many people who want information won’t be aware of Government channels. In these instances paying to reach the widest possible audience is both necessary and responsible. This is in line with other Government Departments.
Between June 2017 and September 2018 The Department for Work and Pensions has spent £1,710,666 on promoted activity with these platforms through its media buying agency Carat.