Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what plans the Government has to strengthen protections in the Equality Act 2010 for people with mental health problems who experience discrimination.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Tacking mental health discrimination in the workplace is a priority for the Government. We are considering the scope for further support and protection for people with mental health conditions.
The Equality Act 2010 already protects people whose mental health conditions meet the definition of disability in the Act, specifically a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities’.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 Twickenham constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 (a) financial implications and (b) net effect on jobs of the closure of benefit processing centres in London.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government Estate Strategy sets out an ambition to rebalance the economy, creating regional growth and locating jobs outside of London. This, along with the considerable increases in rental costs in London, and the commercial challenges in retaining property of any size, means that the Department’s strategy is to gradually migrate processing work out of London. While there will be no impact to public facing Jobcentre services, it does mean that a number of central London processing sites will close by 2023.
As we look to close these offices, we will redistribute the work to other processing hubs across the UK and, wherever possible, seek to redeploy London based staff to other areas of DWP or other Government Departments. We will not be in a position to assess the net impact on jobs until this activity has completed.
Finally, despite these closures, the Department will continue to be a significant employer in London.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 207551 on Department for Work and Pensions: Brexit, for what reason her Department is unable to estimate the amount of funding her Department has allocated to prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Sharma
DWP has been allocated £15m for 2019/20 for EU Exit activity however this includes costs for both deal and no deal preparation.
Given the interaction between EU Exit activity and the Department’s other priorities, preparations for both deal and no deal have been undertaken by staff as part of their regular duties. We are therefore unable to disaggregate the costs specifically related to no deal EU Exit activity.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money her Department has allocated for preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal to date; how much of that funding has been made by way of ministerial direction; and for what functions that funding has been allocated.
Answered by Lord Sharma
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:
Preparations have been undertaken by staff as part of their regular duties and we are therefore unable to disaggregate the costs. We will implement our contingency plans following agreement on the nature of our withdrawal.
DWP ministers have not issued any directions in relation to EU Exit funding.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 6.14 of Autumn Budget 2017, what progress has been made on making it easier for claimants to have the housing element of their award paid directly to their landlord.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In December 2017, and as announced as part of the budget measures, we made changes to the guidance to ensure that when Private Sector Housing Benefit claimants move on to Universal Credit, we know whether they had their rent paid directly to their landlord previously, and why. This allows our work coaches to determine whether a managed payment to the landlord for the Universal Credit claim may need to be applied too, and will prompt a conversation with the claimant.
We changed the process following a request for an Alternative Payment Arrangement (APA) for Managed Payments to Landlords from Private Rented Sector Landlords. This means that following a landlord’s request for a Managed Payment to Landlord, the claimant has seven days to provide proof that the rent arrears do not exist, or give a good reason why the Managed Payment should not be put in place. If the claimant does not take action, then the landlord’s application will be approved and we will inform the landlord of the final decision of the APA request. The change in process has considerably simplified and sped up the APA request for landlords. We have retained a safeguard for the claimant to challenge the APA request e.g. where the claimant is in dispute with the landlord.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to notify private landlords, with a tenant’s permission, of the outcome of universal credit award decisions.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
This functionality already exists in Universal Credit. Because of the new digital approach in Universal Credit, and because communications can be instantaneous, we can, for the first time, offer a system of explicit consent which is easy to use, fast, efficient, and completely secure. Claimants can provide explicit consent by making an entry in their online journal, this includes consent required to provide a landlord with information regarding the outcome of their universal credit award decision.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 potential merits of enabling arrears in the private rented sector to be deducted from benefits after a tenant moves from one property to another.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We have not made any such assessment.
The Government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of people who are in debt. The aim of the Universal Credit deductions policy is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a ‘last resort’ repayment method to recover arrears of essential services. The deduction of rent arrears in Universal Credit is intended to protect the current tenancy and prevent vulnerable claimants from being made homeless.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that safeguards are in place for eligible EU citizens’ to access welfare (a) during the implementation period and (b) after the conclusion of that implementation period of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The draft Withdrawal Agreement published in March guarantees the rights of EU citizens and their family members living in the UK, and UK nationals living in the EU. As set out, EU citizens living in the UK by 31 December 2020, along with their family members, will be able to stay and continue their lives, with the same access to work, study, benefits and public services that they enjoy now.
Asked by: Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of universal credit recipients have waited over six weeks for their first payment.
Answered by Damian Hinds
I refer the Right Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 11 September 2017 to questions 7328, 7329, 7431, 8923 and 9191.