Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits for vulnerable households of extending the Covid-19 Local Support Grant until December 2021.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Covid Local Support Grant ended on September 30th 2021. However, we recognise that some people continue to require extra support, which is why we have introduced £500m of funding to boost households this winter. £421m of this will help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs through the Household Support Fund, whilst almost £80m will be given to the devolved nations (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive). This new grant began on 6th October 2021, and will run to 31st March 2022.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
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 merits of compensating women born in the 1950s who were affected by state pension increases of (a) 1995, (b) 2007 and (c) 2011.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the State Pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality. Raising State Pension age in line with life expectancy changes has been the policy of successive administrations over many years.
In the Judicial Review on changes to State Pension age, both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, finding we acted entirely lawfully and did not discriminate on any grounds.
The costs of reducing women’s State Pension age to 60 are very significant. The total additional cost if we had kept women’s SPa at 60 and men’s SPa at 65 would be in the region of £215bn for the period 2010/11 to 2025/26, in 2018/19 prices. This figure takes into account State Pension, other pensioner benefits, and savings made on working age benefits.
There is no plan to compensate anyone affected by State Pension age legislation that Parliament has enacted.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on steps taken in response to the Trussell Trust's State of Hunger report, published on 12 May 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government has long-championed the principle that the best and most sustainable way to tackle poverty is by supporting people to move into and to progress in work wherever possible. Before the pandemic, this approach had seen record levels of employment, the strongest growth in household incomes for almost 20 years, and 1.3 million fewer people, including 300,000 children, in absolute poverty, after housing costs compared with 2010.
Throughout the pandemic, Government departments have worked together to deliver support to help people cope with its the financial effects including, for example, on the Covid Winter Support Package. Part of this package included the Covid Winter Grant and Covid Local Support Grant, together totalling £269m administered by local authorities to help the most vulnerable stay warm and well fed, with the principal focus on children.
The Holiday Activities and Food Fund, which provides healthy meals, enriching activities and nutritional education, as well as signposting families to wider local support, has received £220m of funding for the major school holidays in 2021.
As we recover from the pandemic, Departments will continue to work together to deliver a number of key cross-cutting outcomes linked to the 2020 Spending Review. These outcomes include addressing poverty through enabling progression into work and increasing financial resilience. DWP is leading this work in collaboration with other Departments including, in particular, HMT, DfE, MHCLG and Defra.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
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 merits of introducing a British Sign Language Act that would give BSL full recognition in law.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 18 March 2003 the UK government formally recognised that British Sign Language (BSL) is a language in its own right. Provision for accessing services by users of BSL are covered by the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Existing equality legislation already means employers, service providers and public bodies have to provide services in BSL and other formats when it is reasonable to do so. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to have due regard to the needs of all those with protected characteristics.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Child Maintenance Service in the last 12 months, what proportion of (a) complaints to that Service have resulted in further action and (b) non-resident parents are compliant with their payments; and what the average time is between a complaint to that Service and a resolution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not measure complaints resulting in further action as described in the question (a), so this information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The number of Paying Parents who have paid Child Maintenance are published quarterly. The latest published figures for Child Maintenance Service (CMS) are up the end of December 2020 and the compliance statistics can be found in “Table 2: Compliance (Collect and Pay) by quarter” of the “CMS Paying Parents” section of Stat-Xplore here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to apply the EU Directive 2019/130 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens from February 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
EU Directive 2019/130 is the second phase of amendments to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) 2004/37/EC. While there is no legal obligation for the Government to apply the Directive, we will continue to have a system for setting workplace exposure limits in Great Britain (GB) to ensure worker protection and will consider, and apply as appropriate, relevant limits as part of this.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the briefing published by Scope entitled Emergency support for disabled people and their families, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the evidence gathered by Scope on the effect of Government policy on disabled people and their families during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given on 9th February to question number 149299.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to make support available to employees suffering from long covid.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 18 February 2021, the Government announced that the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research Innovation (UKRI) had been awarded £18.5 million in funding for four research projects to help understand and address the longer-term health effects of COVID-19 in non-hospitalised patients.
As research into the long-term health symptoms and impacts of COVID-19 is ongoing, we are collaborating across Government to monitor emerging evidence and consider our response.
People with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are able to access Personal Independence Payment in the same way as other people with long-term health conditions or disabilities. Disability benefits do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability.
Financial support is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA. People who have symptoms of Long Covid should see their GP, if their health condition impacts on their ability to work a fit note may be issued. People can claim ESA or Pension Credit depending on their individual circumstances.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to (a) mitigate the effects of the pause in face-to-face interviews and issuing of National Insurance numbers and (b) bring in alternative plans in the interim.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is aware of the effect that not having a National Insurance Number (NINo) may be having on some individuals. However, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ employer checklist makes it clear that a NINo is not required to start work.
Individuals seeking work in the UK can start work before they receive a NINo as long as they are able to prove they have the Right to Work in the UK.
The Department started testing a partial digital solution, on a small scale, in mid-October, to support the allocation of National Insurance Numbers. This solution enables the collection of an applicant’s data, but not the online verification of their identity. Alternative identity verification solutions to reduce the need for a face to face identity check for some customer groups, including EU nationals with Settled or Pre-Settled status, was part of that test.
In January, we gained Government Digital Service approval as a result we were no longer required to limit the number of applicants we can serve, although we do not have an identity solution for all potential applicants yet. Our current plan is that by the end of March 2021 we will be able to offer a service to all applicants who do not require their identity to be verified face to face.
This means that we have moved from a position in March 2020 of only offering a NINo service to the most vulnerable, to a place where we are able to provide a service to the majority.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the digital service for issuing National Insurance Numbers will be ready for public use.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The digital application service is currently available to applicants, who have already had their identity verified through another government department, primarily the Home Office.
The digital service enables Non EU/EEA nationals who have been granted a visa with the right to work, EU/EEA nationals who have been granted settled or pre-settled status, through the EU Settlement Scheme, and UK passport holders to make application using this service.