Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide targeted financial support for people with long-term conditions such as Parkinson’s disease during the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, including people with Parkinson’s disease. Over recent years, the government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable with one of the largest support packages in Europe. The total support over 2022- 2025 to help households and individuals with higher bills amounts to £108 billion – an average of £3,800 per UK household.
We provided a Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 in June/July 2023 to people in receipt of certain disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA). This is in addition to the £150 payment paid in September 2022.
We estimate that nearly 60 per cent of individuals who received an extra costs disability benefit would have received the means-tested benefit Cost of Living Payments, worth up to £900. Over 85 per cent would have received either or both of the means-tested and the £300 Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.
We also increased extra costs disability benefits by 10.1 per cent from April 2023 and by 6.7% from April 2024 in line with the Consumer Price Index.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff have been trained in disability awareness in (a) his core Department and (b) Jobcentres in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is unable to provide the information you seek within the appropriate cost limit as you have asked for information that is contained across a wide range of learning journeys.
All staff new to DWP undergo mandatory learning followed by role specific learning, this encompasses vulnerabilities and complex needs training which is threaded throughout learning. Staff continue to build on this in the workplace through accessing policy guidance and point of need learning products.
Please refine your request, for example to mandatory learning to enable data to be provided.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 27 March (HL3520), why it is not possible to undertake a robust assessment of the impact of the two-child limit.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not have the data to fully measure health and well-being behavioural impacts that may have resulted from the two-child limit.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation report entitled Guarantee our Essentials, published on 27 February 2024, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of that report's findings on levels of essential costs for single parent families claiming Universal Credit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) additional work coaches and (b) additional hours of work coach time have been allocated to jobcentres to administer the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The pilot is being delivered using existing Jobcentre resource.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of his Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions delivers a range of campaigns which are essential in ensuring that vulnerable people and pensioners are aware of the financial support that they are eligible for.
Appropriate advertising is a key government approach to ensure that target audiences receive the correct information and the media channels used are selected based upon their potential impact and cost, ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.
The figures provided in the table below show the percentage of the total spend for each advertising channel during 2023/24.
Channel | % of spend |
National and local newspaper print | 15 |
Digital display | 5 |
Social media | 25 |
Search engines | 5 |
Broadcast and on-demand television | 10 |
Radio and digital audio | 30 |
Out of home | 10 |
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Household Support Fund meets the needs of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Household Support Fund (HSF) is a scheme run by Upper Tier Local Authorities in England to provide support to those most in need towards the cost of essentials. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination set out for them by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme, designed to enable Local Authorities to respond to local need. Local Authorities have the ties and knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided to their local communities.
We encourage Local Authorities to consider a wide range of households who are potentially in need of support, including families with children, pensioners, unpaid carers, care leavers and disabled people. Local Authorities have the flexibility to deliver the scheme through a variety of routes, including offering vouchers to households, directly providing food, or issuing grants to third parties. It is for each local council to decide how, where and when they distribute their funding and to ensure that it is accessible to those who need it.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will update statutory guidance on climate risk management, as part of their review of climate risk reporting requirements which was due to take place in the second half of 2023 or otherwise; and in particular whether any updated guidance will take account of the report of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the University of Exeter Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail published in March.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
My Lords, we are undertaking a post-implementation review of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021. We aim to conclude the review this year.
We recognise that recent reports, including “Climate Scorpion-the sting is in the tail” have shown the limitations of the models currently available for scenario analysis. Therefore, we welcome work within the industry to ensure that scenario analysis models are decision useful and will look to acknowledge the issue in the review.
However, we do not believe that the Government should mandate which models should be used by Pension Schemes. It is important that modelling which takes into account of ESG is allowed to develop and evolve as data availability increases.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many school leavers who had been in receipt of free school meals were on Universal Credit six months after leaving school in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022 and (d) 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the outcomes of the (a) pre-testing phase, (b) phase one and (c) phase two of the additional job centre support pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
An evaluation of the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot is ongoing.