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Written Question
Pensions: Young People
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to encourage young people under the age of 18 to opt in to pensions.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The 2017 Review of Automatic Enrolment (AE) sets out our ambition to reduce the qualifying age for AE below 22, so that younger workers can begin to save as soon as they join the labour market.

The government supported the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 which gives us the legislative powers to implement this expansion of AE subject to consultation with employers and workers. Government is committed to make this change in the mid-2020s.

In the meantime, the current AE framework allows workers who are not automatic enrolled to opt-in to a workplace pension, including those below age 22, and many employers already choose to enrol those workers.


Written Question
Debts
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on trends in the number of people with problem debt; and if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of those trends.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP Debt Management holds information on people owing monies to DWP (benefit debt recovery) but does not hold data on general, personal/household indebtedness.

Problem debt statistics are published by the Office for National Statistics.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Armed Forces
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 13 March 2024, to Question 16599 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of verifying the self-reported armed forces status of universal credit claimants.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has no plans to change the self-reported armed forces status for universal credit claimants. Our general approach is to trust the information provided to us by individuals and it is unclear what benefits checking this information would bring, particularly as it may place additional burdens on the claimants and departments concerned.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Fraud
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to ensure benefit fraud investigations do not result in discrimination.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

All fraud investigations are conducted in line with current legislation including Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984.

All staff in the department undergo Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) training. The training is provided to ensure everyone has the right level of skill and understanding to ensure equality of treatment for all customers.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Fraud
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that the use of AI in benefit fraud investigations does not discriminate against vulnerable people.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department does not use AI in its benefit fraud investigations.


Written Question
Employment Schemes: Advertising
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on advertising the Back to Work Plan since November 2023 by advertising method.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

To date, the Department has not spent anything on advertising the Back to Work Plan.


Written Question
Maternity Pay: Small Businesses
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to encourage small businesses to provide statutory maternity pay to employees; and whether he has discussions with industry on this.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

All employers have a statutory obligation to pay Statutory Maternity Pay to eligible employees. Employers are reimbursed at least 92 percent of the Statutory Maternity Pay they pay. Small employers (those who pay £45,000 or less gross NICs in the previous tax year) receive 100 percent of the Statutory Maternity Pay paid plus an additional 3 percent, known as the Small Employers’ Compensation Rate. This is in recognition of the relatively greater impact maternity absence has on small businesses.

Employers may apply for advance funding from HMRC if they are unable to meet their SMP liability at the required time.

DWP officials regularly meet with industry representatives to discuss Statutory Maternity Pay.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the benefit cap; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013 to November 2023 (the latest data available) an estimated £2.2 billion has been accrued in Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC) expenditure in Great Britain due to the benefit cap.

Official statistics on the number and proportion of working-age households in receipt of UC and HB who are capped up to November 2023 are available on Stat-Xplore for the requested geographies. Official Statistics on the total number of households in Great Britain on HB or UC for the same geographies are also available on Stat-Xplore up to November 2023. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Benefit cap statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.

Notes:

Source: Benefit Cap Official Statistics up to Nov-23 published in Mar-24

  • Total savings are rounded to the nearest £100m
  • UC data is only available from October 2016 and for UC Full Service cases only
  • Figures do not include households capped in UC Live Service and so this figure will represent a small undercount of the total savings

Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
Tuesday 26th March 2024

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, what estimate he has made of how many of his Department's staff are involved in sanctions (a) referral, (b) decision making, (c) administration and (d) appeals.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Mental Health
Tuesday 26th March 2024

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, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that obligations under the Equalities Act 2010 are taken into account when developing policies on support for people with mental health challenges.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The DWP is proudly committed to becoming a more Trauma Informed organisation. The potential merits of the adoption of the Trauma Informed Approach into DWP services, will benefit all customers including those with mental ill health who are unemployed. Adopting the principles of the approach into the core of our business will help us to ensure that anyone interacting with our services feels as safe, empowered and understood as possible; this will underpin our ongoing commitment to compassionate coaching and tailored services.

We have a dedicated programme which will integrate the six key pillars of the approach as defined by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (December, 2022) which are safety, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, collaboration and cultural consideration. Our programme looks at these six pillars within the contexts of application to our colleagues, our customers, our culture, and the context of our interaction- whether that is a physical, telephony, digital or postal interaction. There is significant emphasis within the design of the programme regarding what more can be done to prevent trauma and re-traumatisation for both our customers and our colleagues. We are learning from best practice demonstrated by organisations such as NHS Education Scotland, Work Services Australia and the Wales ACES Hub to shape the future prioritisation of this work.

When developing policies, the Department routinely carries out assessments against the Public Sector Equality Duty to ensure that due regard is given to our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.