Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase skills and employment support for people receiving sickness benefits.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are taking steps to support people into work including for disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits. In our Pathways to Work Green Paper we set out our plan for the “Pathways to Work Guarantee” and we are building towards our guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits. The guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade.
We anticipate the guarantee, once fully rolled out, will include: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement - and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support.
We are already making progress and have deployed over 1000 Pathways to Work Advisors in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales who are helping disabled people and people with health conditions towards and into work. A key focus of the Pathways to Work advisers is offering voluntary support to Universal Credit claimants with a Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element. The support aims to help customers identify and overcome obstacles which may stop them from moving towards or into work and for those who are ready to access employment and wider skills support, and our employment programmes earlier.
Alongside this, our Supported Employment programme Connect to Work is rolling out across all of England and Wales throughout 2025 and early 2026 to help disabled people, people with health conditions and individuals with complex barriers to employment to find work and sustain work. This complements support delivered through the health and care system, including Employment Advice in Talking Therapies, which gives employment support for people being treated for mental health conditions, and WorkWell which is being trialled in 15 areas across England to deliver integrated work and health support.
More generally, DWP helps people build the skills they need to get a job and move forward in their careers. Work Coaches offer a wide range of support, including help with job searching and referrals to training opportunities. These can include apprenticeships, short skills courses, training in English, maths, and digital skills, support for learning English as a second language (ESOL), careers advice, and Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the offer and uptake of apprenticeships.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy.
In August we introduced new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
To support employers to offer apprenticeships, the government provides £1,000 payments to employers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19 to 24-year-old apprentices who have an education, health and care plan or have been, or are, in care. Government also pays employers up to £2,000 for eligible foundation apprenticeships to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish new rules on accessing surpluses in defined benefit pension schemes to allow companies to access £160 billion in corporate defined benefit schemes; and what assessment they have made of the potential effect the changes will have on UK growth.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have set out that pension scheme trustees should have greater flexibilities to be able to release DB scheme surplus to benefit employers and members, where it is safe to do so. We will publish the Government’s response to the “Options for Defined Benefit Schemes” consultation in the coming weeks and this will set out the detail of the DB surplus policy. A full impact assessment will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to encourage young people to start a career in the construction industry.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Youth Guarantee in England was launched as part of the Get Britain Working White Paper, for all 18–21-year-olds, to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. This will start with eight trailblazers which are launching this spring.
The Department understands the negative effects of unemployment can be particularly pronounced for young people and can have longstanding implications on their future earnings potential and life chances. This is why DWP have a particular focus on ensuring young people are supported into employment whilst also recognising their needs will vary depending on where they live and their own individual circumstances.
To support the government’s target to build 1.5 million homes this parliament, DWP are supporting an industry-led, cross government communications campaign to raise the profile of the construction sector. The three-week campaign launched 3 March with a particular focus on encouraging young people to consider construction as a career of choice. We are promoting the industry, connecting our customers to jobs, apprenticeships, and opportunities within it, including an emphasis on improving workforce diversity and increasing the number of construction teachers.
In the coming months, the Secretary of State for DWP, will be co-hosting a construction industry summit with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Business and Trade, inviting key employers and representative bodies. This will build on our commitment in the Get Britain Working White Paper to explore how we can best work with employers to address their recruitment needs. DWP officials are members of the Cross Government Built Environment Working Group which is responsible for ensuring a coordinated approach to increasing the size and skills of the construction and built environment workforce, including on-site trades and wider skilled professions.
From April 2024 to 31 December 31 we have delivered 10,220 SWAP starts in the construction helping jobseekers to develop skills to match the needs of the construction labour market.
Through our Strategic Relationship Team, we have agreed a working relationship with many construction organisations and continue to deliver bespoke packages to support their recruitment needs. The Department has a long-standing partnership agreement with CiTB with a shared agenda to recruit people into the construction sector. We are currently developing a new partnership agreement to forge closer working links and key activity to support both policy and operational connections between the organisations.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on implementing the proposals outlined in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are progressing with the delivery of our proposals through:
We have secured £240 million of funding which we will use to develop tests and trials for the digital aspect of the new national jobs and careers service, to introduce trailblazers to tackle economic inactivity in England and Wales and offer support for the development of local Get Britain Working plans.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of UK Armed Forces veterans who are living overseas and in receipt of a frozen UK state pension; and what plans they have to ensure those veterans benefit from uplifts to their state pension from now on.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such estimate has been made as the relevant information is not available.
Society is grateful to those who have served in the forces to defend our country. As well as a State Pension, many overseas veterans will receive an occupational pension which is up-rated in line with the consumer price index.
The UK's policy on the up-rating of the UK State Pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one. The UK state pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality and is uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 94 per cent increase of food parcels distributed to people in hardship by the Trussell Trust in the five years to March 2024; and what action they are taking to eliminate the need for people to use foodbanks.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. The latest Households Below Average Income statistics show that 3% of all individuals had used a food bank on at least one occasion in 2022/23. For children this figure is 6%. This is unacceptable.
On 30th July, the Secretary of State held a food poverty roundtable with experts and charities to better understand the priorities in this area. We are already taking steps to tackle poverty, including free breakfast clubs in every primary school so children don’t go hungry, protecting renters from arbitrary eviction, slashing fuel poverty and banning exploitative zero-hours contracts. Good work is the foundation of our approach, and our New Deal for Working People, including ensuring that the minimum wage is a genuine living wage along with reformed employment support, will mean that many more people will benefit from the dignity and purpose of employment.
In addition, we have extended the Household Support Fund for a further 6 months from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025. An estimated total package of approximately £500 million will be provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund, including funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion. This means that Local Authorities in England will receive £421 million to support those in need locally.
Alongside this, the Child Poverty Taskforce has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Labour Force Survey released by the Office for National Statistics on 10 September, which shows there were 597,000 young people aged 16 to 24 who were unemployed from May to July, an increase of 51,000 from the previous year; and what steps they are taking to take to reduce youth unemployment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government understands the negative effects of unemployment can be particularly pronounced for young people and can have longstanding implications on their future earnings potential and life chances. This is why in our plan to get Britain Working we will introduce a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or employment support. This will sit alongside a new national jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, work health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open new opportunities for young people.
Currently through the Youth Offer, we provide labour market support to young people aged 16-24 claiming Universal Credit through a range of tailored interventions to help reduce the barriers young people may face, bringing them closer to work or education.
Jobcentre Plus School Advisers target support to young people that schools have identified as being at greatest risk of not being in work or education, or who may be disadvantaged in the labour market.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce the number of 16–24-year-olds not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are currently 900,000 young people who are not in education employment or training and this number has been steadily increasing.
The Department understands the negative effects of unemployment can be particularly pronounced for young people and can have longstanding implications on their future earnings potential and life chances. This is why DWP have a particular focus on ensuring young people are supported into employment, whilst also recognising their needs will vary depending on where they live and their own individual circumstances.
Getting Britain working again is critical to growing the economy. This includes implementing a new national jobs and career service to help get more people into work alongside a Youth Guarantee, meaning training, an apprenticeship or help to find work for all young people aged 18-21 years old, to prevent them becoming excluded from the world of work at a young age.
DWP currently provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners.
Under the previous regime, DWP Youth Offer first launched in September 2020, with the aim to maximise employment outcomes for 18 – 24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit (UC) and to minimise the long-term impacts of unemployment, by providing intensive support early in a claim.
There are three main elements to the Youth Offer, delivered by DWP work coaches:
The Government has committed to its manifesto Back to Work Plan, tackling economic inactivity is central to the Government’s number one mission of growing the economy. The three pillars of the Government’s Back to Work Plan are:
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the data published by the Trussell Trust on 26 April which showed an increase in its emergency food parcel distribution over the period April 2022 to March 2023; and what steps they will take in response.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
We take the issue of food security seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 19/20. These questions remain in the survey and will allow us to track food security over time.
Building on the food insecurity data which this Government first published in 2019/20, we have published official estimates of foodbank use for the first time this year covering the period 2021/22. These will, alongside the broad suite of poverty data, help shape future policy considerations. The new statistics on foodbank usage will help Government to understand more about the characteristics of people most in need and we will continue to work across Government to support the most vulnerable.
The Government recognises the pressures people are facing and has acted, providing total support of over £94bn over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. In April 2023 we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1 per cent, as well as increasing benefit cap levels by the same amount.