Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they applied the Family Test to the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2022.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
In making her decisions relating to the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2022, the Secretary of State considered her obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty which also included the impact on families.
Specific consideration was given to the profile of disability related benefits; the proportion of families in receipt of State Pension and Pension Credit by ethnicity; and the gender and age of claimants for Universal Credit (UC), Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment & Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support and Housing Benefit (HB). In addition, consideration was given to the ethnicity breakdown of ESA and JSA claimants and the family type of UC and HB households.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 16 March (HL Deb col 277), what measures they are using to evaluate the effects of the two child limit on Universal Credit.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government has committed to annual statistics releases related to the operation of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children. Statistics related to the period up to April 2021 were published in July 2021 and can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-and-child-tax-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2021. Previous releases can also be found here.
Statistics related to the period up to April 2022 will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have so far requested assistance from the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
Any requests for assistance from Household Support Fund will have been directed to Local Authorities, who are running the schemes in their local area.
The Household Support Fund requires that Local Authorities provide Management Information returns to the Department to be published at the end of the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are in receipt of (1) the Cold Weather Payment, and (2) the Winter Fuel Payment.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
There are an estimated 4 million eligible recipients for Cold Weather Payments in Great Britain. As at 18 February 2022 there have been six cold weather triggers, leading to 13,000 Cold Weather Payments being made this winter so far.
Winter Fuel Payments are payable to everyone who has reached State Pension age on or before the end of the third week of September in any particular year. The latest published Winter Fuel Payments statistics are for the period 2019/20 and show that 11.4m customers received a payment in Great Britain.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of introducing senior safeguarding leaders within the Department for Work and Pensions.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
Since 2020, the Department has appointed more than 30 Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs) across Great Britain; these roles were previously known as Senior Safeguarding Leaders.
ACSSLs support internal teams with customers who have multiple needs. They are a critical link into external agencies’ escalation routes, enabling increased cross-agency case collaboration and more holistic support for customers. From a standing start in April 2020, ACSSLs now maintain around 750 relationships* with external organisations and agencies that provide support to vulnerable claimants.
As their role has been established and developed over the last 20 months, ACSSLs have built the capability and confidence of frontline teams - coaching them in using existing tools for the most complex cases and supporting them in applying new guidance. Through the ACSSLs, the Department has gained greater visibility with local partners - so we can work collaboratively for a customer when this is required. ACSSLs have also helped us gather data and insight into customers’ top areas of concern, helping us to deliver a better service for all claimants.
During 2021 we continually assessed the effect of introducing this role, how areas of concern about customers are identified, and the effectiveness of internal Service Line escalation routes.
Our findings so far demonstrate that ACSSLs are effective in supporting existing DWP Service Lines to assist customers most at risk of harm. It is also evident that clear Service Line escalation routes are needed to provide timely resolution for our most vulnerable customers, which in turn reduces the need for ACSSL intervention.
Following this work, ACSSLs’ future focus will include their coaching & facilitator role, their work with external agencies, and strengthening the learning they return to the business in real time.
*Please note: the data used here is taken from internal management information (MI) and is not in the public domain.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has to meet with the group of bereaved families calling for an independent public inquiry into deaths and serious harm related to the benefits system.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Secretary of State and her ministerial team regularly meet external stakeholders to gain insight into customers’ experiences of the benefits system, and to determine how it might be improved.
The Department’s key obligation is to ensure that claimants receive the benefits that they are entitled to, in a timely manner. We are committed to learning from cases where there is suggestion or allegation that the Department’s actions or omissions may have negatively contributed to the customer’s circumstances. We conduct internal retrospective investigations (known as Internal Process Reviews) to capture these lessons and take them forward to inform future policy and service.
There also exists a wide, independent and transparent system for investigating such cases, including the Independent Case Examiner, the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman and (where engaged) Coroners’ Courts in England and Wales.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases have been reported to the Department for Work and Pensions via the coroners focal point since February 2020.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
From February 2020 to January 2022, 46 cases have been raised via this channel. This figure includes enquires made by the police and other bodies, and erroneous referrals where we signposted the enquirer elsewhere as appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the latest Households Below Average Income release, published on 25 March, how they plan to address the rise in child poverty in the North East of England.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
This Government has long championed the principle of work as the most effective way of reducing poverty. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in significantly reducing the risk of poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for all families and children, including families with three or more children. Such families are two and a half times less likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) if all of the adults in their household are working compared to if none of the adults are working.
Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme. We want everyone to be able to get into decent jobs and progress in work.
We are also putting more money into the pockets of the low-paid, including by increasing the national living wage and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/2, including around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
As a Government, we have always believed that absolute poverty is a better measure of living standards than relative poverty. Relative poverty tends to fall when median income shrinks, something that is particularly relevant in the current economic circumstances.
The latest statistics for 2019/20 show that, before the pandemic, household incomes had seen the strongest annual growth for almost 20 years across the entire income distribution, with 1.3 million fewer people, including 300,000 children, in absolute poverty (after housing costs) compared with 2010. And, in the three years to 2019/20, the proportion of children in absolute poverty (after housing costs) in the North East region fell by 2 percentage points compared with the three years to 2009/10
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the latest Households Below Average Income release, published on 25 March, what steps they are taking to support larger families living in poverty.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
This Government has long championed the principle of work as the most effective way of reducing poverty. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in significantly reducing the risk of poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for all families and children, including families with three or more children. Such families are two and a half times less likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) if all of the adults in their household are working compared to if none of the adults are working.
Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme. We want everyone to be able to get into decent jobs and progress in work.
We are also putting more money into the pockets of the low-paid, including by increasing the national living wage and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/2, including around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
As a Government, we have always believed that absolute poverty is a better measure of living standards than relative poverty. Relative poverty tends to fall when median income shrinks, something that is particularly relevant in the current economic circumstances.
The latest statistics for 2019/20 show that, before the pandemic, household incomes had seen the strongest annual growth for almost 20 years across the entire income distribution, with 1.3 million fewer people, including 300,000 children, in absolute poverty (after housing costs) compared with 2010. And, in the three years to 2019/20, the proportion of children in absolute poverty (after housing costs) in the North East region fell by 2 percentage points compared with the three years to 2009/10
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the latest Households Below Average Income release, published on 25 March, what steps they are taking to address the rising number of children in relative poverty.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
This Government has long championed the principle of work as the most effective way of reducing poverty. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in significantly reducing the risk of poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for all families and children, including families with three or more children. Such families are two and a half times less likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) if all of the adults in their household are working compared to if none of the adults are working.
Our Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes investing over £7 billion on new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme. We want everyone to be able to get into decent jobs and progress in work.
We are also putting more money into the pockets of the low-paid, including by increasing the national living wage and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/2, including around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.
As a Government, we have always believed that absolute poverty is a better measure of living standards than relative poverty. Relative poverty tends to fall when median income shrinks, something that is particularly relevant in the current economic circumstances.
The latest statistics for 2019/20 show that, before the pandemic, household incomes had seen the strongest annual growth for almost 20 years across the entire income distribution, with 1.3 million fewer people, including 300,000 children, in absolute poverty (after housing costs) compared with 2010. And, in the three years to 2019/20, the proportion of children in absolute poverty (after housing costs) in the North East region fell by 2 percentage points compared with the three years to 2009/10