Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 impact of welfare reforms since 2010 on (a) poverty, (b) child poverty, (c) disabled people, (d) women, (e) people of Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and (f) older people.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2022/23 there were 1.3 million more people in relative low income after housing costs than in 2010/11. The 1.3 million increase comprises 700,000 children, 300,000 working age individuals and 300,000 pensioners. During this period, there was a gradual upward trend in relative poverty (before and after housing costs) for pensioners driven by working age incomes growing at a faster rate than pensioner incomes despite uprating of State Pension and Pensioner benefits limiting this gap.
The table below provides employment rate/level data for disabled people, women, people from an ethnic minority and older people in 2010 and 2024. Employment level and rates rose for the groups between 2010 and 2024.
| Disabled People | Women | Ethnic | Older People | ||||
Minorities | ||||||||
| Level | Rate | Level | Rate | Level | Rate | Level | Rate |
April-June 2010 | n/a | n/a | 13.653m | 65.50% | 2.772m | 59.30% | 8.128m | 38.40% |
April-June 2024 | 5.534m | 53.00% | 16.312m | 71.90% | 5.459m | 67.80% | 10.891m | 41.90% |
We are committed to tackling poverty and raising living standards. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health and skills support to meet the needs of local communities.
The Child Poverty Taskforce also continues its urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to deliver an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year Strategy for lasting change.
We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do. We started this work with the announcement of the Fair Repayment Rate in the Budget and will continue to work with stakeholders as the review progresses.
Further steps to tackle poverty include our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million and to increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers.
It is Government provision through (and ongoing improvement of) the State Pension and benefits system – combined with key interventions for private pensions and the labour market – that forms the foundation of support for pensioners of today and tomorrow.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 potential link between the fitness for work test and (a) suicides, (b) other deaths and (c) harm.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does not collect or record the cause of a customer’s death and will not usually be made aware of how a customer died.
Cause of death is determined by a doctor or a coroner. There is no requirement for a Coroner to inform the department of the outcome of an inquest unless named as an Interested Person at that inquest - or the coroner decides to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the department.
As a result, we are unable to collect information on or make any assessment on any potential links between the fitness for work test and suicides, other deaths and harm and only a coroner would be able to determine if one did exist on a case-by-case basis.
Attempted suicides and suicides are very complex issues. Where there is an allegation that the Department’s actions, including any related to the fitness for work test, may have had an impact on a customer’s circumstances, we take it very seriously and where appropriate we would undertake an Internal Process Review to establish if we could have done anything differently, to inform future learning and improve services. These reviews do not investigate the cause of a customer’s death and are not undertaken as a result of every suicide or death and therefore would not provide the information to show if a link existed.
Internal Process Reviews themes are considered quarterly at the department’s Serious Case Panel, which has an external Chair. Arrangements are being made to start publishing fuller minutes of the Panel’s meetings from the new year.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 impact of the two-child benefit cap on trends in the level of child poverty in (a) the UK and (b) Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We published the framework ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy’ on 23 October and will explore all available levers to deliver an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change.
The Child Poverty Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, which includes considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
The Child Poverty Taskforce continues its urgent work to publish the Strategy in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 potential impact of extending access to benefits for families with children who have no recourse to public funds on levels of child poverty in Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In developing a Child Poverty Strategy, the Child Poverty Taskforce is considering all children across the United Kingdom. We recognise the distinct challenges of poverty faced by migrant children. The causes of child poverty are deep-rooted, with solutions that go beyond government, and the Taskforce is exploring all available levers in response.
The Home Office sets the immigration rules and grants immigration leave to individuals which allows them to live and work in the UK. DWP cannot pay public funds benefits to individuals where the Home Office has applied a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition to their immigration status.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
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 potential impact of changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment on trends in the level of pensioners living in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty in Poplar and Limehouse constituency.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
It is not possible to provide poverty breakdowns at a constituency level. As such, no estimate has been made.
On 19 November, Secretary of State wrote to the Work and Pensions Select Committee to share internal government modelling produced by the Department outlining estimates of the number of pensioners in the UK estimated to move into poverty as a result of the policy change. This letter is available here Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - Letter from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to conduct a public inquiry into (a) deaths and (b) serious harm linked to the social security system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is fully supportive of the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s ‘safeguarding vulnerable claimants’ inquiry, which is examining how the department supports vulnerable benefit claimants and whether its approach to safeguarding needs to change. The Committee has had valuable and constructive discussions with a diverse range of groups and specialist organisations representing people with lived experience, DWP customers, policy makers and legal experts. DWP Officials and Ministers have also given vital evidence, fully supporting the areas the Committee wish to explore, and I look forward to reading the Committee’s report and recommendations when this inquiry concludes.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help tackle poverty in older people in Poplar and Limehouse constituency in the context of changes to the eligibility criteria for the winter fuel payment.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is honouring our commitment to the Triple Lock with a 4.1% increase to the basic State Pension and the new State Pension; and we are also increasing the standard minimum guarantee in Pension Credit by 4.1%. As such, according to the latest OBR projections, the full yearly rate of the new State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,900 over the course of this parliament whilst the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,500.
The Government also offers an array of support to ensure pensioners remain comfortable and safe in the winter months. This includes direct financial help to low-income pensioners through Pension Credit, Cold Weather Payments and the Warm Home Discount (in England & Wales).
We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit. We want to ensure as many people as possible have access to this support and urge pensioners to check their eligibility. Pension Credit will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payments in future, alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them. Our take-up campaign has been successful in boosting applications by 145% since July.
The Warm Home Discount scheme provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their winter energy bill. This winter, we expect over 3 million households, including over 1 million pensioners, to benefit under the scheme.
The Government and industry have worked together to deliver a £500 million Winter Support Commitment for customers, which will help customers most in need by providing credit on bills, enhanced debt write-off schemes, and increased funding for charity partners to target hard to reach customers.
Low-income pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living should contact their local council to see what support may be available to them, as they may be able to receive support from the Household Support Fund, Council Tax Reduction, or through energy support programmes such as the Homes Upgrade Grant and Energy Company Obligation.
We are also supporting consumers, including pensioners, through the Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan – which will transform homes across the country, making them cleaner and cheaper to run. We've committed £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency. This includes £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes, helping over 225,000 households reduce their energy bills by over £200.
Keeping people warm and well at home and improving the quality of new and existing homes will play an essential part in enabling people to live longer, healthier lives and reducing pressures on the NHS.
The difficult decisions we have made, such as targeting the Winter Fuel Payment, mean the Government is able to provide additional investment in the NHS, which benefits everyone including all pensioners who rely on these services. We have committed to returning NHS waiting times – including those for A&E and ambulances - to the standards set out in the NHS constitution that patients rightly expect.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Prevention of Future Deaths Reports have related to (a) universal credit and (b) other benefits in each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department has received 6 Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports in the last five years to date. 1 report did not relate to a customer who was in receipt of benefits. The breakdown of the reports by year and the benefit claimed is provided in the table below:
Number of PFD reports received in the last 5 years | Universal Credit (UC) | Personal Independence Payment (PIP) | Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and PIP | Not in Receipt of Benefits |
2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1* |
2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* This report related to Child Maintenance.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive pursued prosecution of (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.
The prosecution data below is for the time period of the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual. The figures are for all prosecutions taken under health and safety legislation which were published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and are not Covid specific.
HSE pursued 206 prosecutions in 2020/21, with a 94% conviction rate, and 290 prosecutions in 2021/22, with a 96% conviction rate. A total of 496 prosecutions across the period referred to.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive is investigating (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others.
HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.