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Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Long Covid
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

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 provide benefit support to individuals with Long Covid.

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

People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances.

Disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. Therefore people living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are also able to access these benefits in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.


Written Question
Cost of Living Payments: Civil Servants
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the one-off civil servant cost-of-living payment available to retired civil servant staff who were employed in the civil service in the year 31 March 2022 to 1 April 2023.

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

DWP must abide by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. This is the published by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.

The Addendum to the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance for 2023/24 guidance states; ‘for 2023/24, departments covered by the Pay Remit Guidance have flexibility to make a fixed non-consolidated payment of £1,500 per full-time employee for those in delegated grades, subject to eligibility’.

The Addendum guidance stipulated that civil servants ‘need to have been in post both on 31 March 2023 and still in post on the date of payment.’

For DWP employees, the payment was made in July 2023, and our guidance stated: ‘you must have been employed within the Civil Service on 31st March 2023 and employed by DWP 1st July 2023.’

It is not possible for DWP to confer eligibility to employees who were not in post on these dates, as this would be outside of the parameters of the Remit Guidance.


Written Question
Motor Vehicles: Older People
Monday 9th January 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department are taking to support people over the age of 66 with mobility issues to lease a motor vehicle.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Motability Scheme is open to anyone who qualifies for the higher-rate mobility component for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), the enhanced rate of the mobility component for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the Armed Forces Independence Payment or the War Pensioners Mobility Supplement. Where claimants have an existing entitlement to a qualifying benefit when they reach pension age, this can continue for as long as that individual remains entitled and this would allow them to retain their Motability vehicle.

Attendance Allowance (AA) is intended to help those with a severe disability who have long term care or supervision needs which arise after reaching State Pension Age. It has never included a mobility component, and so cannot be used in payment for a leased Motability Scheme vehicle. Government mobility support is focused on people who are disabled earlier in life, as developing mobility needs in older life is a normal consequence of ageing. While the intention is for AA to cover the need for care or supervision that an individual may face as a result of their disability, there is no constraint on what the benefit can be used for, and individual recipients can choose to use their AA to fund mobility aids.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Work Capability Assessment
Thursday 24th November 2022

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will review the criteria used to determine whether cancer survivors are fit for work under the Work Capability Assessment for Universal Credit.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

It is important to ensure that those affected by cancer receive the most appropriate support, and we have worked closely with representative organisations to improve the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) process for those affected by cancer.

In 2013, the categories of cancer treatments under which a claimant can be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) were expanded to include individuals awaiting, receiving, or recovering from treatment by way of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, irrespective of route. Although there is no automatic award, in these cases, there is a presumption that the claimant will be treated as having LCWRA, subject to suitable evidence being provided by a professional, such as a GP, oncologist, or clinical nurse specialist.


Written Question
Medical Certificates
Monday 16th May 2022

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

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 merits of amending legislation to allow (a) midwives, (b) allied health professionals, (c) nurse practitioners and (d) other health care professionals to complete fit notes for patients.

Answered by Chloe Smith

In July 2021, the government set out plans to deliver transformation of the fit note including removing the requirement to sign in ink (from April 2022) and committing to amending regulations to allow a wider range of eligible professionals to sign fit notes (planned for Summer 2022).

In order to assess which healthcare professions are in scope to complete fit notes we have engaged, and will continue to engage, with DHSC and clinical experts. Additionally, as part of the planned policy changes, we will subsequently undertake relevant monitoring.


Written Question
Carer's Allowance
Wednesday 24th February 2021

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of introducing a £20 a week supplement for carers with an entitlement to carer’s allowance as part of Budget 2021.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

DWP Ministers and officials regularly discuss support for carers with their counterparts across Government. The proposed table of benefits / pension rates for 2021/22, including Carer’s Allowance, was published on 4 December 2020 in the House Library, following the Secretary of State’s annual review of benefit rates. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £67.25 a week, meaning around an additional £700 a year for carers. Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to increase by nearly a third (around £1 billion). By 2025/26, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4bn a year on Carer’s Allowance.


Written Question
Extended Services: Coronavirus
Tuesday 9th February 2021

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the effect on the ability of single parents to find work of the closure of businesses in the wraparound care sector resulting from their ineligibility for financial support during the covid-19 outbreak; and if she will make a statement.

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

No assessments have been made.

The wraparound childcare sector, like many sectors, is experiencing challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is for this reason that the Government has made a range of financial packages of support available for businesses.

This includes tax relief, business loans or cash grants through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and the Self-Employed Support Scheme (SEISS), as well as a £594 million discretionary fund for councils and the Devolved Administrations to support local businesses that may not be eligible for other support, during the current national lockdown.


Written Question
Extended Services: Coronavirus
Tuesday 9th February 2021

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

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 effect on childcare sector employment levels of the closure of businesses in the wraparound care sector resulting from their ineligibility for financial support.

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

No assessments have been made.

The wraparound childcare sector, like many sectors, is experiencing challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is for this reason that the Government has made a range of financial packages of support available for businesses.

This includes tax relief, business loans or cash grants through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and the Self-Employed Support Scheme (SEISS), as well as a £594 million discretionary fund for councils and the Devolved Administrations to support local businesses that may not be eligible for other support, during the current national lockdown.


Written Question
Cold Weather Payments
Monday 18th January 2021

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending cold weather payments to cover all UK postcodes.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Cold Weather Payment schemes already cover all UK postcodes, helping vulnerable people in receipt of certain income-related benefits to meet the additional costs of heating during periods of severe cold weather between 1st November and 31st March. In both the department’s Cold Weather Payment scheme covering Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s separate scheme, an automatic payment of £25 is made when the average temperature has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, zero degrees centigrade or below, over seven consecutive days at the weather station linked to an eligible person’s postcode.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times a verbal meeting with the assessment providers has generated a satisfactory personal independence payment award.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

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