Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to recognise police officer (a) suicides and (b) attempted suicides as work-related accidents under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ819.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has plans to support people with the cost of driving lessons; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of supporting people with the cost of driving lessons on employment opportunities for those people.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Service Leaders in Jobcentres can allocate funding for driving lessons through the Flexible Support Fund, where they feel this is an appropriate use of funds. Each request is considered on a case-by-case basis.
No specific assessment has been made of the potential merits of allocating specific funding for driving lessons.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of increasing benefits in line with inflation on incentives for people in low-paid employment to remain in employment.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State is currently conducting his statutory annual review of State Pensions and benefit rates. The outcome of that review will be announced in due course.
Universal Credit is designed to make work pay, so not all of a person's net earnings are deducted from their Universal Credit. Claimants with children and/or limited capability for work will also benefit from a work allowance.
A work allowance is an amount of earnings a Universal Credit household can earn (including employed and self-employed earnings) before the single taper rate of 55 per cent is applied to their earnings and their Universal Credit begins to be reduced. In simple terms, this means that 45 pence in every pound earned would be kept: claimants are £45 better off for every extra £100 of net earnings.
If a single claimant (or either claimant in a couple) have responsibility for a child or qualifying young person, and/or have limited capability for work, they will be eligible for a work allowance.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of companies' covid-19 risk assessments including provision of covid-19 fogging equipment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
COVID-19 risk assessments fall under the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remit. As each workplace is different, it is for an employer to identify, as part of their risk assessment, how to control COVID-19 transmission. Guidance has been produced by HSE that gives advice and information to employers on how to do such an assessment and manage the risk from COVID-19 in a proportionate manner. Risk assessment - Working safely during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (hse.gov.uk)
Frequent surface cleaning is one of several control measures that can be implemented to manage the transmission risk. Fog, mist, vapour or UV (ultraviolet) treatments may be suitable options to help control the spread of coronavirus and disinfecting a larger space or room when people are not present. Any use of these treatments for these purposes should form part of your COVID-19 risk assessment. Users must be competent and properly trained. HSE provides guidance on its website as to when using these systems may be appropriate. Airborne disinfection does not remove the need for surface cleaning and surfaces that are dirty can reduce the effectiveness of disinfectant applied by airborne dispersion.
HSE and public health bodies in England, Wales and Scotland have agreed joint advice for dutyholders considering using walk-through spraying or misting disinfecting systems to reduce transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Spraying people with disinfectants in this way is not recommended under any circumstances (including in a tunnel, cabinet, or chamber). For further information see: Disinfecting using fog, mist and other systems during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic - HSE news
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she takes to assess the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service; and how frequently she makes that assessment.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department measures the effectiveness of the Service through regularly assessing data on the Service’s performance. This includes compliance of paying parents on paying their maintenance, the amount of money the service collects for the children and our measures of enforcement.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment her Department has made of the effect that the decision of the High Court on 1 December 2020, on requiring informed consent for giving puberty blockers and hormones to children aged under 16, will have on the safety and protection of children.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The NHS has previously recognised the need for a review of how to best meet the needs of children and young people with gender incongruence, which is why in September 2020, Dr Hilary Cass was asked to carry out an independent review of the gender identity development service. The review will be wide-ranging in scope, with a focus on how care can be improved for children and young people. The Tavistock is also required to undertake a number of urgent actions in response to the CQC’s recent finding that its child gender-identity service is ‘inadequate’.
The Tavistock and Portman appeal is subject to ongoing legal proceedings, as such the Government is unable to comment on the specifics of the case at this time. However, we will follow the proceedings closely and continue to review its impact on policy related to this area.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 (a) effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service and (b) level of consistency that service provides to both parties.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As of June 2020, 741,200 children are covered by Child Maintenance Service arrangements; the majority of cases use Direct Pay, where parents arrange maintenance payments between themselves.
During the quarter ending June 2020, £238.4 million in child maintenance was paid through the Collect & Pay service, or due to be paid through Direct Pay.
When measuring the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service, the Service collects data on the rate of compliance of paying parents using the Collect & Pay service. The most recent quarterly statistics show that 74 per cent of all paying parents due to pay through the Collect & Pay Service cleared some of their child maintenance.
At the end of June 2020, 41,800 Paying Parents on the Collect & Pay service had a Deduction from Earnings Order / Request in force. £27.1m was collected from these Paying Parents during the quarter. In the quarter ending June 2020, £2.6m was deducted directly from Paying Parents’ bank accounts.
These figures are published quarterly as part of the Child Maintenance Service experimental statistics, which can be found here:
The Child Maintenance Service offers an accessible, impartial and secure service for all clients. The Department and Ministers continue to meet stakeholders regularly, and maintain an open dialogue on how to improve the service.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of recording covid-19 as the sole cause of death on the death certificates of former coal miners with industrial lung conditions on the (a) pensions and (b) entitlements of the wives of those former miners.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Under the terms of the Coal Industry Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme (CIPCS), formerly the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Compensation Scheme, there is provision for posthumous claims to be made.
In instances in which an individual was not assessed for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) during life, or a retrospective request either is not possible or successful, a claim can be made under CIPCS, if pneumoconiosis appears on the Death Certificate.
IIDB which is usually claimed by employees who become disabled as a result of a prescribed disease or accident caused by their employment, can be claimed posthumously, by the dependants of anyone who dies whilst suffering from a prescribed disease, provided they do so within one year of the issue of the deceased’s death certificate.
Any evidence a family can provide that confirms or suggests that the deceased was suffering from a prescribed disease prior to their death would be considered as part of a posthumous claim. This includes claimants who may have died as a result of COVID-19, and no mention of the prescribed disease was on their death certificate.
For an award to be made, the death does not need to be in respect of the prescribed disease but may be from any cause, including for example where COVID-19 was a contributory factor. Payments to dependants usually equate to up to 3 months’ worth of benefit, but may sometimes be higher.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
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 effectiveness of aligning the timescales for payment of universal credit and direct payments to landlords to ensure that tenants are not falsely shown to be in arrears.
Answered by Will Quince
Alternative Payment Arrangements (APAs), such as a Managed Payment to Landlord (MPtL), are available to enable the housing costs element to be paid directly to the landlord if the tenant is likely to have difficulty in managing their rent payments or is in rent arrears. APAs will only be considered where a lack of financial capability poses a risk to the claimant, or their family, and the decision to implement one is assessed on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Mansfield constituency received cold weather payments in each of the last two winter periods.
Answered by Will Quince
The Cold Weather Payment scheme is administered at weather station level rather than any other standard GB geography such as constituency level. The coverage area for each weather station is determined by the Met Office which assesses the most appropriate weather station for each postcode area. Cold weather payments are triggered when the average temperature recorded at the weather station has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0oC or below over seven consecutive days, during the Cold Weather season (November to March).
The constituency of Mansfield covers all or part of the following postcode areas: NG17-21.
The above postcode areas are covered by the weather station Nottingham Watnall. Qualifying individuals living in this area will have received a payment in respect of a seven-day period of Cold Weather, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Estimated number of Cold Weather Payment recipients | ||
Weather station | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
Nottingham Watnall | 168,000 | 0 |
Nottingham Watnall weather station covers the following postcode areas, in Table 2, which include constituencies other than Mansfield. We estimate that 168,000 payments, to 168,000 recipients, were made in this area as a whole, in respect of one trigger in 2017/18. We are not able to break this figure down to a lower level. There were no cold weather triggers in Nottingham Watnall in 2018/19.
Table 2 Postcode sectors mapped to Weather Stations | |
Weather station | Postcode Sectors Covered |
Nottingham Watnall | CV13, DE1-3, DE5-7, DE11-15, DE21-24, DE55-56, DE65, DE72-75, LE1-9, LE11-14, LE16-19, LE65, LE67, NG1-22, NG25, NG31-34. |
Notes
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/social-fund-cold-weather-payments