Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
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 impact on the finances of personal independence payment and employment support allowance claimants who are required to wait for a tribunal in order to receive their correct benefits award.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department understands the potential effect of waiting for a tribunal hearing which is why our aim is to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. Recent improvements to our decision-making processes mean that Decision Makers can better gather relevant additional evidence. This helps to ensure that people get the support they are entitled to as quickly as possible, without the need for a tribunal appeal.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of her Department's ministers have been exempted from quarantine in a hotel after returning to the UK from a covid-19 red list country to which they have travelled for the purposes of conducting official business.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
None of the Department’s ministers have travelled to a ‘red list’ country and therefore no exemptions have been required.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of companies that are signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme; and what assessment she has made of the effect of that scheme on employment rates for disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As of 31st March 2021, over 20,000 employers had signed up to the Disability Confident (DC) scheme covering over 11 million employees. Disability Confident is a learning journey that provides employers with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and progress disabled people in the workplace. Employers are encouraged to publically report on disability employment and mental health using the Voluntary Reporting Framework (VRF), but are not required to provide government with this data.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of employees with epilepsy working in Government departments.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We do not hold information for other Government departments and can only answer in relation to the Department for Work and Pension’s staff.
I refer the Right Honourable Member to the answer given to the Honourable Member for East Renfrewshire to Question 132962 on 11 January 2021. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-12-30/132962
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on benefit sanctions of the report by the Children's Society, The cost of being care free, published in June 2016.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We are grateful for this report focusing on care leavers from The Children’s Society, and for their recommendations, which we will consider as part of our continuous review of sanctions policy to ensure the process functions effectively and fairly.
I can assure you that where we identify an issue, we act to put it right.
For care leavers, as with other claimants, the sanctions process encourages them to prepare for or find work, by meeting their agreed commitments based on their individual circumstances and capabilities, as set out in their Claimant Commitment. This includes both mandatory and voluntary actions care leavers have agreed to undertake. The consequences and implications of not meeting any agreed requirement are clearly set out and explained to them.
A decision to apply a sanction is not taken lightly, and claimants are given the opportunity to provide a good reason for not complying before the decision is made.
Our primary goal is to help care leavers get into work wherever possible and they receive tailored, locally-appropriate employment support at the earliest opportunity to achieve this.
Care leavers, like all claimants, take ownership of planning how they will meet their requirements and ultimately secure employment. They will be supported by their Work Coach who will assist them in meeting their requirements through providing encouragement and direction, using a range of communication methods. Work Coaches support all claimants who require additional support to ensure that they fully understand what they have been asked to do to enable them to access DWP benefits and use our services.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether UK citizens will have automatic right to mutual recognition of pension contributions in EU countries in the event of the UK leaving the EU and prior to the completion of exit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Answered by Stephen Crabb
At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government's position is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU. If the result of the referendum is a decision to leave, the Government would have two years under the Article 50 process to seek to negotiate the terms, including those concerning pensions, of the UK’s exit, with the possibility of extending this time frame with the agreement of the other 27 Member States.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his most recent forecast is of how many jobcentres will have universal credit available to all parents, both in and out of work, in April 2016.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the Oral answer Secretary of State gave to the House on 9 March 2015, UIN90716.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of parents expected to claim universal credit once that benefit is fully rolled out.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The department published planning projections of the Universal Credit in the publication 'Universal Credit at Work' published on 22 October 2014. The publication can be found at the below link. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-at-work
The Department is not setting targets for numbers in receipt of Universal Credit at various points in time.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on the purchase of televisions in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.
Answered by Steve Webb
Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions occupies the majority of its accommodation under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME Contract.
Under the terms of this PFI, the Department leases back fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Telereal Trillium. We pay an all-inclusive unitary price, known as the Facility Price (FP), for all our furniture, fixtures, equipment and services provided, including televisions.
There were however, televisions supplied to the Department which fell outside the scope of the contract price; the costs of which are detailed below:
(a) 2013 - two televisions at a cost of £487;
(b) 2014 to date - four televisions at cost of £1,076.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials employed by his Department, of each grade, have remained at that grade since 2010 but received a pay rise; and how much of a rise each such person at each such grade has received.
Answered by Steve Webb
To provide this information would incur disproportionate costs.
For 2012 and 2013, because of the nature of the awards applied to delegated grades, staff would have received a 1% increase on base pay whether they remained in grade or were promoted during the year subject to standard eligibility criteria.
DWP does not have contractual progression. All our employees are subject to the pay freeze and pay caps in place since 2010. In May 2010 the Government announced a two year pay freeze for civil servants earning over £21,000. The pay freeze applied to this Department in 2010 and 2011.
For staff earning under £21,000, for both 2010 and 2011 DWP awarded staff a flat rate increase by grade of between £400 and £540. Additionally during 2010 the AA band minimum was increased by between £890 and £1060 (depending on location) which lead to a slightly higher increase for some staff. Following Cabinet Office rules, a small number who earned just over £21,000 received smaller payments, using a taper system, to ensure that they were not ‘leapfrogged’ by peers slightly lower down the pay scale.
In 2012 and 2013 DWP awarded a 1% increase to the vast majority of our staff across all delegated grades. DWP will again be paying the majority of our employees a 1% increase in 2014.
For SCS in DWP the pay freeze was in place for three years from 2010 to 2012. In 2013 DWP paid around 22% of its SCS cadre increases within an overall 1% cap and with a Cabinet Office limit on individual awards of 9%. The majority of our SCS will not have received a pay award between 2010 and 2013.
Figures for the 2014 SCS and delegated pay awards will not be available until they have been processed at the end of this month.
Below the line comments
1. Because of the numbers involved we are unable to provide information tracking every individual’s pay rise over the period within time and cost perimeters.
2. DWP currently employs 92,510 people and we are not able to provide details for each of these individuals. However, as DWP has applied a simple pay award over each of the years required I am able to summarise our position.
3. The PQ asks for information on pay rises exclusive of changes in grade (most usually promotion). By providing information on pay awards, we will be excluding a small number of pay rises which are due to other factors such as a move to a location which attracts a higher salary (DWP has 4 locational pay zones). It also excludes salary increases as a result of a change in contractual hours.
4. The 2014 pay award will be paid in July salaries. We will not have details of final figures until this has been processed.
5. A small number of individuals are not eligible to receive the pay award e.g. because they are undergoing formal poor performance action in a particular year or are on a salary above the appropriate pay scale maximum.