Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under the age of 25 were refused Discretionary Housing Payment (a) nationally and (b) in each local authority area in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
As Discretionary Housing Payments are administered by Local Authorities the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The most recent data available on Discretionary Housing Payments is the following set of official statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-april-to-september-2020
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the current average waiting time is for an application for limited capacity to work benefit to be considered.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department publishes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) statistics online and the latest clearance time statistics available to June 2020 can be accessed in Table 8 here:
Statistics on Work Capability Assessments for Universal Credit are currently under development for future publication and have not previously been published as official statistics. We will issue them in due course as an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Whilst the initial statistics will not have median clearance times, these will be developed for publication in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of vacancies available as part of the Kickstart scheme that are currently unfilled as a result of registered gateway organisations not yet having received approval from her Department.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 30/11/2020, there are 292 applications from potential gateway organisations waiting for assessment. These applications represent 28,783 potential job placements. So far, applications from Gateways and employers covering 23’934 vacancies have been approved.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many registered gateway organisations are waiting for approval from her Department before being able to commence the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 30/11/2020, there are 292 applications from potential gateway organisations waiting for assessment. These applications represent 28,783 potential job placements. So far, applications from Gateways and employers covering 23’934 vacancies have been approved.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, by what date registered gateway organisations will have received approval for the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our aim is to process an application within a month, but this can take longer if we require additional information from bidders. As the scheme continues to roll-out we expect that the time taken to process applications will reduce. Turn-around times are already improving.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What steps her Department is taking to ensure that single parents are treated equitably within the benefits system during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We’ve introduced an unprecedented package of support of over £6.5 billion to help all families to cope with the financial impact of Covid-19.
Single parents can benefit from the Flexible Support Fund and the increases to UC Standard Allowance, and Local Housing Allowance rates. Universal Credit is already more generous than legacy benefits, where people can claim up to 85% of childcare costs.
Our priority continues to be ensuring people get their benefit payments and providing support for those who need it the most.