Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
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 extending the Personal Independence Payment planning and following a journey descriptors to include (a) access to toilets and (b) fear of falling over due to mobility issues.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was developed in collaboration with independent specialists in health, social care and disability, including disabled people, and through public consultation between 2010-2012 prior to its introduction in 2013. This comprehensive consultation process informed the development of the PIP assessment criteria, as set out in legislation. There are currently no plans to change the criteria.
Activity 11 was designed to assess barriers to mobility that individuals may face that are associated with mental, cognitive, intellectual or sensory ability, as opposed to physical ability. This includes whether people can leave home to make journeys and whether they are able to plan and successfully follow those journeys. With regard to access to toilets, any continence issues would be considered separately under activity 5, and mobility issues under activity 12. Fear of falling down due to mobility issues could be considered under activity 11 if it is sufficient to impact on a claimant’s ability to leave home, plan or follow journeys as per the PIP regulations.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility National Insurance criteria for Employment and Support Allowance to people who have paid National Insurance contributions over two full tax years in their lives.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NS ESA) is a benefit for individuals with a limited capability to work based on the individual’s recent National Insurance (NI) record.
Normally, to be entitled to NS ESA, a claimant has to satisfy two NI conditions: to have worked and paid enough NI contributions in one of the two tax years prior to claiming NS ESA for at least 26 weeks; and to have either paid, or been credited with, enough NI contributions in both of the two tax years prior to claiming NS ESA that is at least 50 times the minimum threshold.
Looking at the most recent tax years, ensures people have a recent record of paid contributions and therefore a close link with the labour market.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the proportion of people phoning the Personal Independence Payment helpline asking for an extension on the deadline to return their Payment form in each of the last six months..
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made, as this information is not held.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
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 potential merits of paying people who are waiting for the outcome of their Personal Independence Payment appeal at the rate they received before their last decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not an income replacement benefit. It is paid to help with the additional costs that arise from long term health conditions or disability where they impact on the activities set out in legislation. Claimants are assessed against the legislative criteria and a decision on entitlement is made by a DWP decision maker.
In line with the legislative requirement, applicable to most social security benefits, we continue to apply the latest decision on a PIP award until such time as a new decision is made. Payment of PIP after a claim has been disallowed, or at a rate higher than the latest decision whilst an individual is waiting for an appeal hearing could lead to inappropriate expenditure of public funds. If a subsequent first-tier tribunal decides to reinstate PIP, or give a higher award, then the Department will backdate any payments due, in line with the new decision.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of how many people entitled to the Employment and Support Allowance did not claim it in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates for the number of entitled non-recipients and caseload take-up are available for income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support (IS) up to financial year 2018/19. These can be found here. Figures for 2018/19 were affected by no new claims for income-related ESA and IS from December 2018 as a result of Universal Credit rollout. No figures have been published for ESA/IS since 2018/19 due to the roll out of Universal Credit.
No estimates of the volume of entitled non-recipients of New Style (contributory) ESA have been made.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to allow access to the Motability Scheme for (a) claimants of (i) Personal Independence Payment with standard rate mobility and (ii) Disability Living Allowance with low rate mobility, (b) claimants in the process of applying for Personal Independence Payment for up to 18 months to provide time for any appeals and (c) Blue Badge holders.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To be eligible to join the Motability Scheme claimants must be in receipt of the higher-rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, the enhanced-rate mobility component of Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement. Customers in receipt of one of these benefits, may then choose to join the Motability scheme. If the person is not receiving one of the above benefits, they will not qualify for the Motability scheme. In line with legislative requirements the gateway for the transfer of benefits is dependent upon entitlement to specific mobility components and targets support to those with the most severe mobility needs.
There are currently no plans to look at expanding the eligibility criteria for the Motability Scheme.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
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 promote the Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions signposts to Employment and Support Allowance through GOV.UK, helplines, GP surgeries, local libraries, and other support services such as Citizens Advice. There are also benefit calculators on the GOV.UK website which is available for those who wish to find out what support may be available to them. In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions is constantly working to improve the way it communicates information about benefits and other services to the general public.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
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 potential merits of reducing the volume of calls to the Personal Independence Payment helpline by extending to two months the time limit for returning Payment (a) application and (b) review forms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants are advised that should they require more time to complete the “How your disability affects you” questionnaire and award review forms they can ask for additional time to do so. The sooner these forms are completed the sooner the Department can reach a decision on their claim or award review.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide compensation to women who have been affected by changes to the State Pension age.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to provide financial support to parents for childcare.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Spring Budget 2023, the government announced the biggest ever investment in childcare in England, meaning eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year from when their child is 9 months old, to when they start school.
To support this expansion, the Government will spend over £4.1 billion by 2027-28, has provided over £400 million to substantially uplift the hourly rate paid to providers to deliver the existing childcare entitlements in 24-25, and is allocating £100 million capital funding to support childcare settings to increase their physical space. At Spring Budget 2024, the government also announced a commitment to increasing the national average hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the offers in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 in 2025-26 and 2026-27, representing £500m of additional investment.
Parents who are not eligible for the 30 free childcare hours may still be able to access other offers. Parents can find more details on the support available and check if they are eligible at the following link: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.