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Written Question
Pensioners: North West
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of inflation on pensioners in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Government understands the pressures pensioners are facing with the cost of living.

In April, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%, putting the State Pension over £10,000 per year for the first time.

In addition to this, more than 8 million pensioner households will receive a Cost of Living Payment of £300 to be paid during winter 2023. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: Females
Tuesday 31st January 2023

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many women in (a) St Helens and (b) Merseyside are claiming a state pension.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

In the quarter ending May 2022 the State Pension caseload for women in the St. Helen’s Local Authority was 19,161.

In the quarter ending May 2022 the State Pension caseload for women in Merseyside was 140,772.

The table below shows the State Pension caseload for women in the Local Authorities of Merseyside in the quarter ending May 2022.

Local Authorities of Merseyside

Number of Females

Knowsley

13,576

Liverpool

37,976

Sefton

33,531

St. Helens

19,161

Wirral

36,528

Total Merseyside

140,772

Source: DWP benefits statistics: November 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: St Helens
Monday 14th November 2022

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the average response time to Personal Independence Payment applications from people in St Helens as of November 2022; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that period of time on applicants.

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

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

The latest available data by region, including the North West region containing St Helens, published here (in Table 1A (v)), shows that in July 2022 the end to end (from registration to DWP decision) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) journey time in the North West was 18 weeks, down from 27 weeks in August 2021.

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments, increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource, and prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding the continuity of existing awards to ensure they do not go out of payment.


Written Question
Support for Mortgage Interest: Merseyside
Thursday 20th October 2022

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) St Helens and (b) Merseyside were (i) eligible for, (ii) applied for and (iii) received a Support for Mortgage Interest loan in each year since 2015.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost to the Department


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme: St Helens
Wednesday 9th March 2022

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme opportunities have been (a) made available and (b) started in (i) St Helens North constituency and (ii) St Helens Metropolitan Borough, as of 4 March 2022.

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

As of 3rd March 2022, 270 jobs have been made available and 240 jobs have been started in St Helens North constituency through the Kickstart scheme. In addition, 730 jobs have been made available and 500 jobs have been started in St Helens Metropolitan Borough.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.


Written Question
Child Maintenance Service: Complaints
Friday 10th December 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to (a) tackle the backlog and (b) reduce resolution times in outstanding Child Maintenance Service complaints.

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

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on DWP meant that in July 2020, changes were made to our complaint model to allow staff to be deployed to support vital claim and payment processing work. This has meant that responses have not always been delivered within our target timescales.

We recognise the impact that delayed responses to complaints can have on our customers, and we have put a number of measures in place to address this issue, including allocating additional resource to our complaint resolution teams. As a result of this action, we have made strong progress in addressing the backlog of cases and improving resolution times for child maintenance complaints.

There are a number of more complex cases that will naturally take longer to allow for comprehensive investigation prior to being in a position to reach full resolution, for example those cases that are referred to our Financial Investigation Unit.

In these cases, we will contact the customer to let them know that their case is likely to take longer to resolve.


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme: North West
Wednesday 1st December 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) Liverpool City Region and (c) the North West region have undertaken roles as part of the Kickstart scheme since its inception.

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

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given for PQ 58900 for a breakdown of jobs started by parliamentary constituency and local authority; as well as to PQ 71418 for a recent breakdown of jobs started by region.


Written Question
Universal Credit: North West
Thursday 23rd September 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

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 effect on poverty levels in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) Liverpool City region and (c) the North West of the decision to remove the £20 uplift to universal credit from October 2021.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of removing the £20 uplift on poverty or related issues. This is particularly the case at the moment given the uncertainty around the speed of the economic recovery, and how this will be distributed across the population.

The latest poverty figures (2019/20) demonstrate that absolute poverty rates (both before and after housing costs) for working-age adults in working families have fallen since 2009/10. In 2019/20, 8% of working age adults in working families were in absolute poverty (before housing costs), compared to 9% in 2009/10.

This government prefers to look at absolute poverty over Relative poverty as relative poverty can provide counter-intuitive results. Relative poverty is likely to fall during recessions, due to falling median incomes. Under this measure, poverty can decrease even if people are getting poorer. The absolute poverty line is fixed in real terms, so will only ever worsen if people are getting poorer, and only ever improve if people are getting richer.

The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work.

Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; Restart, which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year; and JETS, which provides light touch employment support for people who are claiming either Universal Credit or New Style Jobseekers Allowance, for up to 6 months, helping participants effectively re-engage with the labour market and focus their job search. We have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job. In total, our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.


Written Question
Cemeteries: Languages
Thursday 19th November 2020

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the Church of England’s policy is on non-English language inscriptions on headstones in its graveyards.

Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner

There are legal proceedings currently underway on this matter and due to the House of Commons Sub Judice Resolution the Church Commissioners are unable to provide an answer at this time.


Written Question
Cemeteries: Irish Language
Thursday 19th November 2020

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the Church of England’s policy is on the use of the Irish language (a) in its services and (b) as inscriptions or engravings on (i) headstones or (ii) other objects on Church property.

Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner

There are legal proceedings currently underway on this matter and due to the House of Commons Sub Judice Resolution the Church Commissioners are unable to provide an answer at this time.