Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to extend eligibility for the Kickstart Scheme to include sole traders.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme is open to employers of all sizes.
Sole traders can apply to Kickstart through an organisation offering the ‘Gateway Plus’ model, which enables young people to be placed on the Gateway’s PAYE system for the duration of their placement; there are a number of organisations that will offer this model.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 average response time to hon Members' offices regarding Child Maintenance Support enquiries; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not measure timings as described in the question and to determine this request, we would need to examine each individual case, which the Department considers to be cost prohibitive to provide.
The Department has a 15 working day target for MP to Director General Correspondence and a 20 working day target for Private Office correspondence. These timescales are in line with Cabinet Office directives.
As part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department had to make changes to its complaints and MP correspondence model to allow staff to be deployed to support processing benefit claims and payments. From 9 July 2020, the Department now triage complaints and MP Correspondence giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues.
We continue to look into all complaints and MP correspondence as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process used to determine priority, we write or call those customers and MPs where there may be a delay in answering their complaint or enquiry.
We are reviewing the effectiveness of the approach we have taken throughout the pandemic as part of an ongoing review into complaints and MP correspondence handling.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to announce its decision on whether the £20 uplift to universal credit and working tax credits will be extended beyond April 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 of ending the £20 uplift to universal credit and working tax credits on (a) universal credit claimants and (b) the economy.
Answered by Will Quince
The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to ensure that personal independence payment claimants with incurable illnesses are only reassessed when there is a change in their condition.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Once someone has been awarded Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which can be paid at one of eight rates, that award will usually be reviewed. Regular reviews are a key feature of the benefit and ensure that payments accurately match the current needs of claimants. The length of an award is based on an individual’s circumstances and can vary from nine months to an on-going award, with a light touch review after ten years.
In 2018 we introduced updated guidance for case managers and an updated PIP Assessment Guide in 2018 which ensures that those people who receive the highest level of support under PIP, and where their needs are unlikely to change or may get worse, will receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at the ten-year point. In line with PIP’s aim to be needs-based rather than condition-based, the change to the guidance is not condition specific. However, we believe the changes will ensure that those with severe and/or progressive conditions receive the most appropriate award duration that reflects their condition and the needs arising.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 potential effect of removing the £20 per week uplift to universal credit and working tax credits on the Yorkshire economy.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of claimants on Universal Credit by Parliamentary Constituency is published and can be found at:https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 universal credit claimants who would be affected by the removal of the £20 per week uplift to universal credit and working tax credits in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) the Sheffield city region and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Will Quince
The available information on the number of claimants on Universal Credit by Parliamentary Constituency is published and can be found at:https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021. As the Government has done throughout this crisis, it will continue to assess how best to support low-income families, which is why we will look at the economic and health context before making any decisions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to mark National Workplace Day of Remembrance 2020 in Parliament.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Every year on 28 April the Health and Safety Executive joins with the Trade Union Congress and others to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day. The event remembers all those who have lost their lives at work, or from work-related injury and diseases. Workers Memorial Day is commemorated throughout the world and is officially recognised by the UK Government.
The Health and Safety Executive welcomes any initiatives that will raise awareness of this important topic and help to reduce work related ill health, injury and death in the workplace.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 financial effect of the covid-19 outbreak on claimants on legacy benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To support those on low incomes through the outbreak, we introduced a package of temporary welfare measures.
We increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants, so they now cover the lowest 30% of local rents. This increase, costing almost £1 billion, will mean 1.5 million households see an increase, on average, of £600 this year. We also increased the additional earnings disregard in Housing Benefit to ensure increases in the maximum rate of the basic element of Working Tax Credit did not impact on a claimant’s Housing Benefit award.
We legislated to allow access to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from day one of a claim for Covid-19 related cases and we have made it easier to access ESA by launching a portal for new style ESA online claims.
In addition to the above, legacy benefits were increased by £600m (1.7%) from April 2020 and will receive a further £100m (0.5%) increase from April 2021 as part of the Government’s annual up-rating exercise.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications her Department has (a) received and (b) approved for Kickstart Scheme funding in (i) each UK region and (ii) the Sheffield City Region.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to the Parliamentary Question HL10193, answered on 12 November. We are not yet able to break Kickstart data down by region.