Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department (a) made and (b) has since made an assessment of the potential impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on trends in the level of income inequality.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the terms of reference will be for her Department's review of universal credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to and meeting our objectives of making work pay and tackling poverty. We have already begun this work with the introduction of the new fair repayment rate announced in the Budget. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as the review progresses to seek views on proposed areas of focus and untapped opportunities in UC. Parliament will be updated on progress and future changes accordingly.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
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 impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on the number of people living in poverty by household type.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach.
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course.
HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
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 impact of Autumn Budget 2024 on trends in the number of people living in poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach.
Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched on 26 November will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health, and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. We are taking the first steps to tackle poverty through our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit and we will set out the details in due course.
HM Treasury have published distributional analysis showing the estimated impact of tax, welfare and public service spending decisions on household incomes, across the household income distribution. This can be found here Impact_on_households.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
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 effectiveness of the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions is currently conducting an evaluation of the Household Support Fund that ran from April 2023 to March 2024, to understand the benefits of the awards made across England during this period. This will be published in due course.
Management information on the Household Support Fund from April 2023 to March 2024, including details of how funding was spent is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-4-management-information-for-1-april-2023-to-31-march-2024
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to publish a consultation on fit note reform.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The call for evidence was launched under the previous government to seek views on how the current fit note process works and the support required to facilitate meaningful work and health conversations. It closed on the 8 July 2024 and received around 1,900 responses. We are still in the process of thoroughly analysing the responses received. These responses will play a crucial role in shaping our ongoing policy development.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timetable is for responding to her Department's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving the collection and transfer of payments, published on 8 May 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. These proposed reforms included removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster, as well as exploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. This consultation followed the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act which received royal assent in July 2023.
The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of issuing a commencement order for curfews for non-compliant parents refusing to pay child maintenance.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.
The Department has explored how curfews could be implemented as an additional enforcement measure to improve compliance. Several enforcement initiatives aimed at improving compliance are currently in train. These initiatives need to be implemented and their effects assessed before we can best see how curfews might fit with them.
The Department plans to enhance effectiveness in collecting arrears payments by delivering changes via regulations, thereby streamlining the enforcement process. This will remove the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and instead allow the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. The introduction of this simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those Paying Parents who actively avoid their responsibilities.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timetable is for responding to her Department's closed consultation entitled Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper, published on 29 April 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 October 2024 to question number 6515. The answer can be found here: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - East Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of (a) the take-up, as a proportion of eligibility, of the Specified Adult Childcare Credit, and (b) the estimated expenditure for the Specified Adult Childcare Credit, in each of the last four years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Qualifying Years of National Insurance for State Pension can be filled whilst working or being self-employed; by being credited with National Insurance credits; and through making voluntary National Insurance contributions.
Specified Adult Childcare Credits are one of the many ways an individual can build a Qualifying Year of National Insurance to protect their future entitlement to State Pension. It is a transfer of the National Insurance credit from the primary parent/carer receiving Child Benefit to a Specified Adult providing care. Its award depends on the circumstances between an individual parent and a carer, and it is not possible to estimate potential volumes
There is no immediate expenditure associated with the award of the credit. Each credit adds a qualifying year which is used when the individual reaches State Pension age to determine their overall State Pension entitlement.