Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure support for individuals currently employed under the Temporary Employment Support Grant under Access to Work programs continues to move forward.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Transitional Employer Support Grant is a flat-rate time-limited grant paid by Access to Work to fund the in-work support needs of disabled individuals working in Supported Businesses who previously delivered the Work Choice programme. This grant is providing transitional protection for disabled employees while a long-term funding model is developed. A new more personalised funding model is currently being piloted which offers disabled employees more tailored support and recognises the adaptations the employer has made. If the new model is successful it is expected to replace the Transitional Employer Support Grant.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 merits of enabling data sharing between the Child Maintenance Service and HMRC to help ensure accurate income assessments of non-resident parents.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) already uses data received directly from HMRC to ensure child maintenance liabilities are based on accurate income information. The CMS can also access a wide range of income information, including income from property, savings, and investments (including dividends) and other miscellaneous income.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 merits of the immediate removal of the two child limit for the Universal Credit Child Element for all claimants to enable Ukrainian nationals arriving in the UK are not (a) subject to limitations in available family support, and (b) made to disclose if they have being the victims of sexual violence used as a weapon of war in order to receive support for any children who may have being conceived in non-consensual conception above the two child limit.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No assessment has been made. The policy applies to all children born on or after 6 April 2017 regardless of the nationality of the child.
We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family.
That is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups, including those likely to have been born as a result of non-consensual conception. This includes rape or where the claimant was in a controlling or coercive relationship with the child’s other biological parent at the time of conception. In this case, before a claim is approved, claimants are asked to contact a suitable third-party professional who can confirm the claimant’s circumstances, as described by them, are consistent with the criteria for the exception. The third-party professional does not judge the credibility of the claimant’s statement or require any further evidence.
Furthermore, On 9th July 2021, the Supreme Court handed down the judicial review judgement on the two-child Policy. The court found the two-child Policy lawful and not in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 merits of the introduction of a registration system for assistance dogs.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The services and standards of assistance dogs are currently and historically maintained on the basis of a voluntary regulatory framework. There is no specific legislation for the regulation of assistance dogs and no legislation is planned.
There are recognised standards for assistance dogs worldwide set by international bodies to which a number of UK charities and organisations are accredited.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the regulatory framework for gas safety; and what estimate she has made of the (a) number of prosecutions made in connection with installations that fail to meet the gas safe engineer rules in each of the last three years and (b) annual cost to consumers of unsafe works.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In 2018 following discussions with stakeholders the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) amended the current regulations, Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR).
HSE continues to work across UK Government and industry to ensure the regulations are effective to maintain the safety of gas users not just today but in the development of future fuels that form part of the wider Net Zero Strategy.
HSE is currently conducting a Post Implementation Review of the specific amendments they made to the regulations in 2018 and will be reporting their conclusions in 2023.
Since the introduction of GSIUR, the number of reported gas-related fatalities has steadily declined from 48 in 1998/99 to 3 in 2020/21. While any number of fatalities is clearly unwanted, this substantive decline is evidence that these regulations have improved the safety of the gas landscape in GB and that they remain effective.
HSE believes in firm but fair enforcement and the number of breaches prosecuted under GSIUR are outlined below:
Year | No. breaches prosecuted under GSIUR |
2018/19 | 46 |
2019/20 | 74 |
2020/21 | 33 |
The annual cost to consumers of unsafe work is not reported to or held by Government.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 merits of implementing a feature on calls relating to (a) universal credit and (b) employment support allowance where in the event that the caller does not progress with automated telephony services they are automatically transferred to a human operator.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All except two of the many freephone lines that DWP provides operate with a menu of options for customers to select before the call is routed to a human operator. The two lines which operate differently with a form of automation are the Benefit Enquiry Line and the Jobcentre Enquiry Line. These freephone lines use a function called Natural Language Call Steering which, if the customer is not understood, does not understand the question, or chooses not to speak, will revert to a menu of options before transfer to a human operator.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 merits of excluding (a) Lifetime ISA's, and (b) private pension savings mechanisms from universal credit capital rules.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The value of any right to receive pension under an occupational or personal pension scheme or any other pension scheme registered under section 153 of the Finance Act 2004, is already disregarded under Universal Credit capital rules.
The Lifetime ISA is primarily a savings vehicle rather than a pension scheme. That is why money invested in a Lifetime ISA will be treated as capital in Universal Credit.
Universal Credit capital rules strike a balance between protecting less well-off people and protecting the taxpayer, whilst at the same time recognising the hard work of people who have built up capital. They ensure that the help which comes from taxpayers, many of whom are themselves on low incomes and have limited capital, is directed to people who need it most.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer on 25 October 2021 to Question 57146 on Employment Support Allowance (ESA), what steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) ESA decision makers apply hardship payments where appropriate for individuals whose ESA has been temporarily suspended while investigations into capital allowance are ongoing and (b) training of ESA decision makers on the role of hardship payments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Decisions about whether suspending payment would cause hardship are made on a case by case basis by considering the circumstances of the claimant at the point that suspension becomes an option. This would only arise after a claimant has been given the opportunity to resolve the doubt that has arisen in relation to their entitlement or award and not done that.
Decision makers are trained to be fully conversant with all legislation and guidance in relation to all aspects of Decision Making, including hardship. There are quality assurance frameworks to ensure that there are consistent national standards in the decision-making process.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people whose voices cannot be understood by her Department's automated helpline systems are redirected to a human operator.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All except two of the Freephone lines that DWP provides operate with a menu of options for customers to select the most appropriate one before the call is then routed to an agent. The two lines which operate differently; Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL) and the Jobcentre Enquiry Line (JEL) use a function called Natural Language Call Steering which will revert to a menu of options if the customer is not understood or chooses not to speak
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the average telephony waiting time for people seeking support with their employment support allowance via her Department's helplines as of 8 November 2021; and what assessment she has made of the acceptability of those waiting times.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We actively manage our Percentage of Calls Answered (PCA) to achieve the optimal service to our customers by balancing our resources to meet the needs of our customers. To achieve this, we consider a variety of factors of which average speed of answer is one. These figures are calculated using historic data available to us and balancing this alongside current demand.
For The period 1 October 2021 – 31 October 2021 the average speed of answer for Employment and Support Allowance was 21 minutes and 08 seconds. Call volumes received during the month of October were 8.6% higher than our forecast figures. This will have contributed to the slight increase in the average speed of answer for the month.
To actively achieve the optimal PCA of 80% the accepted average speed of answer for Employment and Support Allowance enquiries is 18 minutes 48 seconds.