Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was taken from Universal Credit payments to households subject to a benefit deduction in Enfield North constituency in (a) March 2020 to February 2021, (b) March 2021 to February 2022 and (c) March 2022 to February 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The primary aim of the Universal Credit deductions policy is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. In recent years, the standard UC deduction cap has been reduced twice – from 40% to 30% of the Standard Allowance in October 2019, and down to 25% in April 2021.
From April 2020 to July 2020, a temporary freeze on government and third party deductions was introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 statutory maternity pay to self-employed people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to extend Statutory Maternity Pay to self-employed people. Statutory Maternity Pay forms part of a package of employment rights and protections available specifically to the employed. These rights do not extend to the self-employed because of the difference in the nature of the employment.
Women who are self-employed and expecting, can apply for Maternity Allowance to support them to take a break from their business prior to, and after, giving birth.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to ensure that all new mothers have access to maternity pay.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All employed women who satisfy the eligibility criteria are entitled to receive Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) from their employer. Employed women who are not entitled to SMP, and self-employed women, can claim for Maternity Allowance (MA) from the Department for Work and Pensions. The qualifying conditions for both SMP and MA are generally based on a woman's recent employment and earnings. Information on the eligibility criteria for SMP and MA can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to raise awareness among new mothers of all employment status types about their rights to maternity pay.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information about Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance entitlement is available on GOV.UK.
Some employers however may choose to offer more than the statutory minimum required, sometimes referred to as Occupational Maternity Pay.
This is a matter between employer and employee.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the rate of statutory maternity pay to the level of the national minimum wage.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The standard rate of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is reviewed annually. From April 2023, we increased the rate of SMP by September's CPI figure of 10.1 per cent to £172.48. There are no plans to review the rate of SMP outside of the annual uprating process.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 number of families in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London that have been subject to the two-child benefit limit for each year since 2015.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The policy that provides support for a maximum of 2 children in Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit came into effect in April 2017, therefore statistics are only available from 2018.
Between April 2019 and April 2020 there was the most notable increase across GB due to the Covid spike in claims and the gateway for families with 3+ children being able to apply for UC opening in February 2019.
The available statistics for Enfield North Constituency are provided in the table below.
Number of UC Households affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children – households not receiving a child element for at least one child | ||||
Apr-18 | Apr-19 | Apr-20 | Apr-21 | Apr-22 |
20 | 50 | 250 | 440 | 590 |
The available statistics for the London Borough of Enfield are provided in the table below.
Number of UC Households affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children – households not receiving a child element for at least one child | ||
Apr-18 | Apr-19 | Apr-20 |
30 | 120 | 640 |
The available statistics for London are provided in the table below.
Number of UC Households affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children – households not receiving a child element for at least one child | ||
Apr-18 | Apr-19 | Apr-20 |
2,000 | 3,010 | 12,830 |
Statistics for regions and local authorities have been published routinely since 2021:
Notes:
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the longest period between receipt and approval of an application for Pension Credit was in each region of the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 excluding maternity allowance from the benefits cap.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield 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 trends in the numbers of children living in low income households in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in the Enfield North constituency and the London Borough of Enfield are published in “Children in Low Income Families”, and can be found here.
National and regional statistics (including those for London) on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication, and can be found here.
Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work coaches were employed in Jobcentres as of 1 June in each month since 2018 in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Data at constituency and borough level is not available. Relevant data for London Region is shown in the table below.
Year | Work Coach - Full Time Staff Equivalent | Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) - Full Time Staff Equivalent |
2018 | 3210 | 69 |
2019 | 3050 | 2 |
2020 | 2040 | 0 |
2021 | 4980 | 120 |
2022 | 3800 | 170 |
2023 | 2770 | 130 |
Source: DWP’s internal Activity Based Model (ABM)
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