Asked by: Graham Leadbitter (Scottish National Party - Moray West, Nairn 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 impact of changing the replacement rate to the Statutory Sick Pay lower earnings limit on people on this limit.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department undertook a Regulatory Impact Assessment covering the measures in the Employment Rights Bill to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay: removing the Lower Earnings Limit and the waiting period. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments.
Asked by: Graham Leadbitter (Scottish National Party - Moray West, Nairn 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 adequacy of the rate of statutory sick pay.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No one should be forced to choose between their health and financial hardship. Through the Employment Rights Bill we are strengthening Statutory Sick Pay. Up to 1.3 million low-paid employees will now be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay and all eligible employees will be paid from the first day of sickness absence irrespective of their income, benefiting millions of employees.
While the Department has not assessed the adequacy of the rate of Statutory Sick Pay, a Regulatory Impact Assessment and an Equality Impact Assessment of the Statutory Sick Pay measures in the Employment Rights Bill have been undertaken.
The existing rate of Statutory Sick Pay is designed to balance providing support for employees, whilst helping to manage the costs to employers.
Asked by: Graham Leadbitter (Scottish National Party - Moray West, Nairn 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 (a) tackle wait times experienced by (i) vulnerable people who require urgent assistance and (ii) other callers to her Department's helpline, (b) improve the (A) efficiency and (B) accessibility of its customer service and (c) ensure that vulnerable individuals receive timely support.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP reviews forecasted telephony demand and plans resourcing accordingly to keep wait times down. Wait time performance is frequently reviewed and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered. All DWP customer telephone lines are Freephone numbers.
The Department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time. This will help to reduce waiting times by supporting customers to utilise digital alternatives where appropriate, which enables telephony agents to speak to our customers that really need to speak to someone. If a customer indicates they may be at risk of physical or mental harm e.g. suicide, terminal illness, homelessness, and clinical mental health, they will be routed to a telephony agent in as short a journey as possible.
The Department offers a wide range of reasonable adjustments for customers, including production of communications in a range of alternative formats. We are currently testing further digital solutions for British Sign Language interpreter connectivity within our jobcentre environment.