Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce a target for the uptake of pension credit to help ensure that all pensioners eligible to claim pension credit receive it.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important to highlight that in 2017/18 there were around 1.7 million Pension Credit claimants, receiving around £5.1 billion of Pension Credit payments.
The Government wants to make sure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are entitled. That is why on the 10 February we launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit. The aim of the campaign is to encourage those over State Pension age to check whether they’re eligible. We want to make it clear that having savings, a pension or owning a home are not automatic barriers to receiving Pension Credit; as well as explaining that even a small award of Pension Credit can provide access to a range of other benefits such as help with rent, council tax reduction schemes and heating costs.
The campaign includes a short, animated video that is being shown in GP waiting rooms and in Post Offices. It is also being shown to Facebook users over State Pension age and supported by other messaging on social media. We have also made the video and campaign materials available for stakeholders to use, as we know they are often one of the first places people turn to for information about Pension Credit.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 eligible pensioners in (a) Easington constituency and (b) the UK not in receipt of pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important to highlight that in 2017/18 there were around 1.7 million Pension Credit claimants, amounting to around £5.1 billion of Pension Credit payments. The Government is committed to making sure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled.
The information requested on the number of people eligible for Pension Credit who are not in receipt of the benefit in (a) Easington Constituency and (b) the UK, is only available at the Great Britain level. The most recent estimate of this is for the period of 2017/18.
Year | Estimated number of Entitled Non-Recipients in Thousands | Range in Thousands |
2017/18 | 1,060 | 970 - 1,150 |
Official statistics on the take-up of income-related benefits at Great Britain level, including Pension Credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up in 2017 to 2018’ publication.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will commission television advertising to promote the Pension Credit: Are You Eligible? public information promotional video.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important to highlight that in 2017/18 there were around 1.7 million Pension Credit claimants, receiving around £5.1 billion of Pension Credit payments.
The Government wants to make sure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are entitled. That is why on the 10 February we launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit. The aim of the campaign is to encourage those over State Pension age to check whether they’re eligible. We want to make it clear that having savings, a pension or owning a home are not automatic barriers to receiving Pension Credit; as well as explaining that even a small award of Pension Credit can provide access to a range of other benefits such as help with rent, council tax reduction schemes and heating costs.
The campaign includes a short, animated video that is being shown in GP waiting rooms and in Post Offices. It is also being shown to Facebook users over State Pension age and supported by other messaging on social media. We have also made the video and campaign materials available for stakeholders to use, as we know they are often one of the first places people turn to for information about Pension Credit.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average cost to her Department is of processing a universal credit claim for a single one month assessment period.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not held.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce a target to (a) reduce child poverty to four million children by 2021, (b) reduce child poverty to two million children by 2025 and (c) eradicate child poverty by 2030.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 27 January to question number 6646.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the increase in the National Living wage announced by the Government on 31 December 2019, what discussions she is having with private sector companies undertaking facility management work for her Department to ensure that the cost of wage increases for their employees are not passed on to her Department.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP FM contract includes provision to discuss living wage increases, however the Department has not yet entered into discussions with its FM Supplier about the National Living Wage increases announced in December 2019. We are anticipating the conversation for 19/20 costs to take place in April 2020.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children in poverty lived in working households in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
National statistics of the number of children in low income households are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication.
Statistics for the number of children in working households in absolute low income, in each of the last five years, are available by combining tables 4.21ts and 4.2ts in the file “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” available in the link below.
Statistics for the number of children in working households in relative low income, in each of the last five years, are available by combining tables 4.15ts and 4.2ts in the same file.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will bring forward legislative proposals for the introduction of statutory targets to (a) reduce and (b) end child poverty.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is committed to action that delivers a sustainable long-term solution to child poverty, including reforming the benefits system so that it supports employment and higher pay. Universal Credit is designed to help people move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings and, when fully rolled out, we expect Universal Credit will boost employment by 200,000, lifting people out of poverty and generating £8 billion in economic benefits every year.
The child poverty targets introduced in 2010 were replaced with two statutory measures of parental employment and children’s educational attainment, the two areas which can make the biggest difference to children’s long-term outcomes. We have no current plans to reintroduce a target-based approach that focuses on income alone.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department would receive an increase in their salary in the event that their hourly pay rate was (a) £8.72, (b) £9.30 and (c) £10.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The below figures show the proportion of DWP staff that would receive an increase in their annual salary, using the statutory National Living Wage calculation, in the event that their hourly pay increased to (a) £8.72, (b) £9.30 and (c) £10. DWP pays all staff at least the National Living Wage, regardless of age.
Hourly rate | Full time equivalent salary | Volume of DWP employees that would be uplifted | % of DWP headcount |
£8.72 | £19,118 | 1915 | 2.44% |
£9.30 | £20,390 | 6236 | 7.95% |
£10 | £21,924 | 26670 | 34.01% |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will set a target date for eradicating child poverty in Easington constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is committed to delivering a sustainable, long-term solution to poverty in all its forms. Tackling child poverty requires an approach that goes beyond targets - which focus on income alone- to one that addresses the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and improves long-term outcomes for families and children.
Through Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published in 2017, we set out detailed evidence on the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and their impact on the outcomes of children in families where none of the parents is working. We also set out nine indicators to track progress in the areas that matter, including two statutory measures of parental worklessness and educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to children’s outcomes.