Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help people save for the future.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Retirement saving has been transformed with over 11 million employees put into workplace pensions since 2012.
We are committed to the expansion of Automatic Enrolment in the mid-2020s. Our reforms will benefit younger workers and increase overall amounts being saved, with 3m people saving £2bn extra a year.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on supporting disabled people into work.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It was a pleasure in February to visit Crawley Job Centre and meet the Work Coaches with My Honourable Friend.
He will know we have helped over one million more disabled people into work and our Health and Disability White Paper and the budget support will do so much more.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department’s review into economic inactivity will take into account the barriers to employment faced by disabled people and the support needed to overcome them.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The review will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a key focus of the review.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of Universal Credit claimants who will receive a cost of living payment in Crawley constituency.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Universal Credit claimants who were entitled to at least 1p during assessment periods that ended between 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022 will be eligible for the £326 Cost of Living Payment.
Statistics on the number of households that had an assessment period which covered the monthly count date and received a Universal Credit payment are available by Westminster parliamentary constituency at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
The latest statistics show the number of households with Universal Credit in payment on 10th February 2022.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has issued guidance to work coaches on avoiding recommendations for in-person work for people who are immunocompromised.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As mentioned in my previous response, the Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with a health condition or disability, including those who are immunocompromised, continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances, including considering the impact of their health and wider situation.
Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied including that work search reflects the type and location of jobs which are appropriate to the individual.
Although DWP does not routinely provide guidance specifically on supporting people who are immunocompromised, we do ensure that staff are aware of the sources of information available to them relating to medical conditions that are associated with this. Staff are signposted to tools, guidance support and websites to effectively use resources from both internal and external sites, such as information directly from the NHS found here.
This ensures that staff can access the most up to date advice and can use this to inform how they support individual customers.
We empower our Work Coaches to use all available resources to best support each claimant, however they are not trained to provide comprehensive healthcare advice, therefore while we do discuss the implications certain jobs may have on their health, we would not advise against jobs the claimant wishes to apply for.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Work Coaches are being given guidance on immunocompromised patients; and whether that guidance includes avoiding recommendations for in-person work for those individuals.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with a health condition or disability, including those who are immunocompromised, continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances, including considering the impact of their health and wider situation.
Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied including that work search reflects the type and location of jobs which are appropriate to the individual.
Although DWP does not routinely provide guidance specifically on supporting people who are immunocompromised, we do ensure that staff are aware of the sources of information available to them relating to medical conditions that are associated with this. Staff are signposted to tools, guidance support and websites to effectively use resources from both internal and external sites, such as information directly from the NHS.
This ensures that staff can access the most up to date advice and can use this to inform how they support individual customers.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what she is taking with the Chancellor of the Exchequer through the Plan for Jobs to fill vacancies in the labour market.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Throughout the pandemic, the Government has provided historic levels of support to the economy. DWP’s Plan for Jobs programmes, including Kickstart, are delivering tailored support for claimants in receipt of Universal Credit to support them into work.
Alongside Plan for Jobs measures, DWP is working across government to support people into sectors with immediate or growing demand for jobs but with barriers to entry. We are also working with industry to provide our work coaches with the knowledge they need to identify suitable candidates and to develop relationships with key employers and stakeholders in their local areas. As a result, local jobcentres continue to connect directly with employers in their area, to discuss their recruitment needs and to offer advice on the support available, including work trials, work experience and Sector-based Work Academies Programmes (SWAPs).
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what level of funding from the Household Support Fund will initially be received by Crawley Borough Council.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department for Work and Pensions is boosting households with £500m funding this winter, with £421m dedicated to the Household Support Fund in England, which will help vulnerable people in England with essential household costs. The funding is being made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England. West Sussex will receive £4,870,362.11. County Councils are expected to work together with District Councils to provide support and to ensure the funding meets its objectives by identifying those most in need.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had a (a) telephone and (b) digital appointment with the Pension Wise service since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Between 1 March 2020 and 22 September 2020, the following number of Pension Wise appointments were held:
An incomplete appointment is where a customer attended an appointment, but it was not completed fully due to a variety of reasons.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have contacted Action Fraud on potential pension scams since the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government continues to work with Regulators and the Police to prevent scams and this has continued during Covid-19. In the period March – July 2020, 116 reports of pension fraud were received by Action Fraud, compared to 179 for the same period in 2019.
In recognition of the potential impact of Covid-19 on individual’s pensions savings the Department convened a cross-government and regulator group, to closely monitor and respond to any increase in transfers and scams. Regulators, Police and Action Fraud have confirmed that to date no evidence has emerged to demonstrate an increase in either transfers or scams, based on their internal monitoring of the industry. Although this is encouraging Government recognises it needs to continue to monitor and react to the changing environment.