Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to help (a) repair and (b) reopen the Forum Leisure Centre swimming pool located within his Department's property in Quarry Hill, Leeds.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Work and Pensions are in the process of arranging a comprehensive scheme of repairs to the plant room servicing the Quarry House Leisure Centre Pool.
A quote for the works has been received and validated. With lead time for materials & subsequent programme of works, it is anticipated the pool will re-open in December 2023.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to investigate the filming of Jobcentre staff and customers in Leeds and elsewhere by Auditing Yorkshire.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
DWP takes the safety of its staff and customers very seriously. Filming on our premises has the potential to cause distress and undermine individual security.
Incidents involving Audit Yorkshire and other similar groups are being reviewed. Where appropriate we will seek to remove Social Media footage and pursue legal action.
In relation to measures to prevent filming of staff and customers within our premises, DWP maintains a policy of requiring permission for filming to take place within our premises, which after a review of legal advice, is regarded as private land.
This review has made some recommendations on strengthening our response in this area. We continue to monitor the situation and are working with other Departments to align best practice in these types of incidents.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to issue Ukrainian refugees with a letter confirming their entitlement to local housing payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Eligibility for benefits, including help with housing costs depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK as determined by the Home Office. Those who were residing in Ukraine immediately before 1 January 2022, and who have fled in response to the Russian Invasion are eligible for income-related, disability and carer benefits from day one of their arrival in the UK, subject to all other entitlement conditions being met.
DWP does not issue letters to individuals regarding potential eligibility. However, all claims to benefit will be decided in accordance with current legislation.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the increase in the State pension on pensioners who receive a small amount of pension credit.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
State Pensions and Pension Credit will increase by 10.1% from 10 April 2023, so there will be no reduction in Pension Credit payable as a result of the increase in State Pensions.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is her Departments policy that people applying for support for equipment under the Access to Work programme are required to make a new application when they change jobs.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
To enable disabled people to receive the appropriate in-work support, they may need to contact Access to Work when they change job if their support needs or equipment change. Where the disabled person changes job and their support needs and equipment remain the same, there is no need to make a new application, as Access to Work will fund the costs of moving equipment previously funded by Access to Work.
To support disabled people to have flexibility to access short term contracts, Access to Work has also introduced a flexible application for self-employed freelancers and contractors. The flexible application enables support to be transitioned from job to job, regardless of the time lapse between periods of employment and provides assurance for the disabled person and potential employers.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether full-time attendance at Harrow Online School by a 16 year old constitutes approved education for the purposes of (a) a child benefit and (b) an universal credit claim.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
We do not have enough information on this particular case to confirm the Childs eligibility, however eligibility for both the Child Element of Universal Credit and Child Benefit is met where all of the following applies (1) the young person has not yet reached the upper age limit for each benefit (2) the course of education or training the child is undertaking is non-advanced (i.e. up to A-Level or Scottish Qualification framework level 6) and (3) the average time spent during term receiving tuition, engaging in practical work or supervised study or taking examinations exceeds 12 hours per week.
If such a course is provided by a school or college remotely, it is ‘approved education’ for the purposes of eligibility to the Child Element of Universal Credit and Child Benefit.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will review the universal credit eligibility requirements for disabled people in education.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Most full-time students in higher education do not qualify for Universal Credit because one of the conditions of entitlement is that a claimant must not be in education.
Students, including disabled students and those with health conditions, access fees and living costs support for their higher education courses through various loans and grants funded through the student support system. It is important that Universal Credit does not duplicate this support, which is designed for their needs unlike the social security system.
In some circumstances, people in full-time education are able to claim Universal Credit. These exceptions to the rules generally provide financial help not covered by the student support system or avoid anomalies in cases where one member of a couple is a student.
There is an exception where a person has already been determined to have limited capability for work before entering education and is entitled to Attendance Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Disabled Adult/Child Payment (Scotland) or Armed Forces Independence Payment. The rules for this exception are designed to encourage those already claiming Universal Credit because of disability or ill health to take up education that may help them into work in the future.
As with all policies, we continue to keep the support we offer to disabled students claiming UC under review.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
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 people in the Leeds Central constituency who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance.
Answered by Chloe Smith
We estimate that 260 cases qualifying for arrears payments were based in the Leeds Central constituency as of the end of the exercise.
Notes:
Figure rounded to the nearest 10.
End of the exercise refers to 1 June 2021. Geographical breakdowns are derived from address information recorded on the Department's Customer Information System (CIS) for 1 June 2021. For deceased cases this will be the last address held on the CIS as of the extract date (28 December 2021) for that National Insurance number.
Analysis is based on administrative data for the ESA underpayments exercise that was correct as of 21 July 2021.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants received their final payment of the £20 a week universal credit uplift on or prior to 8 September 2021.
Answered by David Rutley
For Universal Credit claimants, Assessment Periods that ended on or after 6 October 2021 will not include the additional £20 per week.
The latest available statistics, taken from Stat-Xplore, show that the number of people who were on Universal Credit on 9 September 2021 was 5.8 million.
These statistics are published monthly and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html