To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Buildings
Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

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.


Written Question
Auditing Yorkshire
Monday 24th April 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

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.


Written Question
Local Housing Allowance: Refugees
Tuesday 13th December 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

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.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions
Wednesday 30th November 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

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.


Written Question
Access to Work Programme
Tuesday 11th October 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

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.


Written Question
Child Benefit and Universal Credit: Distance Learning
Monday 10th October 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

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.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Students
Tuesday 5th April 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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.


Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance: Leeds Central
Thursday 10th February 2022

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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.


Written Question
Universal Credit
Wednesday 20th October 2021

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

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


Written Question
Universal Credit: Leeds Central
Monday 27th September 2021

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

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 Leeds Central who will be affected by the proposed cut of the universal credit uplift.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of exactly how many people will be affected by the removal of the £20 uplift during October due to uncertainty around the speed of the economic recovery and the resulting effect on the caseload.

The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty.

Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; Restart, which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year; and JETS, which provides light touch employment support for people who are claiming either Universal Credit or New Style Jobseekers Allowance, for up to 6 months, helping participants effectively re-engage with the labour market and focus their job search. We have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job. In total, our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.