Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had made an assessment of the potential impact of the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review of Carer's Allowance payments on carers in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Independent Review into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance linked to earnings covered England and Wales. In view of the principle of parity with DWP in matters of social security, I informed the Minister for Communities of the Review’s findings and the Government’s response to them, and officials from the two Departments are in discussion on the issues raised. Since social security is transferred in Northern Ireland, questions 99735 and 99736 are matters for the Executive.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 number of unpaid carers in Northern Ireland affected by Carer's Allowance overpayments in relation to a) earnings and b) fluctuating earnings from 2015 to 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Independent Review into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance linked to earnings covered England and Wales. In view of the principle of parity with DWP in matters of social security, I informed the Minister for Communities of the Review’s findings and the Government’s response to them, and officials from the two Departments are in discussion on the issues raised. Since social security is transferred in Northern Ireland, questions 99735 and 99736 are matters for the Executive.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on the independent review of Carer's Allowance overpayments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Independent Review into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance linked to earnings covered England and Wales. In view of the principle of parity with DWP in matters of social security, I informed the Minister for Communities of the Review’s findings and the Government’s response to them, and officials from the two Departments are in discussion on the issues raised. Since social security is transferred in Northern Ireland, questions 99735 and 99736 are matters for the Executive.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to publish a further equalities impact assessment of the Child Poverty Strategy, which will include the potential impact of the strategy on groups at highest risk of poverty.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A full summary Equalities Analysis was published alongside the Strategy and is available at: Child Poverty Strategy: Summary Equalities Analysis - GOV.UK.
The impacts of policies contributing to the Child Poverty Strategy will be kept under review and monitored on an ongoing basis by departments using their own established approaches to considerations made under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
The ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation of the Child Poverty Strategy will also continue to assess the poverty risk and prevalence for groups with protected characteristics, as far as the data and evidence gathering allow. The Monitoring and Evaluation framework published alongside the Strategy set out that a baseline report will be published in Summer 2026, with annual reporting on progress thereafter.
As set out in our Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, we will continue to work closely with the devolved governments to complement existing monitoring and evaluation activity, and consider how best to feed in their own findings to track progress at both the local and national level, particularly where powers are devolved.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including targets and milestones for reducing child poverty in legislation.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monitoring and Evaluation framework published alongside the Strategy set out that a baseline report will be published in Summer 2026 with annual reporting on progress thereafter and Government already has a statutory duty to publish poverty statistics annually. We have put these clear reporting arrangements in place so that the progress we make is transparent for all.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking with cabinet colleagues to support young disabled people with complex needs into work.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is taking action to help young disabled people and young people with complex health needs move towards work. This is a diverse group, so it is key that the individual gets access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, for them.
The Youth Guarantee and Pathways to Work will guarantee specialist support for young people with long-term health conditions and disabled young people.
We have announced an £820 million funding package for the Youth Guarantee to overhaul support and give a generation of young people a brighter future. Over the next three years:
Through Pathways to Work we are building towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits. This will be the biggest investment in support for disabled people and those with health conditions in at least a generation. We anticipate that, once fully rolled out, the Pathways to Work Guarantee will offer a comprehensive range of support including: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support.
Youth Guarantee and Pathways to Work will build on the range of support available to disabled people and people with health conditions, regardless of their benefit status or Work Group. For example, Connect to Work a supported employment programme that joins up work skills and health support, and Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies, which combine the expertise of therapists and employment advisers to give those with mental health conditions the support they need to find work tailored to them. Additionally, disabled people and people with health conditions might be able to access WorkWell, which is our new way to deliver integrated work and health support through local partnerships.
Finally, we are considering how we might go even further. The Right Honourable Alan Milburn will lead on an investigation of the rise in youth inactivity with a particular focus on the impact of mental health conditions and disability. Reporting in Summer 2026.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support more young people into work.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is investing in young people’s futures. At the Budget, we announced more than £1.5 billion of investment over the next three years, funding £820 million for the Youth Guarantee to support young people to earn or learn, and an additional £725 million for the Growth and Skills Levy.
Through the expanded Youth Guarantee, young people aged 16-24 across Great Britain are set to benefit from further support into employment and learning, including:
Growth and Skills Levy’s £725 million package of reforms includes a change to fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible people aged under 25, and £140 million pilot of new approaches to better connect young people aged 16-24, especially those who are NEET, to local apprenticeship opportunities. These are important steps in the government’s ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships, which will also be supported by expanding foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people.
In Northern Ireland, all DWP policy areas are transferred (apart from the private pensions regulatory regime), including employment support. This is the responsibility of the Department for Communities.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support young disabled people who cannot work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
For a small minority of young people, work is not a realistic goal. However, for most disabled young people and young people with a health condition, given the right support, working at some point in the near future is a credible ambition. We know amongst people on health-related benefits those under 25 are significantly more likely to think they could work now if the right job and support was available.
We are delivering the biggest employment support package for disabled people and people with health conditions in more than a generation. Backed by £1 billion a year of new, and additional funding by 2030, we will build towards a guarantee of personalised work, health and skills support to improve returns to work and prevent economic inactivity, as part of rebalancing spending towards work over welfare.
This includes an extra £300 million on top of that announced at the Spring Statement, enabling us to go further and faster on our new planned investment in work, health and skills support offers, building on and learning from successes such as the Connect to Work programme, which is being rolled out over 2025 to provide disabled people and people with health conditions with one-to-one support at the point when they feel ready to work.
Support is also available through the Access to Work scheme - a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in employment.
A young disabled person may also be eligible for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which provides a contribution towards the extra costs that may arise from a long-term disability or health condition. PIP is non-contributory, non-means-tested, available regardless of whether the recipient is in work or not and can be worth up to £9,747.40 a year, tax free. PIP can also be paid in addition to any other financial or practical support someone may be entitled to such as Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, NHS services, free prescriptions, and help with travel costs to appointments.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will consider leading a workforce strategy for the advice sector to support the aims of the Get Britain Working white paper.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work coaches refer to the National Careers Service (in England) for high-quality, careers information, advice and guidance which is essential to help people make informed decisions about their futures. For the future Jobs and Careers Service, we will ensure advisers have a robust understanding of job roles, pathways and skills required, so support is tailored to individual needs, including for those seeking careers in the advice sector.
The Get Britain Working White Paper outlined plans for the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, bringing together skills and health to get more people both into work and to get on in work.
We remain focussed on delivering our Get Britain Working strategy by supporting people into good quality work, enhancing earnings, and developing a skilled workforce for key sectors.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of levels of employment in the (a) software and (b) computer industries.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the levels of employment in (a) software and (b) computer industries.
However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) does publish employment by industry which includes the Information & Communication industrial sector here: EMP13: Employment by industry - Office for National Statistics and EMP14: Employees and self-employed by industry - Office for National Statistics.
The ONS also publishes employment estimates from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information by industry here: Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted - Office for National Statistics.