Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Josh Dean and Andrew Western(1 month ago)
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Josh Dean (Hertford and Stortford) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)
My hon. Friend has made an important point. The Child Maintenance Service is committed to ensuring that separated parents support their children financially, and to ensuring that the assessment reflects the parents’ true income. I am not familiar with the specifics of the case that my hon. Friend has raised, but my general view is that while enforcement powers are adequate, case complexity is often the challenge when it comes to proving where money is owed. If my hon. Friend wants to write to me about that specific case, I would be happy to look into it further on his behalf.
Milburn Review: Interim Report
Debate between Josh Dean and Andrew Western(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Andrew Western
I am due to meet the new employment spokesperson for the Welsh Government as the devolution lead for the Department, and I will be very interested to hear their ideas. This needs to be a partnership moving forward, and if sensible and credible solutions come forward from that Administration, I will look to work with them to deliver those.
Josh Dean (Hertford and Stortford) (Lab)
We must not forget that hundreds of thousands of NEET young people are disconnected from traditional employment support, and hidden from the system entirely as a result. With youth workers and trusted adult relationships offering the missing link to help identify and bridge those young people into support, how will we put those relationships at the heart of the systems change that is needed to meet that challenge?
Andrew Western
My hon. Friend raises an important point, which has not been made so far today, about young people who slip through the net because they are perhaps living with their parents or not claiming—as he described, they are “hidden” NEETs. We are looking across the piece, and particularly talking with the Department for Education about interventions we can bring forward, and I will update him as soon as I can.