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Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Poverty
Tuesday 17th December 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extending access to benefits for families with children who have no recourse to public funds on levels of child poverty.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In developing a Child Poverty Strategy, the Child Poverty Taskforce is considering all children across the United Kingdom. We recognise the distinct challenges of poverty faced by migrant children. The causes of child poverty are deep-rooted, with solutions that go beyond government, and the Taskforce is exploring all available levers in response.

The Home Office sets the immigration rules and grants immigration leave to individuals which allows them to live and work in the UK. DWP cannot pay public funds benefits to individuals where the Home Office has applied a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition to their immigration status.


Written Question
Poverty: Children
Monday 16th December 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress the Child Poverty Taskforce has made on developing strategies to help reduce child poverty.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Tackling the terrible state of child poverty in this country is our priority every day and the Taskforce is looking at every lever we can pull across Government to do this.

The Taskforce has already heard from charities, experts and families and will publish its strategy in the Spring.


Written Question
Supported Housing: Housing Benefit
Wednesday 16th October 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the taper rate for housing benefit on young people in supported housing.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health.

Notwithstanding these positive outcomes from work, the Department acknowledges there is a challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those residing in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation and receiving their housing support through Housing Benefit and will consider the issue carefully in partnership with stakeholders.


Written Question
Maternity Pay: Multiple Births
Tuesday 15th October 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of maternity pay for mothers of (a) twins and (b) other multiples.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Maternity pay is primarily a health and safety provisions for pregnant working women. It is not intended to replace a woman's earnings completely, rather it provides a measure of financial security to help pregnant working women take time off work in the later stages of their pregnancy and in the months following childbirth.

We want new mothers to be able to take time away from work. Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance rates are reviewed annually and were raised again by 6.7% in April from £172.48 to £184.03.

Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance are not paid in respect of each child but in respect of each pregnancy. The qualifying conditions for both are generally based on a woman's recent employment and earnings. They are not intended to assist with the costs associated with the birth of a new child or children.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Lone Parents
Monday 14th October 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of Gingerbread’s report entitled They are sanctioning the children, published on 16 September 2024.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Poverty Taskforce will explore how we can harness all available levers to reduce child poverty, including by listening to stakeholders on potential changes, before publishing a strategy in Spring 2025.

Additionally, the Government is committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of households that are (a) affected by the two-child limit and (b) living in poverty.

Answered by Jo Churchill

The latest available statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children are published here: Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

National statistics on the number and percentage of people in poverty, including regional-level data, is published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. This can be found here. The most recent figures state that in the year 2021/22 there were 11.4 million people living in a household below the absolute poverty threshold after housing costs. This represents a decrease of 1.7 million people since 2009/10.


Written Question
Household Support Fund
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

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 ending the Household Support Fund on low-income households.

Answered by Jo Churchill

No such assessment has been made.


Written Question
Cost of Living Payments: Disability
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to provide a Disability Cost of Living Payment during winter 2022-23.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

A Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 was paid to eligible claimants in September 2022. A second Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 was then paid in June 2023. 85% of claimants were also entitled to either £300 Pension Cost of Living Payments and up to £900 means tested benefit Cost of Living Payments.

Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee was extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, meaning a typical household bill will be around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.


Written Question
Attendance Allowance
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to ensure that attendance allowance forms can be submitted electronically.

Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

Attendance Allowance is currently in the private beta phase of development, where DWP are inviting a limited number of people to use the online claim service, so feedback can be gathered to improve the service. We will look to move from trialling to public beta in due course.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who are not claiming benefits to which they are entitled.

Answered by Guy Opperman

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 5616.