Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support people with (a) disabilities and (b) long-term health conditions into work.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A range of Government initiatives are supporting disabled people, and people with health conditions, including those with long-term health conditions, to start, stay, and succeed in work. These include:
To tackle rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, we announced a wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. New investment will provide faster access to joined-up work and health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long term sickness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his department is taking to improve the speed of processing Disability Living Allowance decisions for children.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are currently experiencing higher than forecast demand for claims to Disability Living Allowance. We have already increased resources and have on-going recruitment to increase this further, which will speed up clearance times moving forward.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial support is available for people suffering from cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A range of benefits are available to provide support for those with health conditions and disabilities, including Cystic Fibrosis, that impact a person's ability to undertake daily activities or impact their functional capability for work.
People on low, or no, income or earnings, who have a health condition or disability which restricts the amount of work they can do or prevents them from working altogether, and where they meet the entitlement criteria, can claim UC and/or NS ESA with a valid fit note from a clinician. Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, and Disability Living Allowance for Children, are not means-tested and provide financial support arising from the extra costs of having a health condition or disability.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living this winter and is taking action to help. The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, paid over six months starting in October 2022.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments, subject to parliamentary approval. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to pensioner households, on top of their Winter Fuel Payments, and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the Energy Price Guarantee will be extended from April 2023 until the end of March 2024. Over this period the Energy Price Guarantee will bring a typical household bill to around £3,000 per year in Great Britain.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to provide further financial support to Kinship Carers to help with the cost of living.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing, with the cost of living. That is why the Government introduced a £37 billion Cost of Living support package, which ensures that the most vulnerable households will receive at least £1,200 this year.
The £650 Cost of Living Payment, split into two payments for those on means-tested benefits, is one of a number of measures included in the Government’s support package. To be eligible for a Cost of Living Payment, claimants must have received a payment (or later receive a payment) of one of the qualifying means-tested benefits during the eligibility period. The eligibility period for the second £324 payment is 26 August to the 25 September 2022.
Depending on personal circumstances, kinship carers may be eligible for means-tested benefits, including Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit.
In addition, a non-repayable £400 discount on energy bills is available for all domestic electricity customers in Great Britain and earlier this year, a £150 non-repayable rebate in Council Tax bills benefited all households in Bands A-D in England.
To find out more about the Government’s cost of living support, visit: Cost of Living Payment - GOV.UK
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help support people with special educational needs to get into the workplace.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government is committed to supporting claimants with special educational needs move closer to the labour market or into work.
Our new Local Supported Employment (LSE) service aims to help people with learning difficulties and/or autism to find and retain work. It uses the “place then train model” providing individuals with intensive one-to-one support to succeed with an employer. We are working with 29 local authorities across England and Wales to deliver LSE up until March 2025. The aim of LSE is to develop a sustainable model for delivering Supported Employment that can help increase the number of supported jobs delivered by local authorities.
Supported Internships are aimed at helping young people with a learning disability and/or autism who have an Education, Health and Care Plan to gain the work experience they need to move on to employment. Supported Internships usually last for 12 months. Support from a specialist job coach and other costs may be funded through Access to Work if necessary. Whilst the Department for Education lead on Supported Internships, the Department for Work and Pensions provides support through the Access to Work funding.
Additional Work Coach support for health journey claimants is a new Work Coach led support offer, which aims to help more disabled people and claimants with a health condition into, and towards, work. This trial of additional Work Coach support is initially available across a third of Jobcentres in England, Scotland and Wales, with plans for the support to be rolled out to claimants in other areas from 2023. Our Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) role delivers direct support to claimants who require additional work-related support and advice above our core Work Coach offer. DEAs continue to support all Work Coaches to deliver tailored, personalised support to all claimants with a disability or health condition.
People in particular disadvantaged groups continue to benefit from support through the increased Flexible Support Fund and priority early access to the Work and Health Programme. Intensive Personalised Employment Support provision provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people who want to work but have complex needs or barriers and require specialist support to achieve sustained employment. Access to Work is a demand-led discretionary grant scheme that provides funding for the extra disability-related costs people have when starting work, or maintaining employment. It can also support disabled people on an apprenticeship, traineeship, or Supported Internship.
We are working with employers to encourage them to become Disability Confident. The Disability Confident scheme encourages employers to think differently about disability and health and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to provide women affected by changes to State Pension age with compensation.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation into communication of changes to women’s state pension is ongoing. Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
It would be inappropriate to comment on these issues whilst the investigation is ongoing.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to provide additional financial support to people receiving end of life care in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government wants to do all it can to alleviate the pressures on those nearing the end of their lives, and on their families
The main way that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does this is through special benefit rules, sometimes referred to as “the Special Rules”. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. For many years, the Special Rules have applied to people who have 6 months or less to live and now they are being changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.
These changes are well underway. From 4 April 2022, the Government changed the eligibility for the Special Rules in Universal Credit (UC) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The Social Security (Special Rules for End of Life) Bill, currently being debated in Parliament, aims to make similar changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA)
Once the change has been fully rolled out across all benefits, each year, between 30,000 and 60,000 people may benefit from these changes to the Special Rules. This will mean that the Government is spending approximately £115 million a year more on people who are nearing the end of their lives.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on supporting young people into high-skilled jobs in Ashfield.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has a variety of provision to support people of all ages into job opportunities in a range of roles and sectors, including into high-skilled roles. Individual Work Coaches will work with claimants to understand their skills, experience and interests as they support them to find work.
For young people specifically, the DWP Youth Offer provides wrap-around support to those aged 18-24 who are in the intensive work search regime of Universal Credit. It was introduced as part of the wider UK Government Plan for Jobs package.
Throughout the programme, every young person is encouraged to take part in a wide range of work-based opportunities. Work coaches will identify and promote the most appropriate provision for the young person, including Kickstart, Sector-based Work Academy Programmes, traineeships, work experience, Mentoring Circles, or apprenticeships. Young people can be referred to a Youth Hub to address skills gaps, or a Youth Employability Coach if there are key barriers or complex needs preventing them from finding or keeping employment.
The Ashfield area feeds into the wider travel to work areas of Mansfield and Nottingham, with numerous opportunities for young people to access high level construction jobs, for example with green energy employer Cobalt Energy Free. There is access to highly paid and skilled careers within the rail industry through Trackworks, and there are local opportunities for funding through DWP’s Flexible Support Fund, for example LVG/HGV licences into the logistics sector.
The D2N2 (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) Local Enterprise Partnership has supported the local skills offer through Local Growth Fund investments in skills facilities, including a £0.67m contribution to the establishment of an Automation and Robotics Training Centre at the West Nottinghamshire College Sutton-in-Ashfield campus. They also offer digital boot camps, providing support in Coding & Software development, Cyber & System Security, Digital Marketing and IT, Networking and Infrastructure.
The D2N2 Skills Access Hub aims to be a ‘one stop shop’ for local businesses wishing to close skills gaps through training, recruitment, apprenticeships and placements, activities that can all help support young people into higher skill jobs. West Nottinghamshire College (whose campus extends across the Ashfield and Mansfield area) is a partner in the Access Hub.
In addition to this, the DWP Youth Hub in Nottingham is delivered in partnership with DBC Training and local employers who regularly visit the hub. The Youth Hub is accessible to all surrounding jobcentres to give young people access to skills, training and employment support, and connects them with the D2N2 Skills Access Hub to deliver opportunities to develop their careers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 the potential effectiveness of the Plan For Jobs in supporting people into work in Ashfield.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes to people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include Kickstart where we have delivered tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment, and; Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people. We have also recruited an additional 13,500 Work Coaches to provide support to unemployed people to find a job.
We continue to ensure that provision is available to support people to move into and progress in jobs in local growing sectors.
This includes Ashfield where the Jobcentre has been working with employers from the transport and distribution sectors delivering Sector Work based Academy Programmes, in the wider East Midlands Kickstart has provided 13,040 job opportunities for young people aged 18-24.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department is making on ensuring that eligible pensioners receive their state pension on time.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP is aware that a small number of new State Pension claims have been subject to delays in receiving payment.
The Department is working hard to clear the current backlog, many of which have accrued since the Covid Pandemic.
We are prioritising overdue payments and payments that are imminent within the next few weeks. Normal service will be resumed by the end of October 2021.
Claimants don’t need to act, we have identified the cases and will process them as soon as possible.