Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs have been created by the Kickstart programme in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
So far applications from Gateways and employers covering 32,113 jobs have been approved.
We are currently finalising our MI data at a local level and we will be able to provide further information such as regional figures early in the new year.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the value for money of the system for paying housing benefit to providers of exempt accommodation.
Answered by Will Quince
No such assessment has been made.
We are working with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to improve value for money and quality in the supported housing sector through our joint oversight regime. An important step in this programme was the launch of Local Authority pilots in Birmingham and four other areas, to test innovative ways of ensuring good quality and value for money in supported housing, including exempt accommodation.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to section 2.9 of of the Spending Review 2020, if she publish the value of the average job subsidy in the Restart programme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The chancellor announced at Spending Review £2.9bn for three years of referrals to Restart. Restart will provide intensive, tailored employment support to help over 1 million people back towards sustained employment.
There will be no job subsidies paid as part of the Restart programme. Further detail on the scheme will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when legal approval will be granted to the Federation of Small Businesses and Adecco to enable participation in the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We are aware that the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has teamed up with Adecco Working Ventures to act as a Gateway organisation for the Kickstart Scheme, we look forward to receiving their bid.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in the Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates.
I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as of August 2019.
In the Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency, since 2012, approximately 6,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1,360 employers have met their duties.
Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have died in the last 12 months after having been assessed by her Department as fit for work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have received (a) multiple and (b) no assessments from her Department in the last two years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested on multiple or no assessments is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether employees of the Health Assessment Advisory Service receive a monetary bonus for each claimant they find fit for work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Assessment Providers do not decide the outcome of a claim to benefit. They provide a report to the department’s decision makers who then determine entitlement to benefit. Employees of the Health Assessment Advisory Service do not have incentives or targets linked to the outcome of benefit entitlement decisions.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons her Department took the decision to undertake an internal review into the handling of the case of Stephen Smith in private after his death having been found by her Department as fit for work.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Internal Process Reviews (IPR) were established as an internal continuous improvement tool and take place when it is considered that objective scrutiny would be beneficial. Its purpose is to examine DWP processes and how they were followed. If appropriate they can also identify recommendations for changes. IPRs contain sensitive personal information and are not suitable for disclosure in the public domain.