Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
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 impact of late payments through the Access to Work scheme on the ability of scheme users to book British Sign Language interpreters.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Access to Work customers have 9 months to submit their request for payment, once costs have been incurred. Access to Work aim for customers to be paid within 10 days of receipt of claims and all supporting evidence.
Following postal delays during July and August 2021, we are seeing payment clearance times return to normal. We are not aware of any systemic issues with users of the scheme being able to book Sign Language Interpreters.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to make occupational hearing loss reportable under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) are made under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and apply to all sectors and workplaces in Great Britain.
The 2013 regulations clarified and simplified the list of reportable ill-health conditions (occupational diseases), as a result of a recommendation made by Professor Löfstedt in his report “Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety (legislation,” published in 2011.
HSE keeps the regulations, including the specified injuries and reportable diseases under review. The list of current reportable occupational diseases will be considered as part of the next formal post-implementation review of RIDDOR, which is due to report in 2023. Reporting of occupational noise induced hearing loss will be considered as part of this.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to record the effect of occupational hearing loss nationally.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no plans to record the effect of occupational hearing loss nationally.
HSE publishes information recorded by other agencies about occupational hearing loss in relation to Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) and the Labour Force Survey, available from the statistics section of HSE’s website (https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/deafness/index.htm and https://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/statistics.htm).
HSE also sponsors the THOR-GP project, a programme of research into the wider incidence of occupational disease being undertaken at the University of Manchester, which includes occupational hearing loss (http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/epidemiology/COEH/research/thorgp/).
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the scholarship programme for universal credit claimants announced on 26 May 2021 in partnership with Google, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that the (a) courses, (b) application process and (c) communications for that programme are accessible to blind and partially sighted people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Google has partnered with DWP to offer free flexible online IT training for 9,000 jobseekers across the UK, developed by Google. Through the DWP National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT), jobseekers will have access to Google IT Certificates which focuses on IT Support, Data Analyst, Project Manager and UX Designer ensuring that the labour market of tomorrow stands a better chance of getting that job. These certificates are recognised by industry experts and employers.
All of the course content and registration form is hosted on the Coursera platform. Coursera is committed to ensuring that learners with visual and hearing impairments, as well as other disabilities, are able to succeed in their courses. Coursera strives to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.1 AA published by World Wide Web Consortium. All of the course content should be compatible with these screen readers:
DWP work coaches have access to communications about the programme which they can tailor depending on each customers circumstances. Where customers need additional support, their work coach can explain the courses to them and are able to complete the registration on their behalf. In addition, Coursera support DWP work coach queries through a dedicated email address and 24/7 support to participants through email, online discussion forums, live chat and accessibility support tickets.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2021 to Question 146856, on Disability Employment Advisors, by how much she plans to increase the number of disability employment advisers during the financial year 2021-22.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DWP aims to increase the number of Disability Employment Advisers during the 21/22 financial year. We are currently working through the planning process and will make an announcement once this has been completed.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2021 to Question 133801 on Disability Employment Advisors, how many disability employment advisors were employed in 2019-20; and what estimate she has made of the number who will be in employment by the end of the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
During the 19/20 financial year, DWP employed approximately 685 Disability Employment Advisers across England, Scotland and Wales. DWP aims to increase this number during the 21/22 financial year.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2021 to Question 133802 on Kickstart Scheme: Disability, what plans she has to record the main disability of participants by type of disability; and whether deafness will be one of the types of disability recorded.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Universal Credit system collects data on claimants disabilities but as this is voluntary we do not currently record specific type of disability or health condition of Kickstart participants. While we do plan to evaluate the experiences of disabled people participating in Kickstart, it will not be possible to quantify specific types of disability owing to the small sample sizes involved.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many young people have (a) applied for and (b) started a Kickstart scheme placement in (i) Nottingham, (ii) East Midlands and (iii) the UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Eligible young people are referred to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme by their Work Coach. The Work Coach will work with the young person to find Kickstart jobs that might be a good fit, and they will be able apply for the position.
As of 15/01/21, there has been 6368 applications with potential of hundreds of thousands of roles and 1868 new starts in the UK. We are not yet able to break starts data down below regional level.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to increase the number of disability employment advisors.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Disability Employment Advisers are an integral part of our services and we remain absolutely committed to supporting disabled people, including ensuring access to Disability Employment Advisers. We are planning to increase resourcing levels of Disability Employment Advisers during 21/22. Alongside this we are doubling the number of Work Coaches who provide support to all claimants including those who are disabled, and continue to provide support for disabled people through the Work and Health Programme and Access to Work.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many disabled young people have (a) applied to the Kickstart scheme and (b) started a placement under that scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ114936.