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 the average number of days was between a final warning being issued to a benefit claimant and that claimant's payments being stopped in each year from 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
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 claimants assessed as vulnerable had their benefit payments stopped in each year from 2010 to 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not available.
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 steps she plans to take to tackle food poverty in Nottingham South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The government is committed to delivering a sustainable long-term solution to poverty in all its forms and in all parts of the UK by building a strong economy and ensuring that the benefit system works with the tax system and the labour market to support employment and higher pay.
The evidence shows that full time work substantially reduces the risk of being in poverty. Universal Credit is designed to help people move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings, provides more financial help with childcare costs and removes the 16-hour ‘cliff edge’ for those who are working. To help families keep more of what they earn we have delivered another rise in the National Living Wage, increasing a full-time worker’s annual pay by over £2,750 since its introduction, and by nearly £3,700 with the recently announced rise from this April, with our tax changes making basic rate tax payers over £1,200 better off from April 2019, compared with 2010.
In order to develop a better understanding of the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk we have introduced a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey questionnaire from April 2019 onwards. This will enable us in the future to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups.
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 and what proportion of children in Nottingham South constituency living in (a) poverty and (b) absolute poverty have (i) one household member in full-time employment, (ii) two household members in full-time employment, (iii) one household member in part-time employment, (iv) two household members in part-time employment and (v) no household members in employment in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Will Quince
National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the percentage of children in low income households is not available at constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the East Midlands region can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718, “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in tables 4.16ts and 4.17ts (for relative low income, before and after housing costs) and 4.22ts and 4.23ts (for absolute low income, before and after housing costs).
The statistics are only available for all children and cannot be broken down into the categories requested because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates.
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 children lived in (a) poverty and (b) extreme poverty in Nottingham in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Will Quince
National Statistics on the number of children in low income households are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the number of children in low income households is not available at combined Local Authority level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the East Midlands region can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718, “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in tables 4.17ts (for relative low income, before and after housing costs) and 4.23ts (for absolute low income, before and after housing costs).
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 criteria the Department provides to its partners to assess non-physical disabilities for clients applying for personal independence payment and disability living allowance.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process is designed to treat all claimants fairly and with respect. A core tenet of its design is the principle of equivalence between physical and non-physical conditions in order to accurately determine the level of support a person needs.
Health professionals carrying out the assessments have training in multiple and complex conditions such as autism, mental health conditions and learning disabilities.
In addition, the Assessment Providers have Mental Health Champions who are experienced professionals with direct and relevant work experience of helping patients with mental health conditions.
Detailed information of PIP assessment processes and how claimants with mental health conditions are assessed for PIP can be found in the PIP Assessment Guide:
Personal Independence Payment assessment guide for assessment providers - GOV.UK
The proportion of PIP recipients with a mental health condition getting the top rates of support is over five times higher compared to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Child DLA is a benefit for children under the age of 16 who, due to a disability or health condition, have mobility issues and/or require substantially more care, attention & supervision than children their age normally would. Child DLA comprises a Care component and a Mobility component; either or both can be claimed, depending on the child’s overall needs and age.
Parents or guardians complete a claim form which requests detailed information about the child and the form is considered by a case manager alongside other evidence such as reports’ from the child’s General Practitioner (GP), consultant and/or school.
Case Managers have access to comprehensive medical guidance and advice from qualified Medical Advisers based at the Child DLA centre. In the vast majority of cases no face to face assessment is required.
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 her Department has a target timescale for hearing appeals against its decisions on the eligibility of people for universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department has no targets for processing a mandatory reconsideration. Our focus is on ensuring the decision is correct. The time necessary to do this can depend on the circumstances of the case.
The Department does not administer appeals, which is the responsibility of HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
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 her Department has a target timescale for processing the mandatory reconsiderations of its decisions on the eligibility of people for universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department has no targets for processing a mandatory reconsideration. Our focus is on ensuring the decision is correct. The time necessary to do this can depend on the circumstances of the case.
The Department does not administer appeals, which is the responsibility of HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
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 targets her Department has for moving claimants onto jobseeker's allowance from other allowances and benefits.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
There are no Departmental targets for moving people onto Jobseeker’s Allowance from other allowances and benefits. Every benefit claim is considered on its merits, and decisions are made based on the available evidence and the legislation according to which such decisions are made.
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 steps her Department undertakes to ensure the applicants for personal independence payment and disability living allowance are assessed by accredited healthcare professionals for their specific disability or impairment.
Answered by Sarah Newton
PIP assessments focus on what impact a disability or impairment has on a claimant’s ability to carry out day to day tasks and activities. Therefore, DWP does not require Health Professionals to be specialists in specific conditions or impairments. They are expected to have a broad knowledge of different medical conditions and work with claimants to assess how these affect their daily life.
Health Professionals carrying out PIP assessments have access to training such as evidence based protocols, e-learning modules or case studies as well as keeping knowledge up to date through Continuous Professional Development.
All Health Professionals must have at least 2 years post full-registration experience.
There is no requirement for applicants for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to undergo a face to face assessment with a healthcare professional.