Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that disabled entrepreneurs who have used the Access to Work scheme in (a) 2020 and (b) 2019 are not negatively affected by plans to use evidence of business viability and turnover to determine whether this support is renewed.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to Work has put in place measures to support disabled people who are working from home or are continuing to work during the Covid-19 outbreak. These measures include disabled people who are self-employed and have seen impacts on their business, meaning that for the tax year 2020/2021 the lower earnings limit will be waived due to the impacts of Covid-19.
Background
Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant to de-risk the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers. The grant contributes to the disability related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition that are beyond reasonable adjustment, but it does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments. The grant provides personalised support and can provide workplace assessments, travel to/in work, support workers, specialist aids and equipment for individuals to enable disabled people and those with a health condition to move into or retain employment. And can fund up to £60,700 worth of flexible, personalised support per person per year.
Access to Work provides assurance for disabled people that they can access the support they need to overcome their barriers to employment. Knowing that support is available empowers disabled people, it provides confidence for both the disabled person and potential employers and works to remove any disadvantage in the labour market.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's 2017 Green Paper entitled Improving Lives, what research she has commissioned on potential new policies to support disabled people in employment; and when the conclusions of that research are planned for publication.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A range of research and evaluations have been commissioned to explore the commitments made in Improving Lives. This includes:
The following reports have been published on gov.uk:
Publication dates are not confirmed for the remainder of commissioned projects.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2020 to Question 93723 on Pension Credit, what the comparative rate of successful applications was (a) during the course of the Pension Credit awareness raising campaign and (b) in 2019.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2020 to Question 93723, what comparative assessment she has made of the rate of successful applications for pension credit made through the (a) new online application service and (b) telephone service.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will review the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 to strengthen the provisions protecting mental health within existing legislation and enshrine parity of esteem for mental health in law.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to my previous response to question 53549.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) pension credit claims and (b) successful pension credit claims there were in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of Pension Credit Claims Received in the last 12 months is shown in table below.
We do not hold the information requested in part (b) of your question.
| Aug-19 | Sep-19 | Oct-19 | Nov-19 | Dec-19 | Jan-20 | Feb-20 | Mar-20 | Apr-20 | May-20 | Jun-20 | Jul-20 |
Pension Credit Claims Received | 7487 | 7873 | 10645 | 8318 | 6615 | 8540 | 9574 | 12557 | 9567 | 8613 | 9004 | 17087 |
Source: DWP internal data
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to remove barriers to disabled people returning to work after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Recognising the challenges Covid-19 may present, DWP has introduced a number of measures to support disabled people whether they are working from home, or returning to work at their workplaces.
The Access to Work offers disabled people practical in-work support above the level of statutory reasonable adjustments, including a discretionary grant of up to £60,700 per year. The scheme’s new Blended Offer complements support provided by employers and contains a flexible mix of support, including support to work from more than one location, a package of home working support which can be blended with workplace support, mental health support for people returning to work after a period of furlough or shielding, travel-to-work support where the individual’s disability means social distancing on public transport is too risky and the prioritisation of applications from disabled people in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Group.
During the pandemic Access to Work introduced a number of measures to enable disabled people to move into or retain employment, the measures included:
Disabled people who have lost their job and require more intensive employment support still have access to both the Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support. Providers are making use of digital channels to provide one to one support, including regular health and wellbeing conversations with our most vulnerable claimants.
In addition, Disability Confident provides employers with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Government plans to publish its National Strategy for Disabled People.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Due to Covid 19 impacts, a slower timetable for publication of the National Strategy for Disabled People is inevitable. This is to ensure that we are able to meaningfully engage with stakeholders and strengthen our evidence base to deliver the ambitious strategy that the Prime Minister has called for. We are aiming to publish in Spring 2021.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 merits of increasing the level of the state pension as a result of the financial difficulties faced by pensioners during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government remains committed to providing dignity and security in retirement to all pensioners. In April 2020, full amounts of the basic and new State Pensions increased by 3.9%, in line with average earnings growth. This was the highest increase since 2012.
The full yearly amount of the basic State Pension is worth around £700 more in 2020/21 than if it had been uprated by earnings since 2010. That is over £1,900 in cash terms.
Pension Credit provides a safety net for people of State Pension age most in need. It provides a top up for people with a weekly income below £173.75 (for single people) or £265.20 (for couples). On 6th May we introduced an online claim process for Pension Credit in addition to the existing ways of claiming by telephone and by post, making it quicker and easier for people to apply.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 claiming universal credit since the start of the covid-19 outbreak will receive the child element of that benefit.
Answered by Will Quince
Between March 16th and March 29th, 180,000 open claims (26% of open claims) received the Child Element in their first assessment period.