Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance contributions on how qualifying years for pension entitlement would be (a) calculated and (b) accounted.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of tax credit claimants that have closed a claim rather than migrate to Universal Credit in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information and can be found in Table 2 here: Completing the move to Universal Credit: Statistics related to the move of households claiming TaxCredits and DWP Benefits to Universal Credit: data to end of December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and in Annex A: Completing the move to Universal Credit: Learning from the Discovery Phase - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Universal Credit claimants have received a budgeting advance in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Table 1 below provides the number and proportion of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance in each of the last three years.
Year | Number of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance | Proportion of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance |
Dec 2020 - Nov 2021 | 1,045,000 | 18% |
Dec 2021 - Nov 2022 | 1,026,000 | 18% |
Dec 2022 - Nov 2023 | 1,092,000 | 18% |
Notes:
1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.
2. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
3. Data up to November 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraphs 7.16 and 7.17 of the Ministerial Code, on how many occasions Ministers in his Department have informed the Law Officers that they are the defendants in a libel action in (a) their personal capacity, (b) their official position and (c) both since 19 December 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are unable to provide the information requested. As reflected in paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code, ‘The fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside Government without their authority’.
The Law Officers’ Convention, reflected in paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code, is a long-standing convention observed by successive governments. It exists to preserve the ability of ministers to seek the advice of the Law Officers and not to be disadvantaged by disclosing when they have done so, and what advice they received.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the increase in the maximum repayment period on new budgeting advance loans starts is scheduled for December 2024.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit is an iterative system and all changes to the system are carefully planned and scheduled.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's spend on the youth offer was in the last financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department of Work and Pensions Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.
Previously, the Youth Offer was only available for those searching for work. As of the 25 September 2023, this been expanded to include to include additional young people on Universal Credit not currently searching for work, including young parents and carers.
The information regarding the Department’s total spend on the Youth Offer is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The information regarding the Department’s spend on grants to support the opening and operation of Youth Hubs in each financial year since they were launched is not held.
The indicative Youth Hub Work Coach costs for the previous three financial years are:
2020/2021 - £1.1m
2021/2022 - £5.4m
2022/2023 - £4.8m
NB:
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times (a) the Secretary of State and (b) each Minister in his Department has visited a (i) Government Hub and (ii) ministerial office outside of London in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care workers were recruited through the Made with Care recruitment campaign in each of the two years that that campaign has run.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Due to the fragmented nature of the adult social care sector, with almost 18,000 employers, and no centralised operational recruitment data tracking, it is not possible to assess the number of new adult social care workers recruited through campaign activity. However, to mitigate this, the campaign’s measurable impacts are gathered in post-wave tracking research and website data.
This found that the 2021/22 phase of the campaign met all its key performance indicators, including, increased awareness of the availability of local roles, awareness that specific qualifications are not needed for entry-level roles, increased intention to apply, which is measured by the number of people who claim that ‘an adult social care role could be right for me’ and 177.5k new users visited the campaign website and 61.9% (110.1k) of these went on to search for a job in adult social care in their local area.
The 2022/23 post campaign tracking analysis has not yet concluded, but early performance indicators show an improvement year-on-year including significant increases in the number of new users to the website (273.3k) and job searches (151.5k).
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the key performance indicators were of the Made with Care recruitment campaign in each of the two years that the campaign has run.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Due to the fragmented nature of the adult social care sector, with almost 18,000 employers, and no centralised operational recruitment data tracking, it is not possible to assess the number of new adult social care workers recruited through campaign activity. However, to mitigate this, the campaign’s measurable impacts are gathered in post-wave tracking research and website data.
This found that the 2021/22 phase of the campaign met all its key performance indicators, including, increased awareness of the availability of local roles, awareness that specific qualifications are not needed for entry-level roles, increased intention to apply, which is measured by the number of people who claim that ‘an adult social care role could be right for me’ and 177.5k new users visited the campaign website and 61.9% (110.1k) of these went on to search for a job in adult social care in their local area.
The 2022/23 post campaign tracking analysis has not yet concluded, but early performance indicators show an improvement year-on-year including significant increases in the number of new users to the website (273.3k) and job searches (151.5k).
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the measurable impacts were of the Made with Care recruitment campaign in each of the two years that that campaign has run.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Due to the fragmented nature of the adult social care sector, with almost 18,000 employers, and no centralised operational recruitment data tracking, it is not possible to assess the number of new adult social care workers recruited through campaign activity. However, to mitigate this, the campaign’s measurable impacts are gathered in post-wave tracking research and website data.
This found that the 2021/22 phase of the campaign met all its key performance indicators, including, increased awareness of the availability of local roles, awareness that specific qualifications are not needed for entry-level roles, increased intention to apply, which is measured by the number of people who claim that ‘an adult social care role could be right for me’ and 177.5k new users visited the campaign website and 61.9% (110.1k) of these went on to search for a job in adult social care in their local area.
The 2022/23 post campaign tracking analysis has not yet concluded, but early performance indicators show an improvement year-on-year including significant increases in the number of new users to the website (273.3k) and job searches (151.5k).