Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's paper entitled Proposal for the future of Liverpool Edge Hill and Liverpool Wavertree jobcentres, of January 2017, how many visits are made to the jobcentres in (a) Toxteth, (b) Edge Hill, (c) Wavertree and (d) Huyton each (i) day, (ii) week and (iii) month by claimants who are required to report every two weeks.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the numbers of claimants that attend on a daily, weekly or monthly basis is not available. The number of claimants for each office is as follows:
The JSA claimant count for Toxteth JCP is 851 and UC is 1389
The JSA claimant count for Edge Hill JCP is 647 and UC is 1083
The JSA claimant count for Wavertree JCP is 438 and UC is 742
The JSA claimant count for Huyton JCP is 882 and UC is 2434
This information refers to January 2017, and is available from the following link: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's paper entitled Proposal for the future of Liverpool Edge Hill and Liverpool Wavertree jobcentres of January 2017, based on the addresses of claimants registered at the (a) Wavertree and (b) Edge Hill jobcentre, what the (i) minimum and (ii) maximum public transport costs of a claimant who has to report to a jobcentre every two weeks would be in each month in the event that they were moved to the jobcentre in (A) Toxteth and (B) Huyton.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department has not undertaken an assessment of the public transport costs for journeys to Toxteth and Huyton Jobcentres based on claimants residential addresses. This is because the proposals are to relocate Liverpool Edge Hill and Liverpool Wavertree Jobcentres to High Park House Jobcentre. Furthermore, it would not be possible to compare all claimants’ residential addresses with all potential bus timetables and routes. It is also important to remember that not all claimants will start their journey to the Jobcentre from their home.
As Liverpool Wavertree and Liverpool Edge Hill Jobcentres have higher travel times by public transport to High Park House than to Toxteth Jobcentre, we have opened this proposal up to public consultation. We are seeking views on this proposal, including the impact on travel costs for individuals.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2017 to Question 62388, on social security benefits, what information his Department holds on the number of claimants who have applied for (a) jobseekers' allowance and (b) universal credit (i) by post and (ii) during a home visit.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department holds information on the number of claimants who have applied for Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit but the Department does not hold any Management Information on claims made by post or during a home visit.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have applied for (a) jobseekers allowance or (b) universal credit (i) by post and (ii) during a home visit in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The information is not available at the level of detail requested.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of employment support staff employed by his Department have undergone training to help them identify and support people who may be at risk of suicide or self-harm.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
All DWP staff undertaking customer-facing roles go through a programme of learning and development to equip them to support vulnerable people who access our services.
This includes a learning product called “Supporting Customers with a Vulnerability”, which covers how to respond to an individual threatening suicide or self-harm, and which staff undertake as part of their foundation learning for a role where they interact directly with DWP customers.
There are additional learning modules on supporting claimants with mental health conditions for telephony staff, and for those who work face-to-face with customers
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many social security claims in England were terminated because the individual in receipt of the benefits took their own life in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department does not collect information on cause or manner of death of an individual, only a record of the date of death.
Suicide is a tragic and complex issue which we take extremely seriously. If information is received that a DWP client has attempted or completed suicide and it is alleged that DWP activity may have contributed to this, we carry out an internal review to establish whether anything should have been done differently.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has undertaken regional cost-benefit analyses on the effect of imposing a housing benefit cap in areas with local housing allowance rates.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information requested is not available.
The latest impact assessment for the lower benefit cap is published here:
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to publish the Life Chances Strategy.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave the hon. Member for Barnsley Central, Dan Jarvis on 17 October [47998].
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people receive benefit and pension payments by Simple Payments in the Liverpool City Region.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The current number of people that receive their benefit or pension payments by Simple Payment in the Liverpool City Region is 1,399.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in (a) Liverpool, Wavertree constituency and (b) Liverpool City Region are living in (i) absolute and (ii) relative poverty.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This Government is committed to tackling disadvantage and extending opportunity so that everyone has the chance to realise their full potential. Our life chances approach will focus on tackling the root causes of poverty such as worklessness, educational attainment and family stability.
The Department for Work and Pensions published the 2014/15 Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics on 28th June 2016. This provides information on individuals living in relative and absolute low income.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201415.
The number of households in relative and absolute low income is not available at constituency or city region level. This is because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography.