Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what resources her Department has allocated to support the knowledge development of work coaches to encourage people to work in the childcare sector.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
DWP’s National Employer and Partnership Team have been working with the Department of Education to publicise working in the childcare sector. This information is available to all work coaches, who will share it with claimants where it is appropriate to their circumstances.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many families in each region were in receipt of the childcare element of (a) tax credits and (b) universal credit in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The available information on the number of households in receipt of the childcare element of Universal Credit is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Responsibility for Tax Credits statistics lies with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been spent on the childcare element of (a) tax credits and (b) universal credit in (i) total and (ii) in each region in each of the past five years.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Responsibility for Tax Credits statistics lies with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much of the Jobcentre Plus Flexible Support Fund budget was spent on (a) transport, (b) childcare, (c) training and (d) other costs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is detailed in the table below:
Category | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Total Budget | £99.9 m | £127.6 m | £178.8 m | £76.8 m | £51.7 m |
- Transport | £13.4 m | £19.2 m | £20.2 m | £15.4 m | £13.5 m |
- Childcare | £1.6 m | £1.8 m | £1.5 m | £1.6 m | £1.2 m |
- Training | £15.5 m | £18.6 m | £10.6 m | £15.2 m | £8.4 m |
- Other | £84.5 m | £70.6 m | £59.2 m | £26.1 m | £27.8 m |
Total | £115.0 m | £110.1 m | £91.5 m | £58.4 m | £51.0 m |
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|
|
|
|
|
Underspend | (£15.2m) | £17.5 m | £87.3 m | £18.4 m | £0.7 m |
Underspend (%) | (15.2%) | 13.7% | 48.8% | 24.0% | 1.4% |
All figures have been rounded to the nearest £100,000, with negative values enclosed in brackets.
The budget for the Flexible Support Fund is subject to annual review and change based on claimant needs and volumes, and as new policies are agreed and old policies are withdrawn. As discretionary expenditure, it is also dependent upon overall Departmental affordability.
The level of expenditure reflects these changing policies and the level of claimant demand. In 2014/15 the Department received funding as part of the Spending Review 2013 in order to meet travel and childcare costs to facilitate additional support for claimants. However, the demand for this increased funding was limited.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of the Flexible Support Fund was unspent in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is detailed in the table below:
Category | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Total Budget | £99.9 m | £127.6 m | £178.8 m | £76.8 m | £51.7 m |
- Transport | £13.4 m | £19.2 m | £20.2 m | £15.4 m | £13.5 m |
- Childcare | £1.6 m | £1.8 m | £1.5 m | £1.6 m | £1.2 m |
- Training | £15.5 m | £18.6 m | £10.6 m | £15.2 m | £8.4 m |
- Other | £84.5 m | £70.6 m | £59.2 m | £26.1 m | £27.8 m |
Total | £115.0 m | £110.1 m | £91.5 m | £58.4 m | £51.0 m |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Underspend | (£15.2m) | £17.5 m | £87.3 m | £18.4 m | £0.7 m |
Underspend (%) | (15.2%) | 13.7% | 48.8% | 24.0% | 1.4% |
All figures have been rounded to the nearest £100,000, with negative values enclosed in brackets.
The budget for the Flexible Support Fund is subject to annual review and change based on claimant needs and volumes, and as new policies are agreed and old policies are withdrawn. As discretionary expenditure, it is also dependent upon overall Departmental affordability.
The level of expenditure reflects these changing policies and the level of claimant demand. In 2014/15 the Department received funding as part of the Spending Review 2013 in order to meet travel and childcare costs to facilitate additional support for claimants. However, the demand for this increased funding was limited.