Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of having Jobcentre staff in supported housing sites to support young people into employment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It remains our priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter and sustain employment.
We are working with eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, led by Mayoral Strategic Authorities across England which are testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET. This includes strengthening local coordination, through local leadership, and outreach to better connect young people with opportunities.
One of the Trailblazers in Central London is delivering targeted support to care leavers included those in supported accommodation to help them access suitable employment opportunities.
As part of our Youth Offer, we also have Youth Hubs which deliver a core offer of skills, training and employment-focused support. Alongside this, partner organisations deliver a range of services, based upon the needs of the local area that they service. This can include connecting young people to a wider range of services such as health, housing and wellbeing support, depending on local needs and partnerships.
To drive up quality in supported accommodation (including for young people), DWP is working alongside MHCLG to implement measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act in England, which include a proposed locally led licensing regime and new National Supported Housing Standards for providers. The proposed standards make it clear that residents should receive person-centred support including where appropriate being supported, encouraged, and enabled to take up learning, volunteering, training, and employment opportunities.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training on employment law do Access to Work case managers receive in order to determine whether a requested adjustment is reasonable.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work case managers do not receive training in employment law. Instead, they are trained to apply the Principles of Access to Work, which are designed to ensure that support provided:
Access to Work support is therefore not intended to determine legal obligations, but to provide additional assistance where appropriate, once an employer’s responsibilities have been met.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there has been a change in guidance for decision makers looking at Attendance Allowance applications in the last 12 months.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Attendance Allowance guidance is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it reflects current policy and operational processes.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the minimum British Sign Language level required is for communication support workers in his Department.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The minimum BSL sign levels required for DWP communication support workers are:
RSLI (Registered Sign Language Interpreter) has Level 6 BSL and an Interpreting qualification (NVQ or Degree).
TSLI (Trainee Registered Sign Language) has level 6 BSL and is enrolled and working through Interpreting qualification (NVQ or degree).
All interpreters are registered with NRCPD (National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deaf/blind People).
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published in March 2025, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reforms on the service capacity of (a) voluntary and (b) community sector organisations.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 April 2025 to question number 47657. The answer can be found here: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published in March 2025, what role the (a) voluntary and (b) community sector will have in implementing those reforms.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We strongly value the input of disabled people and people with health conditions, in addition to representative organisations that support them, and that is why we have brought forward this Green Paper and the consultation.
The consultation welcomes the views of voluntary organisations, and we hope many will respond before the consultation closes on the 30 June 2025. Our programme of accessible public events will further facilitate input, including in-person and online, and will help us hear from disabled people and representative organisations directly.
We are also exploring other ways to facilitate the involvement of stakeholders in our reforms. In addition to the consultation, we will establish ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups of people together for specific policy development areas and our wider review of the PIP assessment will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience.
As we develop proposals further, we will consider how to best to involve voluntary and community organisations in the planning and implementation of reforms, including in our employment support package.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of Employment and Support Allowance claimants who have not moved to Universal Credit after the deadline day set out in their migration notice in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, (b) the North East and (c) England.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Monthly statistics for the number of People and Households sent a Migration Notice for Move to Universal Credit in Great Britain by geography including by Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and by legacy benefit type are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore - Log in
People invited to Move to Universal Credit statistics are currently available from July 2022 to December 2024 in the People invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset. Households invited to Move to Universal Credit statistics are also available in the Households invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset.
In addition there are a number of ready-made tables by various breakdowns available in the Move to Universal Credit tables.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access Introduction to the Stat-Xplore User Guide on how to extract the information required. There is also a Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide - GOV.UK
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timeline is for the implementation of recorded assessments as standard for Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We announced our intention to record assessments as standard in the Pathways to Work Green Paper as a valuable tool to improve people’s trust in the health assessment process. We are developing our plans to implement this measure and will set out further details in a White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Universal Credit system to automatically register eligible households for (a) free school meals and (b) the NHS Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made. The Universal Credit system permits Department of Health and Social Care to check a citizen’s entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers, and Department for Education to check eligibility for Free School Meals.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the University of Exeter report entitled Planetary Solvency, published on 16 January 2025; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing guidance on how pension funds can gain more realistic assessments of climate risk.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Trustees of pension schemes in scope of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) are required to undertake scenario analysis to assess the resilience of their investment strategy against climate-related risks and opportunities. Trustees must have regard to the DWP’s statutory guidance when complying with these requirements. The Pensions Regulator has also issued guidance to trustees, which references free online resources such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) climate risk map. This resource can help trustees form an initial view of the types of risks and opportunities that might be relevant and help guide their discussions with advisers.
Climate scenario analysis tools and the information and data behind them are evolving rapidly, so trustees should keep developments under review. It is sensible for trustees to update their scenario analysis if modelling techniques and capabilities change.
The government will continue to work in collaboration with regulators and welcomes progress within the industry to ensure that climate risk models support effective decision-making under the existing legislative requirements.