Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
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 staff receive training on the Scottish benefits system.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP learning reflects the services provided by Social Security Scotland with references and signposting to operational instructions.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to (a) review and (b) consult on the rate of statutory sick pay in the Spring 2025 Spending Review.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid entirely by employers and so the rate is not subject to departmental spending decisions that will be made at the Spring 2025 Spending Review.
The rate of SSP is reviewed as part of the annual uprating process. Subject to Parliamentary approval the rate of SSP will increase in line with the September 2024 CPI rate of 1.7% to £118.75 per week from April 2025.
Through the Employment Rights Bill, introduced on 10th October 2024, the Government has removed the SSP waiting period and extended eligibility to those earning below the Lower Earnings Limit. The changes introduced within the Bill will mean that for some lower earners, including those earning below the Lower Earnings Limit, their rate of SSP will be calculated as a percentage of their earnings instead of the flat weekly rate.
The Government is currently consulting on what this percentage should be, so that it provides a fair earnings replacement when these employees need to take time off work. This consultation will close on 4th December 2024.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many women claimed statutory (a) maternity pay and (b) maternity allowance in Scotland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statutory Maternity Pay is delivered through HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), rather than the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Figures provided by HMRC on the number of new claims for Statutory Maternity Pay in Scotland in each financial year from 2019/20 to 2023/24 are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. The number of Statutory Maternity Pay spells starting in Scotland in financial year
Year | Number of Statutory Maternity Pay spells in Scotland starting in each financial year |
April 2019 - March 2020 | 27,600 |
April 2020 - March 2021 | 25,700 |
April 2021 - March 2022 | 27,500 |
April 2022 - March 2023 | 24,900 |
April 2023 - March 2024 | 24,900 |
Statistics on the number of Maternity Allowance spells starting in each quarter in Scotland from February 2010 to November 2023 are published and can be found at Maternity Allowance: quarterly statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest release covers September – November 2023 and data from March 2019 – November 2023 are shown in Table 2. These figures are based on a 5% sample of Maternity Allowance Claims and should be treated with caution. This is because a recent review determined that the available sample used to estimate the Maternity Allowance statistics at a regional level was too small to provide a sufficient level of confidence.
Table 2. The number of Maternity Allowance spells starting in Scotland in each quarter
Quarter | Number of Maternity Allowance spells in Scotland starting in each quarter |
September - November 2023 | 840 |
June - August 2023 | 880 |
March - May 2023 | 920 |
December 2022- February 2023 | 1,020 |
September - November 2022 | 880 |
June - August 2022 | 740 |
March - May 2022 | NA |
December 2021- February 2022 | 700 |
September - November 2021 | 1,000 |
June - August 2021 | 600 |
March - May 2021 | 760 |
December 2020- February 2021 | 780 |
September - November 2020 | 660 |
June - August 2020 | 840 |
March - May 2020 | 1,000 |
December 2019- February 2020 | 1,140 |
September - November 2019 | 920 |
June - August 2019 | 880 |
March - May 2019 | 900 |
Notes
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on maternity pay in Scotland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Outturn for Maternity Pay consists of both Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance, and is published by country in the Expenditure by country and region tables, last updated following Autumn Statement 2023.
Outturn for Scotland in the last five years available is as below
(Expenditure £ million, nominal terms)
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Statutory Maternity Pay Scotland | 191.0 | 175.0 | 187.9 | 206.9 | 206.3 |
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Maternity Allowance Scotland | 29.8 | 27.8 | 25.9 | 21.6 | 19.1 |
Maternity Allowance expenditure figures for Scotland are estimates using national and regional breakdowns from Official Statistics on Maternity Allowance benefit caseload and average amounts of benefit paid, applied to GB outturn expenditure totals.
Statutory Maternity Pay Expenditure figures for Scotland are estimates using national and regional breakdown of amounts of SMP paid to employees, applied to GB outturn expenditure totals.
Please note, these figures may change with the next publication of data, following Autumn Budget 2024.
We are not expecting to publish breakdowns of MA in Autumn 2024 as a new operational system to record MA cases is currently being developed. As such, Maternity Allowance statistics will be suspended from the quarterly statistics release on 13 August 2024 until data can be extracted from the new system. (Maternity Allowance: quarterly statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will undertake a review of the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A consultation on proposed reforms to the CMS was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. The consultation includes exploration of removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster. The consultation also explores how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported.
The Government extended the consultation to the 30 September 2024 to ensure full stakeholder engagement can take place, we will then consider the next steps for CMS.
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were living in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy constituency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics for the total number of people living in relative and absolute poverty are not available at a constituency level.
Statistics on the total number of people in living in relative and absolute poverty both before and after housing costs at regional level are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per constituency are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication and can be found in tabs “5_Relative_ParlC” and “6_Absolute_ParlC”. These are only produced on a before housing cost basis.
A link to these statistics can be found here: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average disposable income was in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy constituency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions produces household income statistics on both a before housing costs and after housing costs basis, published in its Households Below Average Income publication. However, these are not available at constituency level: Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Office for National Statistics produces household disposable income statistics. However, these are also not available at constituency level. The latest regional gross disposable household income statistics can be found here: Regional gross disposable household income, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)