Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the new Minister for Social Development in the Northern Ireland Executive on implementation of welfare reform.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has had one discussion with the new Minister for Social Development on implementation of welfare reform.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department expects to announce its decision on the future of the Post Office card account.
Answered by Steve Webb
Discussions continue between Her Majesty’s Government and Post Office LTD to consider the needs of our customers beyond the term of the current contract and announcements will be made when these discussions reach a conclusion.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with Parkinson's disease (a) have applied for personal independence payments (PIPs), (b) are receiving PIPs and (c) have been refused PIPs.
Answered by Lord Harper
Available data does not provide the number of people with Parkinson's disease who have (a) applied for Personal Independence Payment (b) are receiving Personal Independence Payment (c) have been refused Personal Independence Payment. However, published statistics show that at February 2014 there were 2,831 people entitled to PIP for Neurological Conditions, which would include those who have Parkinson's disease.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will review his decision not to carry out a cumulative impact assessment on the effect of welfare reform on people with disability.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Government regularly produces analysis of the cumulative impact of all Coalition changes, including welfare, on households across the income distribution. This information is produced by the Treasury and is published alongside every Budget and Autumn Statement, in the interests of transparency. The previous government did not provide this type of analysis. The most recent update was published with the Budget on 19 March 2014, and can be found using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293738/budget_2014_distributional_analysis.pdf
Distributional analysis is provided for the whole population on the basis of household income and household expenditure. However this is not disaggregated to the level of household characteristics such as disability status or lower level geographies. No organisation is able to do this robustly.
This analysis estimates the effect of Coalition measures from all fiscal events from the Budget in June 2010 to the Budget in 2014. It also includes changes that were announced before the Budget in June 2010 that have been implemented by this Government. Current Coalition policies are compared with what might have happened if the previous Government's policies had continued into the future without any further fiscal consolidation.
The Government currently has no plans to undertake a review or change the decision on cumulative impact assesments.