Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on implementing the decisions made at the Serious Case Panel meeting of 2 July 2020 on the Customer Dissatisfaction workstream.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department will be reporting on the implementation of the recommendations agreed by the Serious Case Panel in this year’s Annual Report and Accounts. The Panel continues to consider the serious issues arising from cases and other insight that affect the DWP customer experience. The Serious Case Panel has now met four times and is due to meet again this month. The Panel has made great progress over the last year, already making changes to the way in which we support our most vulnerable customers. We will continue to publish the minutes following each meeting of the Panel on gov.uk.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was paid in local housing allowance in the Blackpool local authority area in financial year 2019-20.
Answered by Will Quince
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit expenditure by local authority can be accessed here:
The figure is available in tab 2019-20, column U, row 49.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council has made on its review of lung cancer and COPD in former employees in the health and beauty industry.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (“IIAC”) is independent of Government. IIAC have commissioned a review of respiratory conditions which will soon be underway and will be guided by its outcome when making any recommendations for changes to the appropriate prescriptions. As part of this, they will ensure that the review of occupational causes of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease will include hairdressing and hair products.
IIAC is in the process of tendering for an external contractor to carry out the commissioned review, it expects a successful bidder to be appointed late Spring 2021 and the review is expected to take two years to complete.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will commission a study from the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council on (a) the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among former employees of the health and beauty industry and (b) their potential eligibility for industrial injuries disablement benefit.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) is proposing to commission a comprehensive review and evaluation of the literature, including epidemiology, on work-related malignant and non-malignant respiratory diseases, primarily focussing on lung cancer and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), to inform, update or potentially expand the industrial injuries scheme. The proposal is in its early stages, the tendering process to appoint a suitably qualified organisation to carry out the research was delayed by the coronavirus crisis and lockdown, but will be resumed as soon as practically possible.
We carefully consider any recommendations made by the IIAC and wider stakeholders. Should IIAC recommend further changes to the list of prescribed diseases, we would of course treat this with careful consideration.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the £20 hardship payment allocated to universal credit claimants was not also allocated to legacy Jobseeker's Allowance claimants.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic. The Department is experiencing significantly increased demand and has to prioritise the safety and stability of the benefits system overall. The IT system which supports Universal Credit has more capacity to make the necessary changes than the systems that support legacy benefits. It also uses different technology from other DWP systems and these older systems have complex interactions and interdependencies.
We estimate that 2.5m households receiving Universal Credit will benefit straight away from the increase in the standard allowances which was announced on 20 March, and which is additional to the planned annual uprating. New claimants who have either become unemployed, or whose earnings or work hours have decreased because of the outbreak, will benefit too; subject to their eligibility.
We have also made a number of changes to legacy and other working age benefits in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including increasing certain entitlements, such as Local Housing Allowance. Up-to-date information about the employment and benefits support available, including Universal Credit, Statutory Sick Pay, New style Jobseeker’s Allowance, and Employment and Support Allowance, can be found here: https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/employment-and-benefits-support/
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to be a rapidly evolving situation and we are keeping it under review.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department's Cycle to Work scheme offers only interest free loans and not the additional reductions in the cost of bicycles as offered by other Government departments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
DWP offers its employees access to two schemes: an advance of salary to purchase a bicycle and a Cycle to Work scheme, which allows employees to sacrifice part of their salary in exchange for a discounted bicycle and safety equipment. This initiative is governed by the Department for Transport and is similar to schemes run by other Government Departments.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason income from student maintenance was disregarded for the purposes of calculating Child Tax Credits.
Answered by Will Quince
Tax credits are designed to be closely aligned with the tax system, and therefore generally only take into account taxable income. As student loans are not liable to income tax, they are not included in the calculation of income for tax credits purposes.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason student maintenance income is taken into account for universal credit purposes but not for child tax credit purposes.
Answered by Will Quince
Tax credits are designed to be closely aligned with the tax system, and therefore generally only take into account taxable income. As student loans are not liable to income tax, they are not included in the calculation of income for tax credits purposes.
Asked by: Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people were in persistent poverty in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
Statistics on persistent low income are published annually in the “Income Dynamics” publication. This data can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-dynamics-2016-to-2017, in the ‘persistent low income trends’ file in Table 1.