Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 6 March 2024 to Question 16495 and of 11 March 2024 to Question 17444 on Employment: Disability, what guidance his Department issues to employers on home assessments to ensure the suitability of equipment for disabled people taking on home-based employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
An employer has the same health and safety responsibilities for people working from home, including those with disabilities, as for any other workers. Employers must protect their workers from health and safety risks from working on a computer or laptop (display screen equipment or DSE) at home and should check to see if the Display Screen Equipment Regulations apply. HSE guidance provides more information: Managing home workers' health and safety - Overview – HSE
Separately, the Chance to Work Guarantee will remove reassessments for the majority of Universal Credit (UC) or Employment and Support Allowance claimants (ESA) with no work-related requirements. The purpose of the Guarantee is to encourage claimants who have been assessed without work-related requirements to try work without the fear of reassessment, within existing permitted work rules in ESA and work allowance rules in UC.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is his policy to mandate (a) health and safety checks, (b) the provision of adapted (i) computer chairs, (ii) desks, (iii) screens and (iv) keyboards for disabled employees who are working from home whilst taking part in the Work Guarantee scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 6 March to PQ16495.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is his policy to mandate (a) health and safety checks, (b) the provision of adapted (i) computer chairs, (ii) desks, (iii) screens and (iv) keyboards for disabled employees taking part in the Work Guarantee scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Chance to Work Guarantee will remove reassessments for the vast majority of existing claimants with no work-related requirements. The purpose of the Guarantee is to encourage claimants who do not currently have any work-related requirements to consider, on a voluntary basis, trying work under ESA permitted work and the UC work allowance rules without the fear of reassessment and losing their benefit entitlement.
Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled workers. The aim of this duty under equality law is to ensure that, as far as is reasonable, disabled workers have the same access to everything involved in doing and keeping a job as non-disabled workers.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on the use of zero-hours contract under the chance to work guarantee.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
At Autumn Statement 2023, we announced that we will be introducing a new Chance to Work Guarantee. This will apply to the majority of Universal Credit (UC) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who have been assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity. The Guarantee means that, once introduced, the majority of people in this group will be able to try work without the fear of reassessment, within existing permitted work rules (ESA) and work allowance rules (UC).
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which disability benefits chance to work guarantee will apply to.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
At Autumn Statement 2023, we announced that we will be introducing a new Chance to Work Guarantee. This will apply to the majority of Universal Credit (UC) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who have been assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity. The Guarantee means that, once introduced, the majority of people in this group will be able to try work without the fear of reassessment, within existing permitted work rules (ESA) and work allowance rules (UC).
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the minimum guaranteed contracted employment hours will be under the chance to work guarantee.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
At Autumn Statement 2023, we announced that we will be introducing a new Chance to Work Guarantee. This will apply to the majority of Universal Credit (UC) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants who have been assessed as having Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity. The Guarantee means that, once introduced, the majority of people in this group will be able to try work without the fear of reassessment, within existing permitted work rules (ESA) and work allowance rules (UC).
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to ensure that women who are (a) self-employed and (b) earn less than £10,000 per year have access to workplace pensions.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Automatic enrolment (AE) has helped millions more women to save into a pension, with pension participation rates among eligible women in the private sector rising from 40% in 2012 to 87% in 2022.
The government is committed to build on the success of AE and is making progress on implementing the measures as set out in the 2017 review. The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 was introduced into Parliament with government support and provides the necessary powers.
Once implemented, the measures will disproportionately increase the pension saving of lower earners; a woman working part-time earning National Living Wage could see her pension almost double as a result when saving over her career.
The AE framework cannot be straightforwardly extended to people who are self-employed, as there is no employer to enrol them into a scheme; select a scheme or make contributions.
The department is currently working with research partners to explore the feasibility of building and testing retirement savings solutions in digital platforms. This includes accountancy software and payment platforms, used by self-employed people to manage their money.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the correspondence from Garden Court Chambers of (a) 24 August and (b) 14 September 2023 on pension age changes for women born in the 1950s, whether he plans to meet with them to discuss this issue.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has not completed his investigation into communication of changes to women’s state pension. It would be inappropriate to enter into Alternative Dispute Resolution with third parties or comment while the PHSO investigation is ongoing. Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the timeliness of the delivery of the state pension to an eligible person on reaching the state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP is aware that a small number of new State Pension claims have been subject to delays in receiving payment.
The Department is working hard to clear the current backlog, many of which have accrued since the Covid Pandemic.
We are prioritising overdue payments and payments that are imminent within the next few weeks. Normal service will be resumed by the end of October 2021.
Claimants don’t need to act, we have identified the cases and will process them as soon as possible.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the waiting time before new universal credit claimants are eligible for Support for Mortgage Interest on (a) debt levels and (b) mortgage defaults.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No assessment has been made on the effect of the waiting time of debt levels and mortgage defaults for new UC claimants.