Oral Answers to Questions

Selaine Saxby Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

The £500 self-isolation payment administered by local councils was devised to achieve compliance with public health guidance. That is why the Department of Health and Social Care is leading on the matter. I am conscious that there may be local arrangements that need to be addressed. Often, the best way to tackle those is through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which has local funds that have been topped up by this Government to help with local welfare issues.

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con) [V]]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking the exceptional team at Jobcentre Plus in Barnstaple for their work to support the vastly increased number of people in North Devon looking for work at this time? I extend an invitation to her to come to my constituency to thank them at first hand.

[Dr Coffey]

My hon. Friend is right to praise hard-working DWP staff at her local Jobcentre Plus and across the network. The team in Barnstaple have worked with the National Careers Service to help with interview technique and build transferable skills among people who become unemployed, and great work is already under way at the North Devon youth support hub in Bideford and Barnstaple. I look forward to visiting the south-west. As she knows, the DWP jobcentre is a covid-secure environment and I look forward to joining her there in due course.