Mar. 01 2024
Source Page: I. Review of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band for 2024/25: supporting analysis. 34p. II. Automatic enrolment: alternative quality requirements: triennial Reviews 2023. Government response to the Call for Evidence and analysis. 24p.Found: Analysi s Background Automatic enrolment obliges employers to enrol all workers into a qualifying workplace
Written Evidence Apr. 26 2024
Inquiry: Disability employmentFound: verbal communication under pressure than the competencies required for the role.xi Once in the workplace
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to introduce mandatory disability reporting for organisations with at least 250 employees.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the National Disability Strategy (NDS), the Cabinet Office committed to leading a consultation on workforce reporting on disability for large employers exploring both voluntary and mandated workplace transparency. A formal consultation ran from 16 December 2021 to 25 March 2022. Work on the disability workforce reporting consultation was paused in line with other work deriving from the NDS whilst a legal challenge on the NDS was ongoing. Following a successful appeal, we have now commenced analysis of the consultation responses and will publish the consultation response findings in 2024.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many improvement and prohibition notices the Health and Safety Executive has issued on (a) workplace stress and (b) other mental health problems at work in each year since it took responsibility for this area.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no specific regulations relating to work-related stress or mental health and any enforcement action taken by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in those areas would use general health and safety legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act or the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.
As a result, HSE can not provide the numbers of notices as the information is not held in the format requested so is not easily retrievable or statistically robust.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff have been trained in disability awareness in (a) his core Department and (b) Jobcentres in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is unable to provide the information you seek within the appropriate cost limit as you have asked for information that is contained across a wide range of learning journeys.
All staff new to DWP undergo mandatory learning followed by role specific learning, this encompasses vulnerabilities and complex needs training which is threaded throughout learning. Staff continue to build on this in the workplace through accessing policy guidance and point of need learning products.
Please refine your request, for example to mandatory learning to enable data to be provided.
Mentions:
1: Lord Offord of Garvel (Con - Life peer) in multiple forms, whether that is via email, verbally or through an existing application within the workplace - Speech Link
2: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD - Life peer) very first time, those juggling paid work and unpaid care are going to have dedicated rights in the workplace - Speech Link
3: Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab - Life peer) not, they build up future poverty for themselves for the future, because they cannot contribute to pensions - Speech Link
4: Lord Fox (LD - Life peer) It means that carers who have been in the workplace can come out as carers in the workplace—because they - Speech Link
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department it taking to help ensure that disabled people have access to reasonable adjustments in the workplace.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All employers have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace where a disabled person would otherwise be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with their colleagues. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act and providing guidance on reasonable adjustments.
For disabled people who require adjustments which are beyond reasonable adjustments, Access to Work (AtW) can provide a grant for the disability related extra costs of working a disabled employee may face. To support employers an AtW case manager will contact the customer’s employer ahead of making an AtW award to offer advice on reasonable adjustments an employer can provide and the support available under the AtW scheme.
DWP has worked with stakeholders to develop a series of Adjustments Passports and Planners to support disabled people, and those with a health condition, with the transitions into employment and between jobs. The Adjustments Passport and Planners provide individuals with an up to date document of their adjustments and working requirements and empower the holder to have more structured conversations about their disability with their employer. They also raise awareness of Access to Work, and where an application is made, help to reduce the need for another assessment, enabling support to be put in place more quickly.
The Disability Confident scheme provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. When an employer signs-up to the Disability Confident scheme, they agree to commitments which include anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required. They also agree to support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work. The scheme provides resources for members including the recently published Disability Confident Manager’s Guide which explains how managers can make and review reasonable adjustments, consider flexible working, and includes examples of other types of adjustments.
As part of the government's response to the Health is Everyone’s Business Consultation, DWP has developed a digital service for employers, offering tailored guidance on health and disability. The service is called Support with Employee Health and Disability and is live across GB, testing very well with employers. Developed with small and medium enterprise (SME) employers, using user centred design principles, the service offers a simple, interactive and highly usable resource which helps employers to feel more confident having conversations about health and disability, as well as understanding and fulfilling their legal obligations on topics such as reasonable adjustments, and signposting to sources of expert support.
The fit note includes an option to allow a healthcare professional to indicate that a patient ‘may be fit for work subject to the following advice’ and provide general details of the functional effect of the individual’s condition and recommend common types of workplace adjustments. However, over 10 million fit notes each year are issued in England without any such advice, resulting in a missed opportunity to help people get the appropriate support they may need to remain in work.
That is why we announced funding in the 2023 Autumn Statement to test new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with tailored support, including referral to support through their local WorkWell service pilot. To support this, we launched a Call for Evidence to seek views on how the current fit note process works and the support required to facilitate meaningful work and health conversations and help people start, stay and succeed in work.
Mentions:
1: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con - Life peer) However, as we have already heard, women are too often held back in the workplace once they have had - Speech Link
2: Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab - Life peer) Will the Minister agree that employment tribunal fees are bad for women and bad for workplace justice - Speech Link
3: Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab - Life peer) to private pensions, the gap is stunning. - Speech Link
4: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Lab - Life peer) That highlights the structural discrimination against women in the workplace that very often exists. - Speech Link
5: Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab - Life peer) Will the Minister say what more can be done to support such training in the workplace? - Speech Link
Written Evidence May. 08 2024
Inquiry: Disability employmentFound: Written evidence from the Society of Occupational Medicine (DYE0059) Evidence to the Work and Pensions
Apr. 09 2024
Source Page: New guide published to help businesses boost disabled people’s prospects at workFound: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD