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 recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of PIP to cover the extra costs incurred by people with a disability.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on the 14th of May to PQ24769.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is designed to help with the extra costs arising from long-term ill health and disability and is paid regardless of income and irrespective of whether someone is in work. PIP can also be paid in addition to other benefits the individual may receive, for example Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance, and can provide a passport to additional support through premiums or additional amounts.
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 he is taking to support (a) young disabled Londoners and (b) young black Londoners into employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
The Government therefore has an ambitious programme of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health to start, stay and succeed in work. These include: Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies; the Work and Health Programme; Access to Work grants; Disability Confident; a digital information service for employers; Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres; increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres; increasing access to Occupational Health; and expanding the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care programme.
Building on this, we announced significant additional investment during the 2023 fiscal events. Alongside the delivery of our existing initiatives, we are now focused on delivering this package which includes: introducing Employment Advisors into MSK services; a new voluntary employment programme called Universal Support (US) which will provide wraparound support to 100,000 people a year once fully rolled out; WorkWell in approximately 15 pilot areas to provide light touch work and health support; exploring new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to support through our call for evidence launched on 19 April 2024; and establishing an expert group to advise on a voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.
The Department for Work and Pensions Jobcentre youth offer provides a range of options to those seeking employment, including young Black Londoners. Additionally, we are taking targeted action where there is a high ethnic minority employment gap. The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the prevalence of discrimination towards young ethnic minorities seeking employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employment statistics show the ethnic minority employment rate at 68%, up 9.2 percentage points on the same quarter in 2010, with 5.4m people from an ethnic minority background in employment which is a record high.
The Department supports people to move into employment by providing access to a range of mainstream services and bespoke programmes that are designed to be flexible to individual needs. We also take targeted action where there is a high ethnic minority employment gap and work with partners, employers, and specific sectors to improve opportunities for all.
The Youth Offer provides individually tailored Work Coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain. This was expanded in 2023 to include additional young people on Universal Credit not currently searching for work, including young parents and carers.
In April 2023, the Government's Equality Hub published updated guidance for employers on how to use the positive action provisions in the Equality Act 2010. This is to help people who share a particular protected characteristic overcome barriers and to level the playing field.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria his Department is using to identify vulnerable people receiving legacy benefits during the managed migration process Move to Universal Credit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP provides a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs at any point throughout their journey and ensures appropriate support is quickly made available. There is a range of support available to individuals, including a dedicated DWP telephone line, face to face support in the local Jobcentre, and independent support through Help to Claim, delivered by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland.
DWP have developed and tested a new ‘enhanced support’ journey for ESA and Income Support customers who require more support to claim. This process is now in place for these customer groups and involves outbound telephony, system checks and home visits, dependent on individual support needs.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is planning to provide extra staff to support legacy benefit claimants in 2024-25 as part of the Move to Universal Credit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To support customers who are involved in Move to Universal Credit (UC) the Department has introduced a dedicated DWP telephone line, face to face support in the local Jobcentre, and independent support through Help to Claim, delivered by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number and proportion of Tax Credit claimants that have received migration notices under Move to Universal Credit and who have had to repay Tax Credit debt in (a) the UK, (b) Merseyside and (c) Wirral.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of November 2023,100 Tax Credit claims, in Merseyside, and less than 5 Tax Credit claims, in the Wirral that have migrated to Universal Credit (UC) have had a deduction for a non-fraud Tax Credit debt from their UC award.
UC claims in Northern Ireland are administered by the Department for Communities.
Proportions of the Tax Credit caseload cannot be provided as Tax Credit claims are administered by HMRC. HMRC publish statistics on the number of families benefiting from Child Tax Credit (CTC) and/or Working Tax Credit (WTC) in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Latest publication can be found here:
Notes:
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
2. The figures are of distinct Universal Credit households that have migrated from Child Tax Credits and/or Working Tax Credits that also had a deduction taken from their UC entitlement to repay a non-fraud Tax Credit debt. Any household with deductions in more than one assessment period will only be counted once.
3. "Merseyside" has been interpreted as the sum of the Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St. Helens & Wirral local authority areas.
4. Data has been provided for deductions taken up to November 2023, in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households his Department plans to send migration notices to as part of the Move to Universal Credit in 2024-24 in (a) the UK, (b) Merseyside and (c) Wirral.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government remains committed to moving all legacy benefit customers to Universal Credit (UC). Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 19th April, we now plan to notify all remaining customers in scope of migrating to UC by the end of 2025.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of housing benefit in (a) Wallasey constituency, (b) Wirral, (c) the North West and (d) the United Kingdom.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
With the completion of the rollout of Universal Credit in December 2018, new claims for HB are predominately for pensioners and are administered by Local Authorities.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to older jobseekers in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who are looking to (i) reskill or (ii) change careers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Eligible older jobseekers on Universal Credit benefit from Additional Work Coach Time (AWCT) and the delivery of Mid Life MOTs in Jobcentres across England which support people to review their health, wealth and skills.
77 50PLUS Champions are working in all 37 Districts across England, Wales and Scotland, and personalise support, including helping customers to reskill or change career.
At the 2023 Budget, the Chancellor announced increasing skills provision through Returnerships for those aged 50 and over which bring together three programmes to support older workers. These include Accelerated Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps and Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the number of people who were claiming (a) Disability Living Allowance and (b) Personal Independence Payment where their main disabling condition was (i) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, (ii) anxiety and depression and (iii) autistic spectrum disorders, in each month since November 2008.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On Employment Support Allowance and out of work Universal Credit, the information requested is not readily available due to how the medical condition is recorded so to collate and provide it would incur disproportionate cost. However, Monthly statistics on the outcomes of Employment and Support Allowance work capability assessments are available by primary high-level medical condition on Stat-Xplore. The latest statistics are available by date of decision from November 2008 to September 2023, or date of claim start from October 2008 to June 2023. Statistics on the outcomes of Universal Credit work capability assessments (UC WCA) are available by high-level medical condition for the period from January 2022 to November 2023 in Table 7 of the latest UC WCA data tables.
On Disability Living Allowance (DLA), the information requested is in the attached document.
Points to note:
The latest available data on Personal Independence Payment claims can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. The volume of PIP claimants with certain conditions can be found in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement’ dataset by going to ‘Disability’ and selecting the relevant conditions. To show the data since April 2013, select all months and then ‘Add to Column/Row’.
The data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. PIP was first introduced in April 2013, so there is no data available before this point.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here. An account is not required to use Stat- Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.