Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 8 February (HL5087), what evidence sources they are relying on to support their position that there is “clear evidence that it is in the best interest of children to be in working households”.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Improving Lives publication has shown that workless families are considerably more likely to experience problems with their relationships, have poor mental health, and be in problem debt. The publication includes these figures:
- Children growing up in workless families are almost twice as likely as children in working families to fail at all stages of their education.
- 37 per cent of children in workless families in England failed to reach the expected level at key stage 1 (aged 7) compared with 19 per cent in lower-income working families.
- 75 per cent of children in workless families failed to reach the expected level at GCSE, compared to 52 per cent in lower-income working families.
National Statistics on the number of in-work poverty are published annually in the ‘Households Below Average Income’ publication. It is not possible to provide a robust estimate for 2020/21 due to the impact the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had on data quality in 2020/21.
Statistics for 2021/22 will be published in the next Households Below Average Income publication in March 2023.
The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, there was only a three per cent chance of children being in poverty (absolute, before housing costs) where both parents worked full-time compared with 42 per cent where one or more parents in a couple was in part-time work.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of domestic abuse within (a) gay and (b) lesbian couple relationships in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 28 November is attached.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to undertake an assessment of the impact of covid-19 lockdowns on (a) the rate of divorce, (b) relationship breakdowns and (c) people's health and wellbeing in the long term.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government is under a statutory duty to consider the impacts of policies and decisions on people’s protected characteristics, which includes marriages and civil partnerships. We also apply the Family Test to new policies, which considers of the impact on families before, during and after couple separation.
The Government recognised that restrictions on gathering indoors and on non-essential travel would limit some opportunities for families to meet their support network, which could have a negative impact on relationships. Therefore, we introduced measures to mitigate these risks, such as the creation of support bubbles and childcare support bubbles. We also prioritised keeping schools open and created a specific power to do so in the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Flather (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether second and subsequent partners in polygamous relationships are treated as separate claimants under the current rules for benefits and tax credits.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
There is no estimate of the number of legally recognised polygamous marriages in the United Kingdom. The Government believe the numbers of legally recognised polygamous marriages to be very low and declining. This is because, since the Immigration Act 1988, it has not been possible for people polygamously married overseas to bring second spouses to the United Kingdom.
No one can contract a polygamous marriage in the UK, but marriage legislation recognises the validity of polygamous marriages entered into in a country where polygamy was legal when the parties concerned were domiciled there. Social security legislation adopts a similar approach to avoid anomalous results (such as treating polygamous households more favourably than monogamous ones).
Information concerning: a) the volume of polygamous households estimated to be affected by the move to Universal Credit, and b) how many polygamous households receiving income-related state benefits is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
In Universal Credit, the process is that the one spouse will claim for the other in the same way as an unmarried couple, and any other adults living in the household will have to claim as single people on the basis of their own circumstances. This process already happens where a polygamous marriage is not recognised in law.
Legacy income-related benefits provide for polygamous marriages only where the marriage was contracted in a country where polygamy was legal when the parties concerned were domiciled there. Provision is at the lowest level consistent with our human rights obligations. These rules have been in place since the introduction of Income Support in 1988.
Income-related benefits are not payable for spouses who do not reside in Great Britain.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the prevalence of domestic violence within (a) gay, (b) lesbian and (c) bisexual couple relationships.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department does not pay bereavement support to widows and widowers where tacit consent to marriage with their former partner was not given but where the material circumstances of their relationship were the same as those of a married couple.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Marriage and civil partnerships are legal contracts that are associated with certain rights, including inheritance, recognition in the tax system and entitlement to certain benefits.
A key principle of the National Insurance system is that all rights to benefits derived from another person’s contributions, such as bereavement benefits, are based on the concept of legal marriage or civil partnership.
Under Scottish law, in certain circumstances, a person can be classed as married by cohabitation with habit and repute. Marriage by habit and repute was abolished for new relationships in 2006 by the Family Law (Scotland) Act. Marriages deemed to have been constituted prior to the 4 May 2006 are still recognised as such for benefit purposes.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the effect of single family payments of universal credit on people who are in violent or coercive relationships.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We believe that most couples can and want to manage their finances jointly without state intervention. However, we recognise that there are circumstances in which split payments are appropriate, such as in the case of domestic abuse. Where this is the case, split payments are available on request. Both members of a couple do not need to be present to set up a split payment and consent is not required from the other partner to authorise a split payment. Claimants can request a split payment during a face to face meeting, a phone call, or online via their journal and do not have to provide evidence of abuse in order to be granted a split payment.
Not all individuals who are suffering domestic abuse will want a split payment and we work with claimants on an individual basis to provide support that fits with their individual circumstances. Work coaches receive training on domestic abuse and we will provide all the support we can when an individual discloses they are suffering from domestic abuse, including signposting them to third party professionals who can provide additional expert advice and support.
We continue to work closely with the Scottish Government to support the development and implementation of their split payment policy, and will observe the implementation of split payments in Scotland to further understand the impacts of such a policy.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to remove financial disincentives for people on low incomes to form lasting couple relationships.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government is fully committed to helping families stay together, and introduced the Marriage Allowance in 2015 to recognise marriage through the tax system.
Marriage Allowance allows taxpayers to transfer 10% of their tax free personal allowance to a spouse or civil partner, and is worth up to £238 per year. At Autumn Budget we further extended Marriage Allowance, so that personal representatives can apply on behalf of deceased partners.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial provision there is for people in need of family counselling services who are unable to pay for such services.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Every local authority must protect and promote the welfare of children in need in its area. To do this it must work with the family to provide support services that will enable children to be brought up within their own families. The local authority can provide a range of services for children in need, which can include advice, guidance and counselling. These services are normally provided free of charge. In addition, DWP funds the provision of relationship support services - this includes couple counselling delivered by a range of voluntary sector providers including Relate, Marriage Care and Tavistock Relationships.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the review, entitled What works to enhance inter-parental relationships and improve outcomes for children, published in March 2016, what steps his Department is taking to support the training of the future workforce to deliver the expert couple interventions.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Early Intervention Foundation review showed that children exposed to frequent, intense and poorly resolved conflict between their parents are at risk of poorer long term outcomes. Our new approach to relationship support responds to this evidence.
Since April 2016 we have doubled the funding available for relationship support for the remainder of this Parliament. From 2017/18 we will be contracting for relationship support services which will include help targeted at the most disadvantaged families experiencing relationship distress. As part of this approach we will be working to build the capability of key professionals on the frontline to identify conflict within the family and to provide first line help as well as effective referral. We will also continue to build on our work with local authorities to embed proven interventions into local service design. This means more families will have access to programmes with stronger evidence of impact.