Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether provisions have been made for employees of The Bodyshop who were made redundant.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I understand this will be a concerning time for those impacted. The Department for Work and Pensions’ Rapid Response Service is a service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy.
The range of support may include:
Employees may be entitled to statutory redundancy pay, compensatory notice pay and holiday pay from the Insolvency Service. Further information may be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-body-shop-in-administration-information-for-employees-and-creditors.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
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 ensure that people pay the full child maintenance costs for which they are liable.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal to ensure parents meet their financial obligations to their children.
These include deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport or even commitment to prison.
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act received Royal Assent in 2023. This creates a primary power to replace court-based liability orders with administrative orders, which should significantly speed up this key enforcement process.
We have concluded a public consultation to support regulations to implement administrative liability orders. The Government published their response on 12 February 2024.
Secondary legislation is now being developed, which, once implemented, will reduce the process from 22 weeks to as low as 6 weeks. This will be brought forward as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of areas where there is a shortage of childcare facilities and providers to provide their commitment of free childcare hours.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There were 15,100 more childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to the department’s latest Childcare and early years provider survey (2023).
To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million in new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year. To further support the sector delivering the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare, including supporting them through our childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
The government has allocated £100 million in capital funding to local authorities to support the expansion of childcare places and the supply of wraparound care. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.
On top of the department’s funding reforms, it is also providing significant support for local authorities to deliver the early years expansion from April, such as:
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional support they are providing to enable local authorities and childcare providers to meet demand arising from their commitment to provide free childcare hours.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There were 15,100 more childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to the department’s latest Childcare and early years provider survey (2023).
To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million in new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year. To further support the sector delivering the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare, including supporting them through our childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
The government has allocated £100 million in capital funding to local authorities to support the expansion of childcare places and the supply of wraparound care. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.
On top of the department’s funding reforms, it is also providing significant support for local authorities to deliver the early years expansion from April, such as:
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the five recommendations made in the report by the First 1001 Days Movement, A Manifesto for Babies, published on 19 March; and whether they intend to respond to each recommendation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is strong evidence that the 1,001 days from pregnancy to the age of two years old set the foundations for our cognitive, emotional, and physical development. Investing in this critical period presents a real opportunity to improve outcomes and tackle health disparities by ensuring that thousands of babies and families have improved access to quality support and services. The Government is therefore already taking forward a range of actions in line with recommendations in the report by the First 1001 Days Movement to ensure that every baby gets the best start in life.
For example, in March 2021, the Government published The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days, a copy of which is attached. This vision sets out six action areas for improving support for families during the 1,001 critical days to ensure every baby in England is given the best possible start in life, regardless of background.
The Government is also investing approximately £300 million to improve support for families though the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. The programme is implementing many elements of the Best Start for Life Vision and is delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation. Many local authorities without funding have also chosen to implement elements of the vision.
The programme funding package includes £10 million to enable five local authorities and their partners to pilot innovative early years workforce models, with the aim of improving the access, experience and outcomes of babies, children, and families, and supporting the capacity and job satisfaction of the workforces involved.
To support new parents, Statutory Maternity Pay is paid by employers to qualifying employed women for a maximum of 39 weeks, the first six weeks of which are paid at 90% of the women’s salary followed by 33 weeks at the lower of either the standard rate or 90% of the woman’s average weekly earnings. For those who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance may be available. This is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions to eligible women and is intended for those who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay. The standard rate of maternity pay is reviewed annually.
Paternity Leave arrangements enable employed fathers and partners, including same sex partners, who meet the qualifying conditions to take up to two weeks of paid leave within the first eight weeks following the birth of their child or placement for adoption. The Government has recently announced changes to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible for working families from April 2024. This includes allowing fathers and partners to take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child.
A Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme is also available, giving working families much more choice and flexibility about who cares for their child in the first year, and when.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for people with long covid to access (a) Universal Credit and (b) Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances.
Disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. Therefore people living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are also able to access these benefits in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.
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, what steps his Department is taking to provide benefit support to individuals with Long Covid.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances.
Disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. Therefore people living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are also able to access these benefits in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the impact that changes in the national (a) living and (b) minimum wage commencing on 1 April 2024 will have on staffing costs in his Department; and how many staff in his Department will receive a pay uplift as a result of those changes.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 1 April 2024 the statutory National Living Wage (NLW) will be uplifted from £10.42 to £11.44 per hour, a rise of 9.8%. DWP pay NLW regardless of age.
Based on January headcount data 22,267 DWP employees will be impacted by the 2024 increase to the NLW and will require a pay uplift to meet the new NLW rate. This is estimated to cost the department £22.59m including Employer National Insurance and Pension contributions this year.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Q102 of the oral evidence given by Lorraine Jackson to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on 31 January 2024, HC 148, when the constant review of statutory sick pay began; what steps his Department is taking to conduct this review; and what sources of information are included in this review.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As with all government policy, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) policy is kept under review. The department through the Joint work and Health directorate, monitors feedback from correspondence and reviews evidence from a range of organisations. The rate of SSP is also reviewed each year as part of the annual uprating exercise.
The government reviewed SSP as part of both the ‘Work, health and disability green paper: improving lives’ consultation (2017) and the ‘Health is Everyone’s Business consultation’ (2019, HiEB). In response to the HiEB consultation (2021) we maintained that SSP provides an important link between the employee and employer but Ministers confirmed it was not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
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 of employees eligible to receive Statutory Sick Pay from more than one employer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statutory Sick Pay is administered and paid by employers. Since 2014, employers are not required to report information on Statutory Sick Pay payments therefore this information is not available.