Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of how many people entitled to the Employment and Support Allowance did not claim it in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates for the number of entitled non-recipients and caseload take-up are available for income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support (IS) up to financial year 2018/19. These can be found here. Figures for 2018/19 were affected by no new claims for income-related ESA and IS from December 2018 as a result of Universal Credit rollout. No figures have been published for ESA/IS since 2018/19 due to the roll out of Universal Credit.
No estimates of the volume of entitled non-recipients of New Style (contributory) ESA have been made.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have received tax credit overpayments since their migration to Universal Credit in St Albans district.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A claim for Universal Credit (UC) closes any tax credit claim with any associated overpayment arising from tax credits passed to DWP for recovery.
The number of individuals in St Alban’s that had received a migration notice by Dec-23 was nil/negligible. We are therefore unable to provide the requested data to prevent releasing potentially disclosive information about individuals.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the number of weeks for which a person can undertake training and remain eligible for universal credit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coaches recommend options to customers to address skills barriers and provide support for them to access a wide range of provision. Which can include essential Maths, English and Digital Skills, and other vocational opportunities such as Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs).
Whilst periods of training are generally expected to be directly linked to customer’s work search goals, we have increased the amount of time Universal Credit customers in the All Work Related Requirements conditionality group can take part in full time, work-related training for up to 16 weeks in Great Britain.
Where a longer period of training is required to equip someone with the skills for work whilst also maintaining employment, other options are available including apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are designed by employers and open to learners of all ages, with vocational courses ranging from level 2 up to post-graduate qualifications.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) outcomes of the pre-testing phase and (b) results of phase (i) one and (ii) two of the Additional Jobcentre Support Pilot are for the number of claimants moving into (A) employment and (B) a different benefit category.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
An evaluation of the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot is ongoing.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many additional (a) work coaches and (b) hours of work coach time are allocated to jobcentres to administer the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The pilot is being delivered using existing Jobcentre resource.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people lost their entitlement to benefits during their transition from legacy benefits to Universal Credit in areas where that process had been completed.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Latest official statistics on the Universal Credit Managed Migration process can be found at: Move to Universal Credit statistics, July 2022 to December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the number of people who are in (a) paid employment and (b) receipt of universal credit in (i) Newport West constituency and (ii) Wales.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
(a)
The information requested is published and available at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
(b)
Monthly statistics on the number of people who are on Universal Credit by employment status, by parliamentary constituency and by domestic country, are published on Stat-Xplore, and are currently available to March 2024.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received a Universal Credit migration notice in St Albans district; and how many and what proportion of these people submitted a new claim.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The first migration notices for St Albans were issued from 1 Feb 2024.
The number of individuals in St Alban’s that had received a migration notice by Dec-23 was nil/negligible. We are therefore unable to provide the requested data to prevent releasing potentially disclosive information about individuals.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the childcare tax free cap.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Tax-Free Childcare provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they’re 17.
The Government recognizes the importance of supporting parents with the costs of childcare and continues to support families with a range of other childcare offers, including the free hours offer, and support through Universal Credit childcare.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department is taking steps to help support people made redundant by The Body Shop International Limited.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
While this is a commercial decision for the company, we understand that this will be a concerning time for workers at The Body Shop, and we stand ready to support those impacted.
Affected employees will be able to access our broad range of support, including Universal Credit and JobCentre Plus, through the Department for Work and Pension's Rapid Response Service.
Employees who worked for the company under an employment contract may be eligible for statutory redundancy pay, compensatory notice pay, and holiday pay, for which they can apply to the Insolvency Service.