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1700288

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	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.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	21039
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2024 answer text <p>The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal to ensure parents meet their financial obligations to their children.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>We have concluded a public consultation to support regulations to implement administrative liability orders. The Government published their response on 12 February 2024.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 16/04/2024 15:35:55 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1700289

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) allowing people that are moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit to use a countersignature as proof of ID and (b) opening Job Centres on (i) evenings and (ii) weekends for people who are in full-time employment.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	21040
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>Countersignatures or vouching can be used to verify an identity as an exception where the customer does not have any other method to prove who they are. This method is more time consuming for both the customer and agent and we have found that the majority of our customers can meet the identify verification criteria.</p><p> </p><p>A number of our Jobcentres across the network already offer a Saturday service. We do not offer evening appointments, but it is important to emphasise that we have a number of different mechanisms through which customers can access our services; for example, through our Universal Credit (UC) system which is a digital platform where customers can leave messages on their journal to update UC agents on their current circumstances. A number of our service lines also offer telephony services into the evening.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 22/04/2024 15:38:05 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1690483

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Health and Safety
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to meet its obligations under the International Labour Organisation Convention on Occupational Safety and Health 1981.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	14874
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2024 answer text <p>The Government takes seriously the obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment in the United Kingdom (UK).</p><p>While the UK has not ratified the International Labour Organisation’s 1981 Convention on Occupational Safety and Health, there are already general and specific duties on employers, in our primary and secondary legislation, that require them to ensure the health and safety of their employees. Some of those duties predate the 1981 Convention, such as the well-established duties in Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/02/2024 12:15:33 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1644131

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of housing benefit in the context of trends in the level of average rents.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	189215
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2023 answer text <p>Housing Benefit supports tenants in both the private rented sector (PRS) and social rented sector (SRS).</p><p> </p><p>For Housing Benefit claimants in the PRS, the majority are subject to their Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate. The LHA policy is kept under regular review and in 2020 we spent almost £1 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile. The significant investment at that time has been maintained ensuring that everyone who benefited continues to do so however, LHA rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants in receipt of the housing benefit living in the social rented sector have their eligible rent paid in full, unless it is reduced because of their income or savings, contributions from non-dependants, or limited by the benefit cap or the removal of the spare room subsidy.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that rents are increasing. However, the challenging fiscal environment means that difficult decisions have been necessary to ensure support is targeted effectively.</p><p> </p><p>For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support. Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP funding to local authorities</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 21/06/2023 15:59:43 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1644135

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	State Retirement Pensions: Age
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of increasing the state pension age on the financial situation of people approaching retirement age.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	189323
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2023 answer text <p>The latest assessment of the impact of increasing State Pension age can be found in the 2023 State Pension age review published in March 2023.</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-review-2023-government-report" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-review-2023-government-report</a></p> answering member constituency Sevenoaks answering member printed Laura Trott question first answered 21/06/2023 11:48:38 answering member 4780 label Biography information for Laura Trott
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1644137

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Employment: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure employers make the right adjustments for disabled people.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	189324
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2023 answer text <p>In 2022, we delivered legislative changes, which extended fit note certification to other healthcare professionals e.g., Occupational Therapists. Extending certification will allow these professionals to provide more tailored advice to patients to support them to discuss any reasonable adjustments with their employers and stay in, or return to, employment.</p><p> </p><p>Our new digital information service for employers, “Support with Employee Health and Disability”, is currently available to businesses nationally in public live testing. This includes information to help employers make reasonable adjustments.</p><p> </p><p>Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which contributes to the disability-related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments. It does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 20/06/2023 11:31:02 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1644138

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made a recent equality impact assessment on the Personal Independence Payment in the context of the ethnicity of people who have been awarded that payment.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	189325
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2023 answer text <p>The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) places a legal duty on the DWP to consider how its decisions impact differently on different people and in particular those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. While an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is not a legal requirement of the PSED, it is one of the ways a department can demonstrate consideration of, and compliance, with its duty.</p><p> </p><p>Prior to the introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), an EIA, including against ethnicity, was completed which can be found here <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-living-allowance-reform-equality-impact-assessment" target="_blank">Disability Living Allowance reform – equality impact assessment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>. EIAs are carried out in relation to significant proposals or changes to PIP, the most recent of which was in 2022. The Family Resources Survey, published annually, also contains ethnicity data by benefit, including PIP.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 20/06/2023 11:29:39 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1644140

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional financial support to people who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and are unable to work.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	189327
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2023 answer text <p>The department is committed to supporting people nearing the end of life. The main way the department does this is through special benefit rules, called the Special Rules for End of Life. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, and in most cases receive the highest rate of benefit, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods.</p><p>From 3<em>rd</em> April 2023, individuals with 12-months or less to live, where they meet the relevant eligibility criteria, ate able to claim Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, and Attendance Allowance, under the Special Rules for End of Life. These changes mean that thousands of people nearing the end of life are able to claim fast track financial support from the benefits system.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 20/06/2023 11:32:13 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1642281

	registered interest
	date	06/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Universal Credit's two-child limit on trends of the level of children living in poverty.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	187979
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/06/2023 answer text <p>The Government firmly believes where possible it is in the best interests of children to be in working households. We have a range of employment support and advice available from our Work Coaches in Jobcentres to help people to be better off and become less reliant on benefits. Assessing the impacts of these policies would involve projecting forward every household’s income and individual circumstances which is not possible to do with confidence.</p><p> </p><p>DWP is committed to supporting families and helping parents to progress. This requires a system that provides strong work incentives and key support for those who need it, but crucially also ensures a sense of fairness to the taxpayer as many working families do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile, we can highlight that both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute low income after housing costs than in 2009/10.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 14/06/2023 16:37:10 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1469758

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2022
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Industrial Diseases Benefits: Compensation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has for the future of the (a) Pneumoconiosis Workers' Compensation Scheme and (b) 2008 Diffuse Mesothelioma Scheme.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	16953
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2022 answer text <p>There are currently no plans to make any significant changes to either scheme.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 21/06/2022 14:12:46 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery