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1248542

	registered interest
	date	03/11/2020
	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	Remote Working: Coronavirus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what safety advice and guidance they have made available for individuals who (1) choose, and (2) are required, to work from home.
	tabling member printed	Lord McKenzie of Luton
	uin	HL9942
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2020 answer text <p>Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, all employers are under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. This duty extends to those working from home, either temporarily or permanently.</p><p> </p><p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published guidance on its website for employers and home workers (<a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/workers/home.htm" target="_blank">https://www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/workers/home.htm</a>). The guidance covers all workers who work from home and includes information on working alone, working without supervision, ways to keep in touch and guidance on mental health, stress and wellbeing. It also covers practical guidance on setting up workstations, display screen equipment (DSE) and how to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.</p><p> </p><p>The DSE guidance is intended to provide a flexible, proportionate and pragmatic approach for employers and employees on managing low-risk activities during a time when the Government advice is for people to work from home where it is possible to do so.</p><p> </p><p>The HSE guidance emphasises the need for employers to keep health and safety arrangements for home working under review.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 12/11/2020 16:21:15 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	3694 label Biography information for Lord McKenzie of Luton

1248541

	registered interest
	date	03/11/2020
	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	Food Banks
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their evidence review of the drivers of food bank use, commissioned in August 2018.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
	uin	HL9932
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>The Department reallocated resources to prioritise work to helping the COVID-19 effort. As such, we will update on literature reviews in due course.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 10/11/2020 15:45:04 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

967421

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2018
	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	Local Housing Allowance
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the report of the Chartered Institute of Housing Missing The Target? Is targeted affordability funding doing its job?, published on 29 August, what steps they are taking to alleviate the problems faced by tenants of private rented homes caused by the four year freeze on local housing allowance levels.
	tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
	uin	HL9920
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2018 answer text <p>As part of the measures to bring the welfare bill under control and alongside the freeze to other working age benefits Local Housing Allowance rates have been frozen for four years from April 2016 until March 2020. At Autumn Budget 2017, it was announced that an additional £125 million would be available for Targeted Affordability Funding in 2018/19 and 2019/20. In 2018/19 this enables us to increase 213 Local Housing Allowance rates by 3 per cent in those areas where rates have diverged the most from local rents. More Targeted Affordability Funding will be available in 2019/20 and arrangements for its distribution will be finalised at the end of this year.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, from 2011 the Government has provided around £1 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities to protect the most vulnerable claimants and support households affected by different welfare reforms including the freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 18/09/2018 14:08:53 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham

1658476

	registered interest
	date	05/09/2023
	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: Artificial Intelligence
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the response to requests for transparency over the use of artificial intelligence to verify welfare claims.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL9915
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2023 answer text <p>DWP recognises the public interest in being transparent about what we do and how we process personal information. However, we have to balance this with keeping the information secure, by not revealing publicly all methods and practices used particularly to detect fraudulent claims and cyber-attack against our systems.</p><p> </p><p>DWP takes its responsibility to protect data very seriously and we have published the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/personal-information-charter" target="_blank">Personal information charter (PIC) </a>which gives details of how we use information provided to us. We have done this to be as transparent as we can without hindering our ability to detect fraud and protect data.</p><p> </p><p>The PIC also explains that DWP does not use artificial intelligence to replace human judgement to determine or deny a payment to a claimant. We will only use data for lawful purposes.</p><p> </p><p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023" target="_blank">DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a> also makes mention of audits covering data management and artificial intelligence.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 13/09/2023 13:26:40 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1658474

	registered interest
	date	05/09/2023
	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	Child Maintenance Service: Fees and Charges
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to review the four per cent fees charged to receiving parents in the Child Maintenance Service.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Stedman-Scott
	uin	HL9913
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>There are no plans to abolish the four per cent collection charge for receiving parents. This charge only applies to the collect and pay service and is intended to provide a parent with an incentive to use the direct pay service which has no ongoing fees.</p><p> </p><p>The collection charge for the receiving parent is deducted only when maintenance is paid, with no money owed to the Child Maintenance Service if maintenance is not paid. These charges contribute to the cost of running an expensive service, which remains subsidised by the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 15/09/2023 12:48:10 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott

967412

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2018
	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	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the roll out of Universal Credit to be completed; and what steps they are taking to ensure that data collected on access to free school meals is reliable.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bassam of Brighton
	uin	HL9912
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2018 answer text <p>Universal Credit will be available for all new claims by the end of December 2018. The Managed Migration of current benefit claimants to Universal Credit will begin in 2019 and is due to be completed in 2023.</p><p> </p><p>DWP works closely with the Department for Education, electronically verifying Universal Credit claimants who meet the eligibility criteria for free school meals.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 18/09/2018 14:20:10 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	3504 label Biography information for Lord Bassam of Brighton

1658469

	registered interest
	date	05/09/2023
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) proportion, and (2) number of (a) male, and (b) female, retirees do not receive the full pre-2016 and post-2016 state pension.
	tabling member printed	Lord Sikka
	uin	HL9908
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2023 answer text <p>During 2019, a new DWP computer system called “Get Your State Pension” (GYSP) came online to handle State Pension claims. The GYSP system is now handling a sizeable proportion of new claims.</p><p> </p><p>The department has not yet been able to include GYSP system data in our published statistics for State Pension and the number of GYSP cases are too high to allow us to continue to publish State Pension data on Stat-Xplore. We have been providing GYSP estimates based on payment systems data and as a temporary measure, State Pension statistics are being published via data tables only. The latest release in August 2023 contains State Pensions estimates for the quarters to February 2023.</p><p> </p><p>A biannual release of supplementary tables to show State Pension deferment increments and proportions of beneficiaries receiving a full amount was suspended. This release is normally based on a 5 per cent sample of the legacy computer system. Given the absence of GYSP data, the figures are affected by the same issues as described above. The latest available time period for these figures is for September 2020 and can be found in the DWP benefits statistics published in May 2021 on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>We are developing new statistical datasets to properly represent both computer systems. Once we have quality assured the new data it will be published on Stat-Xplore, including a refresh of historical data using the best data available.</p><p> </p><p>For more information on these developments, see the State Pension section of the ‘Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary’ published on gov.uk.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 14/09/2023 12:42:33 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4885 label Biography information for Lord Sikka

1658468

	registered interest
	date	05/09/2023
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish a table showing the median pre-2016 and post-2016 state pension currently paid to (1) men, and (2) women.
	tabling member printed	Lord Sikka
	uin	HL9907
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2023 answer text <p>The department currently publishes the mean weekly amount of the pre-2016 State Pension and the new State Pension paid to men and women, and this can be found in Table 11 of the latest tables which were published in August 2023 on gov.uk. There are no plans to publish the median weekly amount however we will periodically review this as the new State Pension caseload continues to grow.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 14/09/2023 12:45:35 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4885 label Biography information for Lord Sikka

753299

	registered interest
	date	18/07/2017
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	Her Majesty's Government what is the budget for the Health and Safety Executive for 2017–18; how many inspectors it expects to employ in 2017–18; and how many inspectors it employed in each of the last five years.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Jolly
	uin	HL987
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2017 answer text <p>HSE’s net budget for 2017-18 is £136 million (which includes planned expenditure of £232 million, offset by planned income of £96 million).</p><p> </p><p>During 2017-18 we are seeking to maintain inspector numbers at or around the level as at 31 March 2017 which is stated below, along with the four previous years.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Number of HSE inspectors at 31 March</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>31 March 2013</p></td><td><p>31 March 2014</p></td><td><p>31 March 2015</p></td><td><p>31 March 2016</p></td><td><p>31 March 2017</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1,115</p></td><td><p>1,051</p></td><td><p>1,038</p></td><td><p>1,037</p></td><td><p>988</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 28/07/2017 11:12:54 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	4203 label Biography information for Baroness Jolly

386491

	registered interest
	date	30/06/2015
	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	Access to Work Programme
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure the availability of Access to Work grants for those who especially need them to start working.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Uddin
	uin	HL986
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2015 answer text <p>Access to Work grants are available for those who meet the eligibility criteria for the scheme including those who are about to start working. Access to Work has specialist teams to ensure more complicated cases are processed as quickly as possible and fast track applications for those who know their circumstances or have a prior assessment enabling support to be put in place quickly.</p> answering member printed Baroness Altmann question first answered 08/07/2015 11:37:14 answering member 4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann
	tabling member	1827 label Biography information for Baroness Uddin