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1137366

registered interest
date	08/07/2019
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	Disadvantaged: Children and Young People
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, what assessment they have made of the report by Barnardo’s Overcoming Poverty of Hope, published on 8 July; and what steps they intend to take to improve how they (1) listen to, and (2) act upon, the concerns of younger generations.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL16973
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2019 answer text <p>We welcome the Overcoming Poverty of Hope report which provides valuable insight into young people’s views and concerns about their own future.</p><p> </p><p>We are committed to providing support for young people so that everyone, no matter what their start is in life, is given the best chance of getting into work. The department has a variety of support for young people such as the Youth Obligation Support Programme which provides support tailored to the needs and ambitions of individual 18 to 21 year olds. We have been working with Barnardo’s to develop a pilot specifically for care leavers. The pilot offers enhanced work experience and a personal mentor to support the care leaver throughout the placement, building the skills and confidence needed to start a career.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 22/07/2019 12:41:10 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1133775

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
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
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any lessons to be learnt for improving the environmental, social, economic and cultural well-being of people in all regions of the UK from the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL16526
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/07/2019 answer text <p>The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 relates to devolved matters therefore it is for the Welsh Government to consider any lessons learnt in respect of Wales.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 03/07/2019 14:11:59 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1088555

registered interest
date	13/03/2019
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: Females
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reinstate the deferred pensions of those women born in the 1950s who were meant to receive their pensions aged 60; and what assessment they have made of whether those women were given sufficient notice of the deferment.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL14515
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2019 answer text <p>Successive governments of different political persuasions have taken the same approach to increased life expectancy and equality between 1995–2019. The Government has no plans to revisit the policy on women’s State Pension age as brought forward by the 1995 pensions Act or the 2011 Pensions Act, and does not intend to make further concessions. The changes in the 2011 Act occurred following a public Call for Evidence and extensive debates in Parliament. A concession limiting the increase in State Pension age under the 2011 Act in any individual case to 18 months, relative to the 1995 Act timetable, has already been made during the passage Act (at the cost of £1.1 billion).</p><p> </p><p>In the years after the 1995 legislation (1995 to 2011) this equalisation was frequently reported in the media and debated at length in parliament. People were notified with leaflets, an extensive advertising campaign was carried out, and later individual letters were posted out.</p><p> </p><p>Evidence submitted to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee ‘Communication of state pension age changes’ in 2016 noted that there were more than 600 mentions of State Pension age equalisation in the national broadsheet and tabloid press between 1993 and 2006, an average of just under one per week between 1993 and 2006. There were 54 mentions in the press in 1995, the year in which equalisation was legislated for. This was a significant event to change the age at which women received their State Pension that had existed since 1940. This was news worthy, particularly to those that it affected. Further media coverage occurred around the Pension Acts 2007, 2011 and 2014.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 25/03/2019 13:57:39 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1064191

registered interest
date	19/02/2019
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	Poverty: Lone Parents
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support lone-parent families living in poverty; and in particular, to tackle (1) high housing costs, (2) low-paid work, and (3) cuts to benefits and tax credits.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL13838
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2019 answer text <p>There is clear evidence that work offers the best opportunity for families to move out of poverty and towards financial independence. Children of lone parent workless families are around 4 times more likely to be in poverty than those where their parent works full time. There are now over 1.2 million lone parents in work and this Government has introduced a number of changes to help lone parents address the challenges they face. Working parents on Universal Credit can have up to 85% of their childcare costs reimbursed – worth up to £1,108 per month for someone with two or more children. We have also introduced additional flexibility on support for up front childcare costs, increased work allowances and doubled free childcare available to working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours per week. People on Universal Credit who earn above £542 a month are exempt from the benefit cap, and lone parents need to work just 16 hours a week to be eligible for Working Tax Credits and be exempt from the benefit cap.</p><p>This Government has introduced the National Living Wage which will increase again to £8.21 from April 2019. This is expected to benefit up to 2.4m people with the rise this April increasing a full-time worker’s annual pay by over £2,750 since its introduction. Our tax changes will make basic rate tax payers £1,075 better off in 2018-19 than in 2010-11. And we have provided around £1billion in Discretionary Housing Payment funding since 2011, enabling local authorities to protect the most vulnerable claimants</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 27/02/2019 12:00:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

1005586

registered interest
date	12/11/2018
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 what estimate they have made of the number of people who are yet to be moved to Universal Credit as part of the natural migration process; and what support will be available for vulnerable claimants, including those who have disabilities, during this process.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL11357
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2018 answer text <p>We are unable to forecast the number of people who are yet to naturally migrate to Universal Credit. This is because Natural Migration claimants are those who have had a relevant change of circumstances that would cause a new claim to be made to a different legacy benefit, but they cannot make such a claim to legacy benefits because these have been replaced by UC.</p><p> </p><p>We take seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants moving to Universal Credit. Work Coaches provide continuous support for all claimants, including vulnerable claimants throughout their journey.</p><p>Additionally we have introduced a number of measures to assist claimants during the transition to Universal Credit including: the removal of waiting days; the UC Transitional Housing payment; Universal Support; 100 per cent advances and a longer repayment period.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 26/11/2018 15:21:39 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

947537

registered interest
date	24/07/2018
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, or intend to make, of the report of the Resolution Foundation, Living Standards Audit 2018, published on 24 July, and its conclusion that the proportion of children in poverty has risen by 21 per cent in the five years to 2016, rather than their estimate of 11 per cent.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL9830
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Benefit under-reporting in household surveys is a well-known, long standing issue. To date it has not been possible to accurately resolve this. The Resolution Foundation’s report published on 24 July attempts to correct this issue. However, they do not have accurate information on which households are under-reporting. Consequently, they use a series of assumptions to select a number of households in the survey, allocating them additional income from benefits. This means the conclusions in the report will be sensitive to the households selected; different assumptions will give different results.</p><p> </p><p>DWP is currently working towards a more accurate solution to correct this issue, whereby survey records are combined with administrative data to improve the quality of the survey data. Making this correction is likely to reduce the number of individuals classed as being in low income.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:51:06 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

918911

registered interest
date	06/06/2018
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	Social Security Benefits
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, or intend to make, of the effects of delayed benefit payments on the creditworthiness of benefit recipients who fall into arrears as a result of such delays.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL8408
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2018 answer text <p>An assessment has not been made.</p><p> </p><p>The latest Universal Credit data shows that around 80 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time. In many cases, where full payment is not made on time by the end of the first assessment period, this is as a result of unresolved issues: claimants have not signed their Claimant Commitment or passed identity checks, and the others have outstanding verification issues, such as for housing and self-employed earnings. Whilst their verification is ongoing, many of these claimants receive a part payment for those elements of the claim that have been resolved.</p><p> </p><p>Advances are available to provide financial support until the first payment and these can now be repaid over a course of 12 months and can consist of up to 100 per cent of the indicative monthly award. We have also abolished waiting days and now provide 2 weeks of housing support to claimants moving to Universal Credit from Housing Benefit.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 18/06/2018 12:10:04 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

916549

registered interest
date	04/06/2018
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	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to adopt an all-of-government approach to preventing the root causes of poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL8255
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2018 answer text <p>This Government believes that works provides people with the best opportunity for getting out of poverty and into self-reliance. This is why it is committed to collective action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage through a range of policies that encourage people to move into and progress in work including Universal Credit, the National Living Wage, tax changes, and up to 30 hours of free childcare a week. There are around 880,000 fewer adults and almost 600,000 fewer children in workless households compared with 2010.</p><p> </p><p>‘Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families’, published on 4 April, set out a framework for improving outcomes for children in workless households including nine cross-departmental indicators to track progress across a number of departments in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with a range of external stakeholders and with other Departments to take forward the policies set out in the paper and is also committed to pushing annual updates against all nine indicators.</p><p><br>The Department is also represented at a ministerial level at a number of groups and forums which focus on supporting those who are most disadvantaged, whether or not they have children, including Inter Ministerial Groups on Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce, Serious Violence Strategy, Violence against Women and Girls, Race Disparity, Safe and Integrated Communities, the Reducing Reoffending Board and the Drugs Strategy Board. It also co-chairs the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 13/06/2018 11:31:33 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

845380

registered interest
date	20/02/2018
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	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 12 December 2017 (HL3812), which (1) ministers, (2) departments, (3) agencies, and (4) arm’s length government bodies, including non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and public corporations, have responsibility for poverty, and issues relating to poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL5580
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>This Government is committed to collective action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage through a range of policies, such as Universal Credit, the National Living Wage, tax changes, and up to 30 hours of free childcare a week to incentivise employment as the best opportunity for families to get out of poverty and become self-reliant.</p><p> </p><p>In <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress across a number of departments in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Government has a statutory duty to report annually against two of these indicators - parental employment, and children’s educational attainment. The relevant departments and agencies - Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions – all aim to publish data on the other, non-statutory indicators by the end of March.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 13:30:24 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

845381

registered interest
date	20/02/2018
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	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of their preventative approach with regard to addressing the root causes of poverty in the long term.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL5581
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>This Government is committed to action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. We are undertaking the most ambitious reform to the welfare system in decades to ensure that it supports people to find and progress in work. This is because we have clear evidence that work offers families the best opportunity to get out of poverty and to become self-reliant. Adults in workless families are 4 times more likely to be in poverty than those in working families. We also know that children living in workless households are 5 times more likely to be in poverty than those where all adults work. We are making good progress. Nationally, there are now 954,000 fewer workless households, and 608,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010.</p><p> </p><p>In <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress across government in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Government has a statutory duty to report annually against two of these indicators - parental employment, and children’s educational attainment.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 16:26:36 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird