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1341762

registered interest
date	29/06/2021
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department plans to take to tackle child poverty in (a) England, (b) the North West, (c) Lancashire and (d) Preston constituency.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	24089
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2021 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to tackling child poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect the most vulnerable including spending an additional £7.4 billion last year to strengthen the welfare system for those most in need, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to around £111bn in 2020/21.</p><p> </p><p>Our Covid Local Support Grant is ensuring that families across England get help with food and essential utility bills. We have now extended this temporary scheme for a final time with an additional £160 million in funding between 21 June and 30 September, taking total funding under the scheme to £429 million. This funding recognises that while restrictions are planned to end in July, families might need additional help to get back on their feet as the vaccine rollout continues and our economy recovers. For Lancashire County Council this means total funding of £9,896,582.81.</p><p>This Government has long championed the principle of work as the best route out of poverty and towards financial independence. In 2019/20, there was only a 3% chance of children being in poverty (absolute, before housing costs) where both parents worked full-time compared with 42% where one or more parents in a couple was in part-time work. As the economy recovers and through investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs, our ambition is to help parents move into and progress in work as quickly as possible, substantially reducing the risks of poverty.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 06/07/2021 16:10:46 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1341936

registered interest
date	29/06/2021
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of children living in poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the levels of child poverty in those areas; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the welfare system in helping to alleviate levels of child poverty in those areas.
tabling member constituency	Coventry North East
tabling member printed	Colleen Fletcher
uin	24222
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2021 answer text <p>National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Data for Coventry North East constituency and Coventry is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.</p><p> </p><p>Latest statistics for the number of children who are in low income in the West Midlands and England, covering 2019/20, can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020</a> in children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables data table 4.17ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in data table 4.23ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).</p><p> </p><p>In the three years to 2019/20, the number of children in absolute child poverty, before housing costs, in the West Midlands was 300,000.</p><p> </p><p>In the three years to 2019/20, the number of children in absolute child poverty, before housing costs, in England was 2,100,000, down by 200,000 since the three years to 2009/10.</p><p> </p><p>The Department now publishes supplementary official statistics on the number of children in low income families at constituency level and at local authority level. Children in Low Income Families data is published annually. The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in Coventry North East constituency and Coventry, covering 2019/20, can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2020/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-fye-2015-to-fye-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2020/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-fye-2015-to-fye-2020</a> .</p><p> </p><p>Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable.</p><p> </p><p>No assessment has been made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on child poverty in those areas, nor the adequacy of the welfare system in helping alleviate child poverty in those areas.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 06/07/2021 16:51:43 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 11612 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4378 label Biography information for Colleen Fletcher

1341091

registered interest
date	28/06/2021
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report, Falling Through the Net, by the Child Poverty Action Group, published on 22 June 2021.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
uin	23143
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/07/2021 answer text <p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all Universal Credit (UC) claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Jobcentre and Service Centre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. Staff receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals.</p><p>Every care is taken to prevent incorrect payments being made and to ensure that benefits are paid to the correct recipient; we are focused on paying people their correct entitlement from the outset of a claim. The vast majority of benefit expenditure is paid correctly, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring. We are constantly improving our processes and continue to invest in the use of data and analytics to identify fraud and error.</p><p>Following the introduction of the 2012 Welfare Reform Act, all overpayments of UC and new style benefits paid in excess of entitlement are recoverable. The Department seeks to recover benefit overpayments without creating undue financial hardship, and any person who does experience such hardship is encouraged to contact the Department’s Debt Management unit. Where a person cannot afford the proposed rate of repayment it may be possible to negotiate a lower repayment rate.</p><p>It is Government policy that individuals granted pre-settled status have the same access to benefits as they did prior to the introduction of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). They will satisfy the right to reside element of the Habitual Residence Test and can access benefits if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, such as a worker or self-employed person, and are habitually resident in the UK. As the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is appealing the case mentioned in the report, it would be inappropriate to comment any further</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 06/07/2021 16:57:06 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown