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1353963

registered interest
date	08/09/2021
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, whether her Department has made an estimate of the impact of removing the £20 uplift to the standard allowance of universal credit on child poverty levels in England.
tabling member constituency	Ealing Central and Acton
tabling member printed	Dr Rupa Huq
uin	45219
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2021 answer text <p>No assessment has been made.</p><p>The Government has always been clear that the £20 increase was a temporary measure to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19.</p><p>Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and we announced the temporary uplift as part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Our focus now is on our multi-billion Plan for Jobs, which will support people in the long-term by helping them learn new skills and increase their hours or find new work.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 13/09/2021 17:02:46 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4511 label Biography information for Dr Rupa Huq

1352641

registered interest
date	03/09/2021
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 assessment she has made of the effect on child poverty of the planned reduction of universal credit by £20 a week; if she will make it her policy to reverse that planned reduction and make the £20 a week permanent; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	41811
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2021 answer text <p>It is not possible to produce a robust assessment of the impact of removing the £20 uplift on child poverty. This is particularly the case at the moment given the uncertainty around the speed of the economic recovery, and how this will be distributed across the population.</p><p> </p><p>The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.</p><p> </p><p>There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced with the success of the vaccine rollout. Now the economy is reopening and as we continue to progress with our recovery our focus is on helping people back into work.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for UC claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; we have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job; and introduced Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to UC claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 13/09/2021 16:54:01 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1342295

registered interest
date	30/06/2021
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, with reference to the Local indicators of child poverty after housing costs, 2019-20, published by Loughborough University Centre for Research and Social Policy in May 2021, if she will commission a report to identify the reasons for the North East experiencing the largest increase in England in child poverty from 2014-15 to 2019-20.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	24947
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2021 answer text <p>No.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Loughborough University Centre for Research and Social Policy report ‘Local indicators of child poverty after housing costs, 2019/20’ makes an assessment of poverty figures based on relative poverty. This Government believes, and has always believed, that absolute poverty is a better measure of living standards than relative poverty which can provide counter-intuitive results. In particular, relative poverty tends to fall when median income shrinks, such as during economic downturns, which is particularly relevant in the current circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>To monitor poverty for different groups and regions the Department publishes the annual Households Below Average Incomes (HBAI) publication which 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></p><p> </p><p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.</p><p> </p><p>As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help parents move into, and progress in, work as quickly as possible, based on clear evidence around the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty. The In Work Progression Commission published their report on the barriers to progression for those in persistent low pay on 1 July 2021. Government will consider the recommendations and respond later in the year.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/07/2021 14:42:05 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 11616 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

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

1334237

registered interest
date	14/06/2021
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, pursuant to the Answer on 28 May 2021 to Question 6445 on Children: Poverty, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the impact of the £20 uplift in universal credit on child poverty in (a) England and (b) Manchester Gorton constituency.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	15387
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2021 answer text <p>Looking at the impact on poverty of an individual policy is complex and inherently speculative as it requires projecting how incomes will change for every individual in society which are affected by a huge range of unknown factors.</p><p> </p><p>To monitor poverty for different groups the Department publishes the Households Below Average Incomes (HBAI) publication which 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></p><p> </p><p>Data at constituency level is unavailable in this publication due to insufficient sample size.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 17/06/2021 16:35:28 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1331477

registered interest
date	09/06/2021
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 she has made of the levels of child poverty in (a) Scotland and (b) East Renfrewshire constituency.
tabling member constituency	East Renfrewshire
tabling member printed	Kirsten Oswald
uin	13105
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2021 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to support the most vulnerable including through spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21.</p><p> </p><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 East Renfrewshire constituency is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.</p><p> </p><p>Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in Scotland, 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 data table 4.16ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in data table 4.22ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).</p><p> </p><p>In the three years to 2019/20, the absolute child poverty rate, before housing costs, in Scotland was 17%, down 3 percentage points 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. Children in Low Income Families data is published annually. The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in East Renfrewshire constituency, 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> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 17/06/2021 16:06:44 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4413 label Biography information for Kirsten Oswald

1331480

registered interest
date	09/06/2021
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 assessment she has made of the impact of the £20 uplift in universal credit on levels of child poverty in (a) Scotland and (b) East Renfrewshire.
tabling member constituency	East Renfrewshire
tabling member printed	Kirsten Oswald
uin	13106
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2021 answer text <p>No assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.</p><p> </p><p>As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 17/06/2021 16:13:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4413 label Biography information for Kirsten Oswald

1330017

registered interest
date	07/06/2021
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 she has made of the level of child poverty in (a) England and (b) Enfield North constituency.
tabling member constituency	Enfield North
tabling member printed	Feryal Clark
uin	11694
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to tackling poverty. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to support the most vulnerable including through spending an additional £7.4billion to strengthen the welfare system, taking our total expenditure on welfare support for people of working age to an estimated £112 billion in 2020/21. Additionally, in December 2020 we introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, providing funding to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months, now the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.</p><p> </p><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 Kingston upon Hull North is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.</p><p> </p><p>Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in 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>,“children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables” in table 4.16ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in table 4.22ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).</p><p> </p><p>In the three years to 2019/20, the absolute child poverty rate, before housing costs, in England was 18%, down 3 percentage points 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. Children in Low Income Families data is published annually. The latest figures on the number of children who are in low income in Enfield North constituency and in England, 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> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/06/2021 13:50:00 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4822 label Biography information for Feryal Clark