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1079381

registered interest
date	28/02/2019
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	Employment and Support Allowance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Written Statement of 21 February 2019 on Employment and Support Allowance, Official Report HCWS 1348, which work streams the 1,200 staff working on underpayment cases have been taken from; and how many of those staff have been (a) moved from other areas of her Department and (ii) newly recruited.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	227168
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>Over the course of 2018/19, across the Department we increased our resources by 4,209 FTE to manage all demands including LEAP exercises. This included the recruitment of an additional 400 staff, on a fixed term appointment basis, directly to support the ESA underpayment exercise. The remainder of the 1,200 staff were deployed onto the exercise as a result of reducing demand on ESA and JSA benefits. This approach has meant that we have not had to stop or deprioritise other customer activity in order to complete this review.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 05/03/2019 10:58:03 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1079382

registered interest
date	28/02/2019
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	Employment and Support Allowance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an estimate of the number of people who went into (a) rent arrears and (b) council tax arrears following the underpayment of their employment and support allowance; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	227169
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The information is not available.</p><p> </p><p>DWP are engaging with a number of authorities, including those responsible for Council Tax, to raise awareness of the ESA underpayment exercise and the potential issues arising from it. This will help them to assess possible impacts on these areas.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the ESA underpayment exercise we will inform local authorities Housing Benefit departments of new awards of income-related ESA as part of our business as usual procedures. As Housing Benefit is available to contributory only ESA claimants, those on low incomes could still receive full Housing Benefit if assessed by their Local Authority as entitled.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 05/03/2019 14:53:22 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1079383

registered interest
date	28/02/2019
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	Universal Credit
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 adequacy of staffing levels in universal credit centres; and what proportion of fixed-term staff working in universal credit centres are on (a) permanent contracts and (b) zero-hour contracts.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	227130
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department regularly reviews both the numbers of people working in Universal Credit service centres and their performance to ensure we have the right number of people available to manage claimants Universal Credit claims. Services and staff training is assessed, both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.</p><p> </p><p>Our priority is to give all employees, including those delivering Universal Credit, the necessary resources, including manageable workloads, so that they can carry out their roles successfully.</p><p> </p><p>The size of a Case Manager’s caseload is dependent on a number of factors, including the complexity of the caseload and experience of the case manager.</p><p> </p><p>All staff on fixed-term contracts are employed on the basis of agreed full or part time hours. No staff are employed on zero-hour contracts.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 05/03/2019 17:53:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1079451

registered interest
date	28/02/2019
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	Employment: Bullying
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 is taking to support the Centenary Global Action and global efforts for a strong International Labour Organisation Convention to end workplace harassment.
tabling member constituency	West Bromwich East
tabling member printed	Tom Watson
uin	227058
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The Government believes that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and that there can be no place for violence and harassment in the workplace. The Government therefore supports the adoption of an International Labour Convention on ending violence and harassment in the world of work. The Government is fully engaged in discussions in the International Labour Organisation and is advocating a Convention that provides broad coverage, whilst being ratifiable by as large a number of the ILO’s membership as possible.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 05/03/2019 17:52:34 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	1463 label Biography information for Lord Watson of Wyre Forest

1078634

registered interest
date	27/02/2019
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	Lone Parents: Finance
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 to increase financial support for single-parent families.
tabling member constituency	North Herefordshire
tabling member printed	Bill Wiggin
uin	226593
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>Under Universal Credit, working families can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month. This can be claimed up to a month before starting a job.</p><p> </p><p>In the Autumn Budget 2017, the Department introduced a range of measures to support claimants and ensure no one has to experience hardship within the initial assessment period. These include making advances more generous, removing the 7 waiting days, providing an additional transitional payment of 2 weeks of Housing Benefit and changing how claimants in temporary accommodation receive support for their housing costs</p><p> </p><p>We recently announced that parents may be eligible to receive a Flexible Support Fund Award or a budgeting advance to enable them to take up a job offer or increase their working hours.</p><p> </p><p>We are also piloting a more flexible approach to claimants reporting childcare costs, which will allow people to be reimbursed for childcare even if they aren’t able to provide immediate evidence. Once the pilots have concluded, we will consider whether to roll out this approach further.</p><p> </p><p>Additionally, there will be a £1000 increase in work allowances from April 2019, which will provide a £630 boost for households with children, and for people with disabilities.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 05/03/2019 13:04:39 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	1428 label Biography information for Sir Bill Wiggin

1078721

registered interest
date	27/02/2019
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	Work Capability Assessment: Romford
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time is for a claimant to be referred to a work capability assessment by the Romford service centre.
tabling member constituency	Romford
tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
uin	226601
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 05/03/2019 13:20:50 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1078284

registered interest
date	26/02/2019
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: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to tackle child poverty across the United Kingdom.
tabling member printed	Lord Hay of Ballyore
uin	HL14056
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave on Wednesday 27 February HL13942</p><p>There is clear evidence that work offers the best opportunity for families to move out of poverty and towards financial independence. Children in workless households are around 5 times more likely to be in poverty after housing costs than those where all adults work. 62% of children living in a workless couple family are in relative poverty (before housing costs) compared with only 3% where both adults work full-time.</p><p>This is why we are continuing to undertake the most ambitious reform to the welfare system in decades – so that it supports people to find and to stay in work. Nationally, there are now over 3.5 million more people in work. Universal Credit is at the heart of these reforms. It is designed to promote full-time work and employment for partners where possible, through smoother incentives to increase hours.</p><p>Working parents on UC 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.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 05/03/2019 16:03:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4352 label Biography information for Lord Hay of Ballyore

1077077

registered interest
date	25/02/2019
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	Universal Credit: Carers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s speech Universal Credit: personal welfare on 11 January, how the process of claiming Universal Credit and nominating a bank account will be changed so as to ensure payment is received by the main carer.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL13997
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The initial work to improve the claimant messaging on the service, to encourage claimants in joint claims to utilise the bank account of the main carer when receiving their Universal Credit payment, will be completed this year. We expect this to increase the proportion of Universal Credit claims where payment is made to the main carer. Any further work will be considered following an understanding of the impact the change to messaging has had.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 05/03/2019 15:21:30 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1077078

registered interest
date	25/02/2019
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	Universal Credit: Carers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s speech Universal Credit: personal welfare on 11 January, whether reference to payment to the main carer applies to Universal Credit claimants where (1) the Carer's Allowance is paid, and (2) the carer element is included in their entitlement.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL13998
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>References to the main carer in this context refer to the main carer for children in a joint claim where there are children present, not to caring in the context of receiving carer’s benefits or entitlements.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 05/03/2019 15:26:03 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1077094

registered interest
date	25/02/2019
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	Employment and Support Allowance
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, with respect to the individuals identified as entitled to income-related employment and support allowance (ESA) but who were moved to contributory-based ESA from incapacity benefit, any assessment is being carried out of the amount of housing benefit, council tax support or passported benefits to which those individuals would have been entitled; and if so, what plans there are to compensate them for this cost.
tabling member printed	Baroness Sherlock
uin	HL14014
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>We are engaging with a number of authorities who are responsible for passported benefits to raise awareness of the Employment and Support Allowance underpayment exercise and the potential issues arising from it. This will enable Departments to understand the impacts on passported benefits they administer. DWP does not hold information on what people may or may not have claimed.</p><p>We will be reviewing all those cases potentially affected and paying any arrears of past payments that are due. Our focus is on paying arrears to claimants in line with the legislation. Where DWP administers the benefit we are ensuring that payment is made in line with regulations.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 05/03/2019 15:34:14 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4147 label Biography information for Baroness Sherlock