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1138379

	registered interest
	date	11/07/2019
	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	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 he has been made of the number of children living in poverty that have at least one parent in work.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	276232
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2019 answer text <p>National statistics on the number of children in low income households are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. The latest statistics show that 1.7m children in households where at least one adult works are in 'before housing cost absolute poverty', and 2.5m are in 'after housing cost absolute poverty'.</p><p> </p><p>These statistics can be found using the link below, in table 4.20ts, in the file “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables”.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 19/07/2019 12:30:00 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1138380

	registered interest
	date	11/07/2019
	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	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 he will make an assessment of the effect of the increase in the gig economy on levels of child poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	276233
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2019 answer text <p>National statistics on child poverty are published annually in the “Households Before Average Income” publication. These statistics do not separate households based on their employment in the gig economy and therefore do not make an assessment of the effect of the gig economy on levels of child poverty.</p><p> </p><p>Overall, 18 percent of children are in 'before housing costs absolute poverty' and 26 percent of children are in after housing costs absolute poverty. 'Before housing cost absolute poverty' is down by 1 percentage point since 2009/10 and after housing costs absolute poverty is down by 2 percentage points since 2009/10. The number of children in 'before housing cost absolute poverty' is unchanged since 2009/10 and has fallen by 100,000 for after housing cost absolute poverty.</p><p> </p><p>These statistics can be found using the link below, in table 4.2ts, in the file “children-rends-hbai-1994-95-2017-18-tables.ods”.</p><p /><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a></p><p> </p><p>Advances in technology and the rise of the gig economy have increased opportunities for people to work more flexibly. While we welcome these opportunities, they cannot be at the expense of workers’ rights. That is why the Prime Minister commissioned Matthew Taylor to undertake his review of Modern Working Practices, and why the Government is taking the decisive action set out in the Good Work Plan to address his recommendations.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 19/07/2019 12:39:19 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1355721

	registered interest
	date	15/09/2021
	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, if she will publish a strategy on lifting children out of all forms of poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	50085
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2021 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting low-income families through range of measures including by increasing the national living wage and by spending over £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22. With record numbers of vacancies, our focus is on helping people back into work as quickly as possible. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty.</p><p> </p><p>Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes at 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 Universal Credit 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 Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.</p><p> </p><p>To provide additional support for children in low income households, we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins. And we are investing up to £220m in the Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has been expanded to every Local Authority across England. Participating children are benefitting from a range of support, including healthy and nutritious meals as well as fun and engaging activities covering the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays in 2021.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 28/09/2021 15:24:19 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1404053

	registered interest
	date	18/01/2022
	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 she is taking to eradicate child poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	106773
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2022 answer text <p>This Government is wholly committed to supporting low-income families, including through spending over £110 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22, and by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.6% to £9.50 from April 2022.</p><p> </p><p>With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, our focus now is on continuing to support parents into and to progress in work. This is because we know that work, particularly where it is full-time substantially reduces the risks of child poverty and improves long-term outcomes for families and children. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Universal Credit recipients in work are now benefitting from a reduction in the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, while eligible in-work claimants can also benefit from changes to the Work Allowance. These measures represent, for the lowest paid in society, an effective tax cut of around £2.2b in 2022-23 and are now benefitting almost two million of the lowest paid workers by £1,000 a year on average.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, which is why vulnerable households across the country can access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million.</p><p> </p><p>To support low income families further we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins, and we are also investing over £200m a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English Local Authorities.</p><p /> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 26/01/2022 11:41:16 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1461826

	registered interest
	date	11/05/2022
	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 she is taking to tackle child poverty in the context of the rising cost of living.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	862
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>This Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families, and believes work is the best route out of poverty.  Our approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children. The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works.</p><p /><p>Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has been expanded by £500 million, and the new 'Way to Work’ campaign is a national drive to get half a million people who are out of work into jobs by the end of June.</p><p> </p><p>The government has taken action to support and help families with the cost of living worth over £22 billion in 2022-23. We announced a £9.1 billion energy bill rebate package, worth up to £350 each for around 28 million households and are giving 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year through our cut to the Universal Credit taper and increase to work allowances. Also, from July 2022, the government are raising the National Insurance threshold to £12,570.</p><p> </p><p>We are also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion. In England, £421 million will be provided to extend the existing Household Support Fund, at least a third of the extension funding (£140m) will be spent on families with children. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.</p><p /><p>To support low income families further, we have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers to £4.25, helping eligible low income households buy basic foods like milk, fruit and vitamins. We are also investing over £200m a year to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English Local Authorities. The Holiday Activity and Food programme benefitted over 600,000 children last summer.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 20/05/2022 13:23:34 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1461829

	registered interest
	date	11/05/2022
	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 recent estimate she has made of the number of children living in (a) relative poverty and (b) absolute poverty (i) nationally and (ii) in York.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	865
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2022 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, and can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2021" target="_blank">Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p><p> </p><p>In the UK in 2020/21, there were 2.3m children living in absolute poverty, before housing costs (BHC). There were 2.8m children living in relative poverty BHC.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in York are published in “Children in Low Income Families”, and can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2021" target="_blank">Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p><p> </p><p>In York in 2020/21, there were 3,000 children living in absolute poverty BHC. There were 4,000 children living in relative poverty BHC.</p><p> </p><p>Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 16/05/2022 16:29:19 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1506775

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	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 she is taking to help ensure that all children have access to adequate food and warmth at weekends.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	51822
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>This Government is committed to supporting low-income families, and will spend over £242bn through the welfare system in 2022/23 of which £108bn on people of working age, mainly families with children.</p><p> </p><p>The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.</p><p> </p><p>This includes the current Household Support Fund, in England, which is already providing £421m of support for the period April – September 2022; at least a third of this (£140m) will be spent on families with children. For the same period, devolved administrations have received £79 million through the Barnett formula. For the period October 2022- March 2023, we are also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials. This brings the total funding for this support, since October 2021, to £1.5 billion.</p><p> </p><p>It remains our firm belief that work is the best route out of poverty and with 1.27 million vacancies across the UK we want to support parents to move into and to progress in work wherever possible. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty before housing costs than in 2009/10.</p><p /><p>To help parents into work, our Plan for Jobs continues to provide broad ranging support for all jobseekers. This is on top of the support already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour, giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year (on average) through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances; and the Universal Credit childcare offer which allows working parents to claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month (up to a maximum cap).</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/09/2022 17:09:46 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1539234

	registered interest
	date	03/11/2022
	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 he has made of the numbers of children in poverty (a) nationally and (b) in York Central; and what fiscal steps he plans to take to reduce the numbers of children in poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	78778
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/11/2022 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, and can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2021" target="_blank">Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab)</a></p><p> </p><p>Latest statistics for the levels of children who are in low income in York are published in “Children in Low Income Families”, and can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2021" target="_blank">Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab)</a></p><p> </p><p>Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable.</p><p> </p><p>The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is currently conducting his statutory annual review of State Pensions and benefit rates. The outcome of that review will be announced in due course.</p><p> </p><p>With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty.</p><p> </p><p>To support parents to progress in work, we are extending the support jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes to help them to increase their earnings and move into better paid quality jobs. The new in-work progression offer started to roll-out from April 2022. Once fully rolled out, we estimate that around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on removing barriers to progression such as support with childcare or addressing skills gaps. The progression offer is in addition to a change the government made last month to the Administrative Earnings Threshold in Universal Credit. By raising the threshold on 26<sup>th</sup> September 2022, approximately 114,000 more UC claimants on the lowest incomes will benefit from regular work coach support. The Chancellor announced that we would go further and raise the threshold again from January 2023 to expand this support to approximately 120,000 more people.</p><p> </p><p>The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.</p><p> </p><p>The £37bn also includes up to £650 in cost of living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. For those who require additional support we have provided an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 08/11/2022 13:02:07 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1580098

	registered interest
	date	24/01/2023
	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	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 he has made of the implications for his policies of the report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group Child of the North, entitled Child Poverty and the Cost of Living Crisis, published on 24 January; and what steps he is taking to tackle child poverty in areas of deprivation.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	131246
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2023 answer text <p>Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions engage regularly with their Ministerial counterparts in other Departments, taking a collective approach to the policies and interventions that can make a difference.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend over £245bn through the welfare system in 2022/23 including £111bn on people of working age.</p><p> </p><p>In 2023/24, subject to parliamentary approval, we are uprating all benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%, in order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.</p><p /><p>With 1.16 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.</p><p> </p><p>To help people into work, including parents, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.</p><p> </p><p>The government is also increasing the National Living Wage by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour from April 2023, representing an increase of over £1,600 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National living wage, benefitting over 2 million low paid workers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 131247 question first answered 30/01/2023 16:17:59 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1580099

	registered interest
	date	24/01/2023
	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	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 recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on providing support to households to tackle early years child poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	131247
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2023 answer text <p>Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions engage regularly with their Ministerial counterparts in other Departments, taking a collective approach to the policies and interventions that can make a difference.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend over £245bn through the welfare system in 2022/23 including £111bn on people of working age.</p><p> </p><p>In 2023/24, subject to parliamentary approval, we are uprating all benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%, in order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap levels are also increasing by the same amount.</p><p /><p>With 1.16 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.</p><p> </p><p>To help people into work, including parents, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.</p><p> </p><p>The government is also increasing the National Living Wage by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour from April 2023, representing an increase of over £1,600 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National living wage, benefitting over 2 million low paid workers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 131246 question first answered 30/01/2023 16:17:59 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell