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1257226

registered interest
date	01/12/2020
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: Scotland
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 take steps to ensure that recipients of the Scottish Government's health and social care workers £500 bonus payment who are in receipt of universal credit are able to keep the full amount of that payment.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	123611
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2020 answer text <p>The Government recognises the vital role that all key workers including health and social care workers continue to play.</p><p>Universal Credit (UC) is designed to ensure that people are better off in work by reducing their UC by less than they are earning. Bonuses are treated as earnings in Universal Credit and the taper is applied when the UC award is calculated.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/12/2020 16:32:27 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1173682

registered interest
date	27/01/2020
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: Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the five-week wait for a first payment of universal credit on levels of poverty in (a) Airdrie and Shotts constituency and (b) Scotland.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	8329
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2020 answer text <p>No one has to wait five weeks for their first payment of Universal Credit. New claim advances are available to support those in financial need until their first payment is made. The Department has learnt from where we did not get things right in the past in the legacy benefit system. Too often, the desire to pay quickly meant claimants not receiving their correct entitlement as we did not have an appropriate timeframe to review household circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months. We have announced that from October 2021, the repayment period for these advances will be extended further, to 16 months. Proposed repayments of the advance are explained, and all claimants are advised to request a level of advance which is manageable both now and when considering the repayments required.</p><p> </p><p>The best way to help people improve their lives is through employment. Households where all adults are in work are around 6 times less likely to be in relative poverty than adults in a household where nobody works. This improves further if all the adults are working full time, reducing a child’s risk of being in poverty from 66% for (two-parent) families with only part-time work to 7%. Universal Credit allows households the freedom from the ‘cliff edges’ which featured in the legacy benefits system, where money was lost when working more than 16, 24 or 30 hours.</p><p> </p><p>There are many reasons people use foodbanks and their growth cannot be linked to a single cause. We have listened to feedback on how we can support our Universal Credit claimants and acted quickly, making improvements such as removing waiting days and introducing housing benefit run on. These changes are giving support to vulnerable people who need it most, whilst at the same time helping people get into work faster.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 8322 8327 question first answered 30/01/2020 12:24:46 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1105936

registered interest
date	28/03/2019
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	Universal Credit: Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of universal credit in Scotland have a mental health condition.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	238368
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/04/2019 answer text <p>Currently we do not report aggregate information about whether or not a claimant has a mental health condition and to collate and quality assure this information would incur disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p><p>Our work coaches receive training to ensure they can offer effective support to different claimant groups. This enables them to provide tailored support and gain an excellent understanding of whether their claimants have, have had in the past, or might cycle in and out of having a mental health condition or extra support needs.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 04/04/2019 15:49:43 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1105937

registered interest
date	28/03/2019
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	Universal Credit: Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mental health training is provided to work coaches; and how many work coaches in Scotland have received mental health training to date.
tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
tabling member printed	Neil Gray
uin	238369
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/04/2019 answer text <p>DWP is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants, including the most vulnerable in society. We are continuously reviewing and improving the service for vulnerable people to ensure that it is accessible and responsive to their needs.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches undergo a comprehensive training programme designed to equip them with the skills and knowledge required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. Specific training and guidance is provided for working with different vulnerable groups and those with complex needs including claimants with mental health conditions.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Work Coaches have completed a two-day workshop, designed by experts in mental health and psychologists, and delivered where possible alongside external mental health partners. The training began in November 2017 and was completed at the end of March 2019. April 2019 will see the start of delivering this training to staff across the entire organisation who are employed in a claimant facing role, whether they engage with claimants by telephone, face to face or digitally.</p><p> </p><p>At the end of March 2019 all 1589 Work Coaches in Scotland had received Mental Health Training.</p><p> </p><p>* The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 04/04/2019 16:37:06 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray