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1696423

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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: Autism
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 potential impact of average waiting times for autism assessments on employment rates.
tabling member constituency	St Albans
tabling member printed	Daisy Cooper
uin	18947
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2024 answer text <p>There are no plans for DWP to make this specific assessment. Whilst we recognise the importance of early identification of autism, a diagnosis is not required to be eligible for reasonable adjustments and the provision of workplace support. These are made, in line with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, based on functional need.</p><p> </p><p>We are encouraging employers to adopt more neuro-inclusive working practices, which benefit neurodiverse employees irrespective of whether they have a diagnosis. The Buckland Review into Autism Employment, published on 28 February this year, has created a focus for action to improve the recruitment and retention of autistic people. It has identified workplace barriers, and the working practices and initiatives that can reduce them, in order to create a more inclusive working environment for autistic employees and autistic jobseekers.</p><p /><p>This is supported by Disability Confident, our scheme to increase employers’ understanding of how to recruit, retain and support disabled employees and the Support with Employee Health and Disability online service which guides employers through health and disability scenarios at work, including making reasonable adjustments.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/03/2024 11:31:18 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4769 label Biography information for Daisy Cooper

1696446

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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	State Retirement Pensions: Women
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support women affected by changes to the state pension age with the cost of living.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	18940
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support in retirement. Last year the State Pension saw its biggest ever cash rise, increasing by 10.1%. From April, the basic and new State Pensions will increase by 8.5%, in line with the Triple Lock.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is delivering a comprehensive package of support to help those aged 50 and over to remain in and return to work. We are also committed to providing a financial safety net for those who need it, including when they near or reach retirement, through the welfare benefits system. Support is available to those who are unable to work or are on a low income but are not eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age.</p><p><em> </em></p><p>In addition, the government has provided support from 2022-23 to 2023-2024 to help households with the cost of living totalling £96 billion. We are providing further support for 24/25, including uprating working age benefits by 6.7%, raising the National Living Wage and uplifting Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local rents which will benefit 1.6 million private renters by, on average, £800 a year.</p><p> </p><p>The government is also providing an additional £500m to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund, including funding for the Devolved Administrations through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion. This means that Local Authorities in England will receive an additional £421m to support those in need locally through the Household Support Fund. This will enable further targeted support for people who require assistance to get back to a stable financial position as inflation continues to fall.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/03/2024 14:50:02 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1696454

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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: Rents
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that social housing tenants who receive Universal Credit are not financially affected by the 53-week rent year in the 2024-25 financial year.
tabling member constituency	Bath
tabling member printed	Wera Hobhouse
uin	18923
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2024 answer text <p>In the financial year 2024-25 social housing tenants will face 52 weekly rent payment days so Universal Credit will make provision for the exact amount of their liability.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. This may lead to a slight advantage to the claimant when converting weekly incomes and to a slight disadvantage when dealing with outgoings. The system is used because it is simple to operate and understand. The department has considered alternative options for those with weekly tenancies, but each have their own limitations and disadvantages for claimants and so there are no plans to change.</p><p> </p><p>The legitimacy of this calculation formula in Universal Credit was confirmed by the High Court in 2020 who found it to be neither irrational or discriminatory.</p><p> </p><p>Discretionary Housing Payments can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011, the government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/03/2024 12:10:36 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4602 label Biography information for Wera Hobhouse

1696468

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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	Vacancies: South Holland and the Deepings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help fill job vacancies in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
tabling member constituency	South Holland and The Deepings
tabling member printed	Sir John Hayes
uin	18836
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/03/2024 answer text <p>In South Holland and the Deepings, and across the country, our Jobcentre teams are supporting people back into work and those in work to progress. We are working with local and national employers to help fill vacancies quickly, delivering Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPS), recruitment days and job fairs.</p><p> </p><p>In partnership with Boston College, Net UK and Steadfast Training, we have recently offered SWAPs for local customers to gain skills and enhance their applications for Security, Construction, Fork Lift Driving and Teaching Assistant vacancies. These offers are repeated bi-monthly. We are also working with the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Boston College to support recruitment into LGV driving roles via a Skills Boot Camp that has been running since early 2023.</p><p> </p><p>Our local Partnership Manager works alongside the South East Lincolnshire Council Partnership on Shared Prosperity Funding Grant Panels, focussed on people and skills, with procurement of a range of options to support the economically inactive to move closer to the labour market and into work.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 22/03/2024 11:17:40 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	350 label Biography information for Sir John Hayes

1696471

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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	Sickness Benefits: South Holland and the Deepings
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 South Holland and the Deepings constituency are on long-term sickness benefits; and how many were on such benefits in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	South Holland and The Deepings
tabling member printed	Sir John Hayes
uin	18839
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2024 answer text <p>People on ‘long-term sickness benefits’ have been assumed as those in the main phase of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Universal Credit (UC) Limited Capability to Work (LCW) and Limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) groups. The Department regularly publishes Benefit Combination statistics on <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Stat-Xplore</a> and these were <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistical-summaries#:~:text=Changes to Benefit Combinations statistics" target="_blank">extended inFebruary 2024</a> to include additional information for those on ESA and the UC Health Journey, so can now be used to provide the information, from quarter ending May 2019 to the end of the latest quarter, August 2023.</p><p> </p><p>The figures can be obtained from the ‘<a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/opendatabase?id=Ben_Com_New" target="_blank">Benefit Combinations - Data from May 2019 for England and Wales</a>’ dataset using the ‘Additional Claim Details’ options. The ‘ESA Phase of Claim’ and ‘UC Health Journey’ options should be used to identify quarterly totals for ESA Support Group (SG), ESA Work-related Activity Group (WRAG), Universal Credit Limited Capability to Work (LCW) and Limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) groups and those on one benefit but not the other using the ‘Not On’ options. The ‘Geography’ option can then be used to filter by the relevant Westminster Parliamentary Constituency.</p><p> </p><p>Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html" target="_blank">guidance</a> on how to extract the information required.</p><p> </p><p>Using the Benefit Combinations data on Stat-Xplore, the number of people on long-term sickness benefits in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency is provided in the table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Aug 2019</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Aug 2020</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Aug 2021</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Aug 2022</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Aug 2023</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p>2,540</p></td><td><p>2,750</p></td><td><p>2,980</p></td><td><p>3,260</p></td><td><p>3,940</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Stat-Xplore</a></p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><ol><li>Totals are rounded to 10.</li><li>UC Data is not available prior to 2019 as some UC claims were recorded on an interim operational system called UC Live Service (UCLS). Figures for UCLS Health claimants are not currently collated and to develop that information would incur disproportionate cost.</li><li>A person can claim both ESA and be on the UC health caseload and these claimants would be counted in each separate caseload in the published data on Stat-Xplore. Benefit Combinations data on Stat-Xplore allows these 'Dual claims' to be identified and only counted once in the above.</li></ol> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 25/03/2024 11:58:03 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	350 label Biography information for Sir John Hayes

1696497

registered interest
date	15/03/2024
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	Pensions: Financial Assistance Scheme
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 estimate of the cost of uprating pensions payable through the Financial Assistance Scheme to the same level as those payable through the Pension Protection Fund.
tabling member constituency	North East Fife
tabling member printed	Wendy Chamberlain
uin	18944
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The indexation rules for the Pension Protection Fund and the Financial Assistance Scheme are the same. Payments based on benefits accrued after April 1997 are increased in line with the Consumer Price Index, capped at 2.5 per cent. There is no award of increases on payments based on benefits accrued before April 1997.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/03/2024 14:52:24 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4765 label Biography information for Wendy Chamberlain

1696203

registered interest
date	14/03/2024
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	Members: Correspondence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to respond to the letter of 18 October 2023 from the hon. Member for Warley relating to Mr Bashir Ali and his father Aden Ali Dine.
tabling member constituency	Warley
tabling member printed	John Spellar
uin	18646
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>On 19 March 2024, DWP provided an interim response to the MP’s office. A full response will be provided in due course.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/03/2024 14:46:45 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	318 label Biography information for John Spellar

1696218

registered interest
date	14/03/2024
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	Department for Work and Pensions: Pay
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 impact that changes in the national (a) living and (b) minimum wage commencing on 1 April 2024 will have on staffing costs in his Department; and how many staff in his Department will receive a pay uplift as a result of those changes.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	18697
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2024 answer text <p>On 1 April 2024 the statutory National Living Wage (NLW) will be uplifted from £10.42 to £11.44 per hour, a rise of 9.8%. DWP pay NLW regardless of age.</p><p> </p><p>Based on January headcount data 22,267 DWP employees will be impacted by the 2024 increase to the NLW and will require a pay uplift to meet the new NLW rate. This is estimated to cost the department £22.59m including Employer National Insurance and Pension contributions this year.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 19/03/2024 16:28:48 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

1696220

registered interest
date	14/03/2024
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	Jobcentres: Armed Forces
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of his Department’s funding is allocated to (a) employing and (b) supporting armed forces champions in jobcentre plus districts.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	18642
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The funding for Armed Forces Champions forms part of the overall allocation for Jobcentre Work Coaches and Leaders. There is no specific funding separately identifiable for the role of either employing or supporting our Armed Forces Champions, however the Department is committed to providing 11 dedicated Armed Forces Champion lead posts who oversee 50 Armed Forces Champions posts across the DWP Jobcentre network.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 21/03/2024 10:07:01 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1696235

registered interest
date	14/03/2024
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, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2018 to Question 133803 on Universal Credit, what progress he has made on developing guidance for (a) Universal Credit claimants and (b) his Department's staff on the reporting and treatment of unreimbursed expenses.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	18785
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The Work Coach guidance was updated in 2018.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 21/03/2024 17:04:49 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan