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1167004

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Local Housing Allowance
	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 2 July 2019 research, Cover the cost: restoring local housing allowance rates to prevent homelessness, commissioned by Crisis on 2 July 2019, if her Department will undertake a cost-benefit analysis to assess the potential effect of restoring local housing allowance rates to the level of the cheapest third of local rents.
	tabling member constituency	Walthamstow
	tabling member printed	Stella Creasy
	uin	7137
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>We estimate the cost would be about £800 million in 2020/21, excluding any changes in behaviour by tenants and landlords.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/11/2019 18:29:26 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4088 label Biography information for Stella Creasy

1167020

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Department for Work and Pensions: International Men's Day
	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 mark International Men's Day on 19 November 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Shipley
	tabling member printed	Philip Davies
	uin	7099
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2019 answer text <p>No one should suffer unfair treatment because of their gender. Every year International Men’s Day offers an opportunity to highlight how outcomes for men and boys can be improved and to talk about some of the important work going on every day across Government to do this.</p><p> </p><p>The work ranges from the introduction of shared parental leave, which allows men to take time away from the workplace and bond with their new children, benefitting that crucial long-term relationship for both parent and child, to our programme tackling LGBT bullying in schools which seeks to protect those who may be victimised by outdated and stereotypical ideas of what it means to be a ‘real man’.</p><p> </p><p>Government is also working with local authorities to ensure their suicide prevention plans support more men, and in the Domestic Abuse Bill we propose to create a statutory definition of domestic abuse that makes clear men also can be victims of this abhorrent crime.</p><p /><p>In DWP we have a series of national events taking place over the coming weeks to mark International Men’s Day. DWP have partnered with external organisations (The Good Lad initiative and Springboard Consultancy) to give a platform to raise awareness of the challenges that men face in life and raising awareness of men’s wellbeing. We have also invited DWP senior positive role models to talk about their journey, DWP User Researchers to talk about the issues that impact on men at work and the DWP Women’s Network to lead a session on allies and how allies benefit us all.</p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 05/11/2019 16:37:40 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

1167098

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualifications
	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 number of hardship payments made by her Department which have been directly attributed to the imposition of benefit sanctions in (a) Vale of Clwyd parliamentary constituency, (b) Wales and (c) the UK in each of the last four years.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	7077
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>Hardship payments provide financial protection for claimants whose benefit is reduced by a Fraud Loss of Benefit penalty or a Benefit Sanction.</p><p> </p><p>For a) and b), the information requested is not readily available at a country or constituency level and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>For c) the requested data is provided for Great Britain in the following two tables for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) respectively. Please note, figures supplied are derived from data which has not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standard. These results can change retrospectively as further information is received. They should therefore be treated with caution. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="5"><p>JSA - Number of hardship payments awarded as a result of a sanction</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>2019 (year to Aug 19)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>120,000</p></td><td><p>58,000</p></td><td><p>29,000</p></td><td><p>10,000</p></td><td><p>Fewer than 1,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="5"><p>ESA - Number of hardship payments awarded as a result of a sanction</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>2019 (year to Aug 19)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>4,000</p></td><td><p>2,000</p></td><td><p>1,000</p></td><td><p>Fewer than 1,000</p></td><td><p>Fewer than 1,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>For Universal Credit, the data cannot be disaggregated to identify the hardship payments that have been directly attributed to the application of a benefit sanction from those resulting from a fraud penalty.</p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 04/11/2019 18:04:16 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1167120

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Access to Work Programme
	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 has taken to enable Access to Work (a) advisors and (b) assessors to follow-up with claimants to ensure that recommended support has been implemented effectively.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	7036
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>Access to Work advisers work with customers and their employers where there are difficulties in procuring the support awarded under the grant. Where there is a dispute about whether a piece of equipment should be procured, Access to Work has no legal power to intervene in the dispute. Where there is a dispute between the customer and the employer Access to Work will signpost the customer and their employer to the Government Equalities Office who will advise on matters relating to disputes over reasonable adjustments.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 04/11/2019 17:23:13 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1167121

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Access to Work Programme
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will undertake a review of section 4.05 of the Access to Work Holistic Assessments Provider Guidance, published on 7 August 2019 which states that a report may be deemed not to meet the specified standard (and therefore rejected) if it is evident that the Assessor has been influenced by customer preference and has not considered the minimum requirements.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	7037
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>DWP is not looking to review paragraph 4.05 of the Access to Work Holistic Assessment Provider Guidance.</p><p> </p><p>AtW recognises the importance of the holistic assessment for customers and as a result introduced a measure for quality as part of these new holistic assessments contracts that went live in June 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Access to Work advisers and the holistic assessment suppliers will always consider customer preference in determining if similar support is available to the same specification providing a more cost effective solution.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 04/11/2019 13:45:06 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1167164

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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 and Welfare State
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to respond to the Work and Pensions Committee’s (a) twenty-seventh report of Session 2017-19, Universal Credit: natural migration, HC 1884 and (b) twenty-eighth report of Session 2017-19, Welfare safety net, HC 1539.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	7075
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>The Department has carefully reviewed the recommendations made by the Work and Pensions Select Committee in both reports. A response to the (b) twenty-eighth report of Session 2017-19, Welfare safety net, HC 1539 was sent on 1 November 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s response to (a) twenty-seventh report of Session 2017-19, Universal Credit: natural migration, HC 1884 will be sent to the Work and Pensions Committee in due course.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/11/2019 17:21:23 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1167175

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Workplace Pensions: Dunfermline and West Fife
	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 Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 294182, how many employers in Dunfermline and West Fife constituency have not met their duties pertaining to the automatic enrolment of employees in a workplace pension scheme.
	tabling member constituency	Dunfermline and West Fife
	tabling member printed	Douglas Chapman
	uin	7168
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.</p><p> </p><p>The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to non-compliance of employers.</p><p> </p><p>The Pensions Regulator’s data on automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency is available via the following weblink: <a href="https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests" target="_blank">https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests</a></p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 04/11/2019 16:40:38 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4402 label Biography information for Douglas Chapman

1167215

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Workplace Pensions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Pensions Regulator makes pension schemes regularly reconcile and report on the accuracy of auto-enrolment pensions data.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
	uin	HL483
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2019 answer text <p>Automatic Enrolment into workplace pensions is working. It has transformed pension saving for millions of today’s workers. It has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving seen in the decade prior to its introduction. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012, workplace participation has increased among eligible employees from a low of 55 per cent in 2012 to 87 per cent in 2018. The Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under Automatic Enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>The Pensions Regulator’s priorities are contained in their corporate plan 2019-22 and include; providing clarity, enforcing the high standards of trusteeship, governance and administration they expect.</p><p> </p><p>Qualifying pension schemes for Automatic Enrolment are subject to the regulatory framework overseen by The Pensions Regulator in respect of payment and accuracy of contributions. The Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions; provide information to help members check their contributions; and report material payment failures to the Regulator.</p><p> </p><p>The regulatory regime is designed so that errors can be identified and material failures can be reported, the Regulator can then require restitution; and, where necessary, make use of its enforcement powers. The Government keeps all aspects of automatic enrolment under regular review but has no plans to make changes to the compliance framework at this time.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 04/11/2019 14:12:19 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1167228

	registered interest
	date	29/10/2019
	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	Thomas Cook: Insolvency
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that former Thomas Cook employees who apply for, and are eligible for, Universal Credit begin receiving payments swiftly.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Doocey
	uin	HL496
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2019 answer text <p>The Department is monitoring all new claims to Universal Credit to identify where the claimant is a former employee of Thomas Cook so that they quickly receive the right level of support.</p><p> </p><p>For claimants who require urgent financial support, new claim advances provide access to a payment quickly, until the first regular Universal Credit payment is due. 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.</p><p> </p><p>From April 2019 Citizens Advice (England and Wales) and Citizens Advice Scotland are delivering ‘Help to Claim’ support to claimants making a new Universal Credit claim. Help to Claim have offered locally tailored support to former Thomas Cook employees in need of assistance face to face, and through prioritised telephony and web-chat channels.</p><p> </p><p>Where we have seen an increase in demand, additional staff have been deployed from neighbouring offices on a temporary basis.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is offering a range of support to anyone affected by the closure of Thomas Cook, through our Rapid Response Service (RRS) and wider DWP services. This is a redundancy service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy. It is coordinated nationally by the National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT) and is managed by Jobcentre Plus.</p><p> </p><p>The RRS has been mobilised to help people find a new job as soon as possible by offering tailored support. Each Jobcentre Plus district deploy resources according to the situation and the requirements of the workforce. The RRS is delivered in partnership with a range of national and local partners, including National Careers Service and local service providers.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 05/11/2019 13:05:43 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
	tabling member	4197 label Biography information for Baroness Doocey