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1130135

	registered interest
	date	05/06/2019
	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 estimate she has made of the proportion of universal credit claimants who have had payments reduced because they had previously received advances.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	260559
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>Universal Credit (UC) new claim advances provide access to a payment for those in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first UC payment is due. Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has taken a number of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that recovery arrangements are personalised and reasonable. From October 2019 we are reducing the maximum rate of deductions to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery period for advances from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available data is for eligible claims to UC Full Service that are due a payment in February 2019. Of these claims 44% had a deduction to repay a UC advance.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><ol><li>Data has been sourced from UC Full Service.</li></ol> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 10/06/2019 14:00:26 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1126167

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Treasury: Retirement
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support his Department provides to staff in his Department (a) in their transition to retirement and (b) to (i) maintain and (ii) increase the physical and mental wellbeing staff planning for retirement.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	253517
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>In their transition to retirement staff are invited to attend a Civil Service pre-retirement course focusing on many topics including wellbeing, activities, pension and other finances. They also have access to an Employee Assistance Programme free of charge that can provide information and support relating to retirement including preparation, change, relationships, staying active, benefit entitlement and wills. They may also be able to take partial retirement in order to reduce their working hours and ease them into retirement.</p><p> </p><p>HM Treasury encourages staff throughout their careers to maintain good physical and mental wellbeing and work life balance. Much information, support and activities are available to them including:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Mental health awareness training;</li><li>Various Networks including a Mental Wellbeing Network and an Age Network that champions older workers;</li><li>Occupational Health (providing information on healthy lifestyle and eating);</li><li>On-site gym and activity classes;</li><li>Sports and Social Club offering a wide variety of sport activities that can be accessed following retirement.</li></ul><p> </p><p>HM Treasury also encourages volunteering that can continue into retirement, which can give those approaching retirement a sense of purpose going forward.</p> answering member constituency Newark answering member printed Robert Jenrick question first answered 16/05/2019 12:31:18 answering member 4320 label Biography information for Robert Jenrick
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1127662

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many three year sanctions were issued by her Department to social security benefit recipients in each of the last 10 years.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	256249
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/06/2019 answer text <p>Information on the number of three years’ sanctions is recorded on our systems and we centrally collate some Management Information. However, the total number cannot be calculated as it is collected across different benefits on different systems and is not centrally collated in a way that allows analysis to be undertaken easily. An extensive interrogation of our systems would be required in order to provide the information requested, which would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>Nevertheless, from the Department’s quarterly sanctions publication, in table 1.7 of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-sanctions-statistics-to-january-2019" target="_blank">supporting data tables</a>, 2,904 individuals have received three (or more) high level JSA sanction failures, from October 2012 to January 2019. It is not possible to readily unpick how many of these were 3 year sanctions (if two high level sanctions received by an individual were more than a year apart then that would mean they would not have been escalated up to a 3 year sanction duration after their 3rd high level failure). The published data on individuals that received a third high level JSA sanction cannot be split by year. This is because the data is not structured in a way to readily analyse this.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 03/06/2019 12:46:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1126661

	registered interest
	date	14/05/2019
	answering body	Wales Office
	answering dept id	28
	answering dept short name	Wales
	answering dept sort name	Wales
	hansard heading	Poverty: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, on what dates (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have met with counterparts in the Department for Work and Pensions to discuss poverty rates for disabled people in Wales in each of the last two years; and what the outcomes were of those meetings.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	254157
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>Wales Office Ministers and I meet regularly with colleagues from the Department for Work and Pensions on an array of issues including those facing disabled people in Wales.</p><p>The percentage of working age adults in Wales who live in a household where there was someone with a disability that were in relative poverty has fallen 3 percentage points when compared with two years earlier.</p><p>We are committed to supporting disabled people across the UK, and under this Government around 1 million disabled households will gain on average around £100 more per month on Universal Credit than on legacy benefits.</p> answering member constituency Vale of Glamorgan answering member printed Alun Cairns question first answered 20/05/2019 16:42:24 answering member 4086 label Biography information for Alun Cairns
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1126653

	registered interest
	date	14/05/2019
	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 estimates he has made the number of children in absolute child poverty in each year since 2005.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	254154
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>Estimates of the number of children living in low income are published in the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. The latest publication is available <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Estimates of the number of children in absolute low income households before housing costs in each year since 2005 are available below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Number of children living in absolute low income households before housing costs</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2004/05</p></td><td><p>3.0m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2005/06</p></td><td><p>3.1m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2006/07</p></td><td><p>3.0m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2007/08</p></td><td><p>2.9m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008/09</p></td><td><p>2.8m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009/10</p></td><td><p>2.5m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010/11</p></td><td><p>2.3m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>2.6m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>2.5m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>2.4m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>2.3m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>2.3m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>2.2m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>2.5m</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 20/05/2019 16:38:42 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1127931

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	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, pursuant to the Answer of 20 May 2019 to Question 254154 on Poverty: Children, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the decline in the number of children in absolute low-income households between 2004-5 and 2009-10.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	256959
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>Absolute low income takes the 60 per cent of median income threshold from 2010/11 and moves this in line with inflation. This is designed to assess how low incomes are faring with reference to inflation. The percentage of individuals in absolute low income will decrease if individuals with lower incomes see their real incomes rising (increasing by more than inflation).</p><p> </p><p>Trends in the number of children in absolute poverty can be found using the link below, in table 4.4tr, in the file “children-trends-hbai-1994-95-2017-18-tables.ods”.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789816/hbai-2017-2018-tables-ods-files.zip" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789816/hbai-2017-2018-tables-ods-files.zip</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Between 2004/05 and 2009/10 the number of children in absolute low income households before housing costs fell, indicating that children in lower income households saw their real incomes rise by more than inflation. However, the number of children in absolute low income households after housing costs was 3.8m in both 2004/05 and 2009/10. This suggests that for low income households with children, these real rises in income were offset by increasing housing costs during this period.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/06/2019 14:38:17 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1127958

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	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 she has made of the number of children in absolute poverty in each year between 1989 and 1997.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	256960
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>National statistics on the number of children living in absolute low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication.</p><p> </p><p>HBAI data is unavailable before 1994/95 and are for the United Kingdom from 2002/03 onwards. Earlier years are for Great Britain only. The number of children in absolute poverty from 1994/95 can be found using the link below, in table 4.4tr, in the file “children-trends-hbai-1994-95-2017-18-tables.ods”.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789816/hbai-2017-2018-tables-ods-files.zip" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789816/hbai-2017-2018-tables-ods-files.zip</a></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/06/2019 14:27:34 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1128412

	registered interest
	date	22/05/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria her Department uses to assess whether people are (a) destitute and (b) living in destitution.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	257500
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/06/2019 answer text <p>There is no official definition of destitution. The Department for Work and Pensions annually publishes Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics, based on the Family Resources Survey, which sets out four official measures of relative and absolute low income before and after housing costs. The closest measure in HBAI to a measure of destitution is the number of children in “severe low income” (50% of median before housing costs). HBAI also provides measures of material deprivation based on questions to parents and pensioners about their ability to afford the basics in life such as heating homes and paying bills. In addition, new questions have been added to the Family Resources Survey to develop a food insecurity measure from 2021.</p><p>New experimental statistics to measure poverty will be developed, and published by DWP in 2020. The new analysis will be based on the work undertaken by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) which was presented in the SMC’s ‘A New Measure of Poverty’ report last year.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 05/06/2019 13:33:57 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1130146

	registered interest
	date	05/06/2019
	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
	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 5 June 2019 to Question 257500, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of formally adopting a definition for destitution.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	260560
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>This Government is committed to broadening our understanding of people’s living standards. New experimental statistics to measure poverty are being developed, based on the work undertaken by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) which was presented in the SMC’s ‘A New Measure of Poverty’ report last year. This development work includes consideration of groups of people previously omitted from poverty statistics, like rough sleepers and those just above the low income threshold but in overcrowded housing, as well as consideration of a wider measurement framework of poverty covering the depth, persistence and lived experience of poverty.</p><p>There is no agreed way of defining destitution. External organisations (most notably the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)) have attempted to define and measure destitution. The JRF’s definition of destitution, however, is complex, and challenging to measure with accuracy. The JRF admit that there is a wide margin of uncertainty about the numbers they identify as destitute. The government therefore has no plans to adopt this definition as any official definition of destitution should be measurable and accurate.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 10/06/2019 12:49:24 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1126666

	registered interest
	date	14/05/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Owner Occupation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2019 to Question 251918, what assessment he has made of the decline in home ownership rates among NS-SEC classification routine occupations.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	254158
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>The annual English Housing Survey collects home ownership data (including, since 2015-16, NS-SEC data) and the most recent report showed that the rate of home ownership for 35-44 years olds has increased for the first time in over a decade. The changes in home ownership rate between 2015-16 and 2016-17 for each NS-SEC classification, including the decline for routine occupations, is not statistically significant. We will continue to monitor this closely as further data is collected.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 20/05/2019 14:39:56 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane