Tag: Debbie Abrahams

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of in work personal independence payment (PIP) claimants who will no longer be able to work as a result of his Department’s proposed changes to PIP aids and appliances points.

Justin Tomlinson

As confirmed by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State in his statement to the House on 21 March, the proposed changes to PIP will not be going ahead.

We spend around £50bn every year on benefits alone to support people with disabilities or health conditions, with spending on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) having increased by more than £3 billion since 2010. The government is committed to talking to disabled people, their representatives, healthcare professionals and employers to ensure the welfare system works better with the health and social care systems and provides help and support to those who need it most.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in England are currently registered disabled as a result of having a stroke.

Justin Tomlinson

This information is unavailable as the department does not collect this data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance had a self-indentified care leaver marker used by his Department against their record in (a) October 2013 to March 2014, (b) April 2014 to March 2015 and (c) April 2015 to September 2015.

Priti Patel

The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to ensure that pension schemes are obliged to (a) identify and (b) publish details of costs to a pension fund for scheme members.

Richard Harrington

The Government remains committed to increasing transparency and ensuring that members of pension schemes are able to obtain information about the costs and charges which they bear.

Governance bodies of defined contribution workplace pension schemes are obliged, under existing requirements, to assess costs and charges. We and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are actively considering how to achieve greater transparency and standardisation of transaction costs, and the FCA plans to publish a consultation later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information is recorded for primary and secondary breast cancer by the Cancer Registry on (a) diagnosis dates, (b) stage at diagnosis, (c) age and (d) gender of person at diagnosis.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer; however data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available. Pilot work undertaken in April 2012 in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS). In order to drive up data completeness for the submissions to the NCRS, monthly reports on data quality and completeness of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset are made available to all acute providers.

Since the completion of the pilot project the NCRS in PHE has been working with all acute National Health Service providers in England to improve the reporting of breast cancer recurrence. The collection of this particular item of data remains challenging because relapsed patients may represent in many different ways and through many referral routes.

Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will commission research on the proportion of public and private service providers which offer access to their services through video relay.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Annual correspondence with the FTSE 100 companieshas indicated that from 2013 to present there has been a steady increase in the number of companies that provide video relay. With regards to public sector, DWP plan to launch a pilot service by the end of the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will commission an evaluation of the effectiveness of support for former Independent Living Fund recipients.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government has committed to conducting research on the impact of the Fund’s closure and has already identified a sample of former users who have agreed to participate.

The Government believes that local authorities are best placed to provide for the care needs of people in their local community. The Care Act 2014 introduced stringent minimum standards for this care and it is within this context that local authorities took over responsibility for the care and support of former Independent Living Fund users from 1st July 2015.

The Government has fully-funded local authorities to meet their additional obligations to service users previously in receipt of the Independent Living Fund for the remainder of the 2015/16 financial year and there will continue to be a separate grant to support them for 2016-17. Under proposals currently being consulted on, the Government will also enable local authorities to continue to fully fund the care packages of former Independent Living Fund users for the remainder of the parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment (PIP) claimants in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area will be affected by his Department’s proposed changes to aids and appliances points; and what the average reduction in PIP payment per person will be.

Justin Tomlinson

As confirmed by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State in his statement to the House on 21 March, the proposed changes to PIP will not be going ahead.

We spend around £50bn every year on benefits alone to support people with disabilities or health conditions, with spending on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) having increased by more than £3 billion since 2010. The government is committed to talking to disabled people, their representatives, healthcare professionals and employers to ensure the welfare system works better with the health and social care systems and provides help and support to those who need it most.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many care leavers as identified through the self-identified marker used by his Department between the ages of 18 and 25 had their (a) jobseeker’s allowance and (b) employment and support allowance sanctioned in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Priti Patel

The information requested in respect of care leavers is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department monitors the progress of organisations providing NHS or adult social care towards conforming to the Accessible Information Standard.

Alistair Burt

NHS England published the Accessible Information Standard in July 2015. Compliance with the Standard is a legal duty and organisations that provide National Health Service care or adult social care are required to implement the Standard in full by 31 July 2016. Compliance with the Standard is also a requirement of the NHS Standard Contract 2016/17.

NHS England does not hold information on how many NHS trusts conform to the Standard.

NHS England is not proactively monitoring progress of organisations that provide NHS or adult social care towards conforming to the Accessible Information Standard, as the Standard does not establish a new national audit or dataset which requires organisations to report centrally on their adherence. In addition, NHS England as an organisation does not have a monitoring or inspection remit.

However, the Standard includes requirements for organisations to publish or display an accessible communications policy which explains how they will follow the Accessible Information Standard, and an accessible complaints policy. The inclusion of these requirements is intended to support ease of compliance assessment by interested organisations, and to ensure that people with information and communication support needs are able to provide feedback to organisations about their experiences.

The specification for the Standard also makes clear that commissioning organisations must actively support compliance by organisations from which they commission services and must also seek assurance from providers in this regard.

In addition, the Care Quality Commission will look at evidence of how services implement the Accessible Information Standard as part of their inspection of health services and adult social care services when they make judgements about whether health services are responsive to people’s needs, and adult social care services are responsive to people’s needs and whether they are well led.