The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people living in social housing who will be affected by the cap to local housing allowance.
Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not available. As such it is not possible to accurately estimate the number of disabled people living in social housing that will be affected by this policy in 2018.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what decisions his Department has made on the distribution of funding to relieve the immediate pressures in general practice, set out in NHS England’s General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016.
Alistair Burt
The General Practice Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets out that an extra £2.4 billion a year will be invested in general practice services by 2020/21, representing a 14% increase in real terms. This means that investment will rise from £9.6 billion a year in 2015/16 to over £12 billion a year by 2020/21.
There will be a national £508 million five year Sustainability and Transformation package for general practice to help support struggling practices, develop the workforce, stimulate care redesign and tackle workload. This package will include:
― £56 million, to include a new practice resilience programme starting in 2016/17, and the offer of specialist services to general practitioners suffering from burn out and stress;
― £206 million for workforce measures to grow the medical and non-medical workforce; and
― £246 million to support practices in redesigning services, including a requirement on clinical commissioning groups to provide around £171 million of practice transformational support and a new national £30 million development programme for general practice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employees in receipt of universal credit are paid (a) monthly on the same date each month, (b) monthly on the same day of the week in each month, (c) 4-weekly, (d) 2-weekly and (e) weekly.
Damian Hinds
The specific information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Universal Credit is assessed and paid in a way that fits with the vast majority of claimants in work who are paid monthly. For a minority of cases, there will be instances where UC payments do not align with an individual’s wages, such as those who are paid 4-weekly.
We have consulted and liaised with employers about Universal Credit and its interaction with labour market and employers processes and recommend, where they can, employers align with Universal Credit.
We are currently implementing a test and learn approach to understand the interaction of Universal Credit and employer pay cycles and its effect on awards. This work will include discussions with employers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have flowed off employment and support allowance with a work capability assessment decision of fit for work since 2011; and how many such people’s death was at the same time as defined in the document Mortality Statistics: Employment and support allowance, incapacity benefit or severe disability allowance, published in August 2015.
Priti Patel
The information as requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions were held during the recent visit to the UK by the Indian Prime Minister on Kashmir.
Mr Hugo Swire
I refer the hon. member to my answer of 23 November 2015 (PQ No 16855).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls were made to the Child Maintenance Options Service in each month since November 2015.
Priti Patel
The number of inbound calls received by the Child Maintenance Options Service from November 2015 is shown in the table below:
|
Month |
Number of calls received by the Child Maintenance Options Service |
|
Nov-15 |
35,900 |
|
Dec-15 |
29,600 |
|
Jan-16 |
49,700 |
Notes:
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 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth on 4 August 2015, and followed up on 11 December 2015, on behalf of a constituent, with regard to Government support for small-scale hydro power.
Amber Rudd
Unfortunately officials in the Department of Energy and Climate Change were unable to locate the original correspondence from the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth’s constituent. I can confirm that following an electronic copy being sent from your office on 12 April 2016, I have now responded on 13 April 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discretion is available to local authorities to grant blue badges to disabled people who are in receipt of the enhanced mobility rate of personal independence payment other than through the moving around criteria; and what steps he has taken to monitor local authorities in their exercise of that discretion.
Andrew Jones
It is set out in the Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000 (as amended), that to qualify for a badge via a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) award the applicant must score at least 8 points in the “moving around” activity of the mobility component. There is no discretion for local authorities to issue badges for other PIP awards.
However, where a person fails to qualify for a badge through PIP, they may still apply to their local authority for a badge under the other eligibility criteria; these include any permanent and substantial disabilities (including non-physical disabilities) which cause very considerable difficulty in walking.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employers have been advised that their pay cycles might affect universal credit payments; how many employers have altered their pay cycles as a result of that advice; and how many employees have been affected by such alterations.
Damian Hinds
Throughout the life of Universal Credit, officials and Ministers have consulted and liaised with employers about Universal Credit and its interaction with labour market and employers’ processes.
We are currently implementing a test and learn approach to understand the interaction of Universal Credit and employer pay cycles and its effect on awards. This work will include discussions with employers.