Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans that referral to welfare to work schemes will be voluntary for people with disabilities after the end of the current contracts for the Work Programme and Work Choice.

Priti Patel

Increasing disability employment is a key part of the Government’s aim to achieve full employment. That is why this Government is committed to halving the disability employment gap by creating the opportunity for a million more disabled people to work.

The Spending Review announced that a new ‘Work and Health Programme’ will replace Work Choice and the Work Programme when current contracts end, restructuring our current provision to providing the best possible support for claimants with disabilities or health conditions as well as those who are long term unemployed. The Department will work with stakeholders on the design, including the structure and how people will be referred to the programme.

The Government will publish a White Paper next year that will set out reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities and further reduce the disability employment gap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of households in receipt of universal credit who receive support for housing costs are also subject to all work-related requirements.

Justin Tomlinson

The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people stopped claiming (a) jobseeker’s allowance and (b) employment and support allowance in the most recent month for which figures are available; and what proportion of such people ended their claim after moving into work.

Priti Patel

The available information which shows the number of off-flows from the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimant count is published here:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp

Guidance for users can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp

The available information which shows the number of off-flows from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is published here:

http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/flows/flows_off/tabtool.html

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

Individuals ending a claim for JSA are not required to inform the Department of their destinations and hence the destination information published on the NOMIS website is incomplete.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations which had planned, prior to the announcement in paragraph 1.125 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, to raise rents above any of the relevant local housing allowance rates between 2016 and 2020.

Brandon Lewis

The Department does not hold information about the individual rent setting plans of local authorities or housing associations.

At Budget 2015 the Government announced its intention to reduce rents for housing association and local authority tenants, by 1% a year, for four years, from April 2016. This will help protect social tenants from rising housing costs, whilst protecting taxpayers from rising costs of subsidising rents through housing benefit. We expect local authorities and housing associations to be planning on this basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of capping housing benefit for social tenants at the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate on social housing supply.

Justin Tomlinson

Capping high social sector rents at the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate does not come into effect until April 2018 and then only where a new tenancy is taken out or a tenancy is renewed after April 2016 and the resulting social rent charged exceeds the appropriate Local Housing Allowance rate for the size of household in the area at that time

Because a range of factors will influence where and when a cap is applied, including behavioural responses from both claimants and landlords, it is not possible to assess the potential effect of the policy on social housing supply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2015 to Question 18835, what alternative options will be available to single people claiming housing benefit who are under the age of 35 and are not able to afford a social tenancy from April 2018.

Justin Tomlinson

Discretionary Housing Payments will be available to help single people under 35 (claiming either housing benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit) if they need help transitioning to shared accommodation rate in April 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the Government has ended the (a) Mandatory Work Activity scheme and (b) Community Work Placements element of the Help to Work scheme.

Priti Patel

The economy and labour market have improved since the introduction of our employment programmes. Long-term unemployment has fallen by 35% since 2010 to 509,000, the lowest level in six years. The support we provide to claimants needs to reflect recent labour market changes and the needs of claimants. That is why there will be an increase in funding and new contracted provision to help people with disability and health conditions and the very long-term unemployed return to and remain in work.

The Mandatory Work Activity and Community Work Placement contracts come to an end in March 2016. We always intended to review the contracts at this time. We will provide support to the long-term unemployed through a strengthened JobCentre Plus offer for those out of work for 12-24 months, and for anyone still unemployed after 2 years we will refer them to contracted provision for further support.

This approach builds on our best evidence of what works to support claimants back into work, and gets a good deal for the taxpayer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 7 of the Government’s response to the Fifth Report from the Work and Pensions Committee, on Benefit Sanctions: Beyond the Oakley Review, HC 557, when the Government plans to publish the results of its evaluation of the pilot programme of in-work sanctions.

Priti Patel

Following a successful Proof of Concept stage, national roll-out of the Universal Credit In-Work Progression Randomised Control Trial commenced from 7 December 2015. Recruitment into the trial will continue until the target sample of 15,000 in-work participants is achieved. We currently expect to reach this number by Autumn 2016, after which time the trial will continue to run for a period of 12 months. An evaluation report will follow in 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 November 2014 to Question 211605, how many and what proportion of initial enquiries by HM Revenue and Customs, which sought confirmation that arrears had been paid to workers following enforcement action due to non-payment of the national minimum wage, were unable to confirm that the requisite arrears had been paid in full in each of the last six years.

Mr David Gauke

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it. Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay back arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not keep data in a format to enable provision of the information requested. To reiterate the answer provided to UIN 211605, HMRC will pursue non-payment of arrears through civil recovery action.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much has been spent on (a) maintenance of and (b) upgrade works for (i) Tornado, (ii) Typhoon and (iii) Reaper drones in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne

The costs of maintenance and capability upgrades for Tornado, Typhoon and the Reaper Unmanned Air System, in each of the last six financial years, are shown in the table below.

	Financial year (£ million)
	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Tornado: capability upgrade work	87.2	69.3	33.3	28.9	58.2	45.6
Tornado: maintenance	311.0	303.8	369.7	344.2	247.7	184.9
Typhoon: capability upgrade work	0	0	0	0	66.8	178.4
Typhoon: maintenance	392.7	475.3	499.6	294.8	313.1	460.2
Reaper: maintenance	4.8	4.8	4.8	9.8	27.1	23.5
Reaper: capability upgrade work	0.2	0.4	0.4	0.6	1.3	1.3

Note: Costs for all platforms are extracted from the equipment support programme budget.

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