The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 21590, how many universal credit claimants his Department expects to notify.
Priti Patel
The information requested is not currently available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that all residual legacy benefit caseloads will move onto universal credit by 2021 as forecast in the policy costings of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.
Priti Patel
Testing of the migration of legacy claimants onto Universal Credit will take place during 2017. Following this national migration will commence in 2018 and by 2020/21 the move to Universal Credit will be complete.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23991, whether calls to make a claim for benefit are free for all (a) pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, (b) monthly contract mobile telephones and (c) landline telephones.
Justin Tomlinson
All benefit new claims lines have 0800 numbers and are therefore free whether claimants call from mobile phones or landlines, with the exception of Universal Credit which has an 0345 number as the expectation is that claims are made online.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants there were in (a) Tameside, (b) Oldham, (c) Wigan and (d) Warrington in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Priti Patel
The information you have requested is available in the official Universal Credit statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) maintained primary schools, (b) maintained secondary schools, (c) primary academies and (d) secondary academies provide at least two hours of physical education per week.
Edward Timpson
Information on the proportion of schools providing at least two hours of physical education (PE) per week is not held by the Department.
Through the primary PE and sport premium, primary schools have received over £450m of ring-fenced funding to improve PE and sport. We have committed to continue this funding until 2020. In December 2015, we published a report looking at how schools used the primary PE and sport premium and the impact of the fund on PE and sports provision. Primary schools reported spending around 2 hours per week on curricular PE in both 2013/14 and 2014/15[1]. 87% of schools also reported that the quality of PE teaching had increased since the introduction of the premium.
We do not hold information on how much time is spent on curricular PE for secondary schools.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-an-investigation-in-primary-schools
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to train as children’s social workers.
Edward Timpson
Government policy intends to improve the quality of social work and overhaul the system of social worker education to make it more effective.
In December 2015, the Prime Minister announced a further package of measures to underpin the Government’s commitment to reforming social work and protecting vulnerable children, part of which is a £100m investment during the current parliament for fast-track social work training programmes such as Step Up and Frontline.
There were 1875 applications for the 2015 cohort of Frontline, and 4306 applications for 2016 Cohort of Step Up. We aim to train over 3,000 new social workers through fast-track schemes over the Spending Review period.
In addition to this commitment to fast-track schemes government invested £695m into mainstream social work training between 2010-15, including social work bursaries and Education Support Grant, which supported generic qualifications for those wishing to enter social work. The 2015/16 funding for social work bursaries and Education Support Grant is £81M. There is no confirmation for the 2016/7 allocation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to school budgets of (a) pupil mobility, (b) staff turnover, (c) pupils not speaking English at home and (d) pupils with special educational needs.
Mr Sam Gyimah
We recently published our consultations on national funding formulae for schools and high needs funding. A national funding formula will put an end to currently unfair arrangements where children with the same needs attract different amounts of money simply because of where they live. We believe that the national funding formula should target funding to pupils who are likely to face additional barriers in realising their potential and are proposing to include additional needs factors including for English as an additional language. For pupils with special educational needs (SEN), we propose that mainstream schools should continue to be responsible for the first £6,000 of costs in respect of each of their pupils with SEN, and receive top-up funding from the local authority for costs in excess of £6,000. Local authorities reported that they will allocate £750m to primary and secondary schools in 2015-16 in the form of top-up funding for pupils with SEN.
Under current local funding formulae, the total amount allocated to school budgets in relation to pupil mobility is £24m for 2015-16 and for English as an additional language, it is £267m. It is for school leaders to determine how best to use their full budget so that all pupils, including mobile pupils, pupils with English as an additional language and those with special educational needs, can reach their full potential.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20339, how a longstanding mental health condition is taken account of in assessing whether a claimant is eligible for an advance payment of universal credit.
Priti Patel
When a work coach assesses a claimant’s financial need they will take into account all of the claimant’s circumstances including any health conditions and any vulnerabilities. The Work Coach is trained to maintain an on-going conversation with the claimant about their financial capability and build up a relationship of trust with the claimant over time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the mortality rate for people aged between 40 and 50 was in (a) England and Wales, (b) Newcastle, (c) Sheffield and (d) Newham in each of the last five years.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the effect on annual spending on (a) employment support by non-government providers and (b) Jobcentre Plus of the introduction of the Work and Health Programme; and if he will make a statement.
Priti Patel
Contracted provision will continue to play a crucial role in supporting the long term unemployed and those with health conditions and disabilities. The new Work & Health Programme will support those who have reached the 24 month point in their claim as well as targeted referrals of claimants with health conditions and disabilities. By 2020/21, the core funding from central government for this provision will be around £130m a year. We will work closely with the market to ensure a smooth transition from existing provision to the new provision.