Every parliamentary written question tabled by Dan Carden this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1–10 of 10 · Department for Work and Pensions
If he will make an assessment of the impact of State Pension age changes for 1950s-born women living in the Liverpool Walton constituency.
All women born since 6 April 1950 have been affected by changes to State Pension age. Estimates can be made using ONS 2021 Census Data on how many women born in the 1950s resided in each constituency in that year.
Whether he plans to (a) review and (b) amend carer's allowance.
The Government keeps all aspects of Carer’s Allowance (CA) under review to see if it is meeting its objectives. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has a statutory duty to review State Pension and benefit rates each year based on a review of trends in prices and earnings growth in the preceding year. In April 2025 the rate of Carer’s Allowance increased by 1.7% to £83.30 per week. We have taken steps to improve the way CA operates and to support those who can combine their caring responsibilities with some paid work, including changing the weekly CA earnings limit to match 16 hours work at National Living Wage levels. This is the largest ever increase in the earnings limit since CA was introduced in 1976 and the highest percentage increase since 2001. Over 60,000 additional people will be able to receive CA between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as a result of investment worth around £500 million.
What steps his Department is taking to improve safety standards in the construction industry.
In line with its published Strategy 2022 to 2032, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on the most effective and efficient ways to improve the health and safety performance of all industries in Great Britain, including construction. HSE uses a variety of approaches in the construction industry. HSE visits construction sites where they have intelligence to suggest risk is not being managed adequately and investigates incidents in line with their published selection criteria. Planned inspection visits target work related health risks, the biggest cause of lost time and longer-term worker injury and address safety risks where present. As well as site visits, HSE engages with construction through a variety of channels including delivering industry talks, stakeholder events and engaging with the media and publishing targeted articles. HSE works with and through stakeholders that represent a cross section of the industry including the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), the Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) and Working Well Together (WWT). There are dedicated HSE webpages and a range of freely available guidance to enable the construction industry to comply with health and safety law and keep themselves and others safe. HSE circulate a monthly construction e-bulletin which has 140,000 subscribers and, where needed, addresses specific safety risks.
What recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of statutory sick pay.
The Government is bringing in changes to Statutory Sick Pay through the Employment Rights Bill which will mean up to 1.3 million low-paid employees will now be entitled to SSP, and all eligible employees will be paid from the first day of sickness absence, benefitting millions of employees. Removing the waiting period means that all employees will receive at least £60 extra at the start of their sickness absence, rising to £150 if they work two days per week, compared to the current system. With these changes, we believe the current rate is fair and achieves the right balance between providing support for employees who are unable to work due to sickness or ill-health whilst limiting the cost to employers. We also know that many employees are eligible for more than the statutory minimum through contractual or occupational sick pay arrangements with their employer.
What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the findings of the Autonomy Institute's report, entitled Transforming Employment and Support Infrastructure, published in February 2025.
The findings from the Autonomy Institute's report, entitled ‘Transforming Employment and Support Infrastructure’, demonstrates the importance of reforming Jobcentres and the difference this can make to citizens. Through the Get Britain Working White Paper published in November 2024, the government set out our vision to reform Jobcentre Plus and create a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access employment support, aligned more effectively with skills and careers. We recognise that people are individuals with different support needs, and we want everyone who wants it to be able to access tailored support, not just those on benefits. We are taking a test and learn approach to developing the new service and are committed to working with users of the new service, and organisations representing their needs, throughout the design process to ensure the new service is inclusive, accessible, and works for everyone. We want to shift the focus of the customer-work coach relationship away from compliance and box-ticking around these requirements to make room for more constructive, personalised, career-focused conversations. As we set out in the White Paper, we have committed to develop the work coach profession and the careers adviser profession in England. Further building our work coaches’ capabilities is essential to delivering our ambition for the new service. We will launch a coaching academy that will upskill our teams and ensure they can deliver the high-quality, personalised, action-oriented coaching conversations.
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Youth Guarantee on young people in Liverpool Walton constituency.
In the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Government announced £45 million of funding for eight trailblazers in England to test delivery of the Youth Guarantee. Liverpool City Region are one of the eight areas set to receive a proportion of this funding...
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Get Britain Working White Paper on the services provided by Jobcentres in Liverpool Walton constituency.
The reforms to Jobcentres across Great Britain that we have announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper will be transformative.Key to the White Paper’s successful delivery will be ensuring it is locally responsive and engaged. This will mean i...
What steps her Department is taking to increase uptake of Pension Credit in winter 2024-25.
The Department’s campaign to promote Pension Credit has been running across Great Britain since September. The latest phase of the campaign, which launched on 8 November, is aimed at friends and family - especially adult children of eligible pensioners - ...
What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the report entitled Fix the CMS: key findings from our research on child maintenance, published by Gingerbread
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations and our response to the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.The CMS Service Modernisation Programm...
What steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Education to ensure that care leavers have adequate financial support, in the context of the cost of living.
There are already a number of easements in place within the benefit system to support particular groups – including care leavers. To support the additional challenges care leavers face, care leavers benefit from an exemption to the Shared Accommodation Ra...