Written questions by Wheeler.

For what reason the cut-off date for eligibility for receipt of winter fuel payment is in June.

Awaiting answer.

Whether he has considered the potential merits of creating a dedicated disability rights enforcement body.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) holds the role of enforcing equality legislation as part of its statutory obligations, including protection from disability discrimination. The EHRC is an independent Non Departmental Public Body and Great Britain’s national equality and human rights body. It regulates equality law across England, Wales and Scotland and human rights across England & Wales. The EHRC makes its own enforcement decisions, including any inquiries and investigations it decides to conduct.

Whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of introducing measures outside of the Pension Schemes Bill to protect the real terms value of pre-1997 defined benefit pension schemes.

We recognise that the absence of indexation on pension rights accrued before April 1997 can erode the value of pensions over time and affect members who rely on these benefits in retirement. The reforms we have introduced through the Pension Schemes Bill will enable more trustees of well funded defined benefit schemes to share surplus with sponsoring employers, and allow them to negotiate additional benefits for members, including discretionary indexation. More broadly and outside the Pension Schemes Bill, the Pensions Regulator already expects trustees to consider whether members would benefit from a discretionary increase and to take account of any history of making such awards.

What steps her Department is taking to support social housing tenants affected by the transition from Employment and Support Allowance to Universal Credit.

We work collaboratively with a broad range of representatives from the Social Rented Sector, with two-way communications to ensure that the customers they represent get the support they need to move safely to Universal Credit. Help to Claim support, provided by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland, provides support to anyone making a new Universal Credit claim, whether that is a new customer or someone moving to Universal Credit from legacy benefits. This includes helping social housing tenants to access adaptations such as direct payments to landlords, as well as navigating the claim process until the first payment is made.

What proportion of Personal Independence Payment recipients are in work in (a) Worsley and Eccles constituency, (b) Salford, (c) Wigan, (d) Greater Manchester City Region and (e) England and Wales.

For the proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdowns, please see table 1 below. Table 1: the percentage of PIP claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdownsGeographyPercentage of PIP claimants in workWorsley and Eccles20Salford13Wigan19Greater Manchester City Region18England and Wales20 Source(s): PIP Administrative Data and HMRC data Notes:Figures are for March 2024 which is the latest employment data available.Figures only include claims made under normal rules and exclude claims made under Special Rules for End of Life (SREL).Figures only include claimants who are working age.Employment category includes self-employed as well as employees.Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential contribution of grassroots sports clubs to providing (a) training, (b) experience and (c) other employment related skills as part of the Youth Guarantee Scheme.

Sports, arts and culture play a vital role in our society and economy. They create hundreds of thousands of jobs, drive economic growth, and bring joy to millions. That is why we formed our initial Youth Guarantee partnerships with the Premier League, Channel 4, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Across the country, many national and local organisations already do inspiring work with disadvantaged young people – helping them to build skills, grow in confidence, and access meaningful experiences, qualifications, and employment. DWP already works with organisations such as the English Football League, Rugby Football League, CoachCore and SportsWorks. We are now exploring opportunities to expand initial Youth Guarantee partnerships by bringing additional organisations from the sports, arts, and culture sectors into national partnerships. For example, in the North West there is a network of grassroots sports organisations that we refer young people to for holistic support through the platform of sport. In the North West they have found that referring to organisations such as Street League gives our young people access to mentoring, career advice, daily sport and fitness activities, and the opportunity to acquire recognised sports qualifications to pursue careers in the industry. We continue to build relationships with grassroots and league clubs across the country to expand our network of options. Following insight with young people, we continue to work with organisations to identify gaps in their existing offers and how we can tailor programmes to better suit their needs. These partnerships will connect young people across the country and offer a wide range of development opportunities – such as apprenticeships, work experience, training courses, and employability programmes. By engaging young people in a shared effort to enter and progress in the workforce, we aim to set them on a path to long-term success.

With reference to paragraphs 7.2 to 7.4 of her Department’s publication entitled Final stage impact assessment: Improve access to Statutory Sick Pay by removing the Lower Earnings Limit and removing the waiting period, published on 21 October 2024, what estimate she has made of the proportion of sickness absences that last at least four weeks; and what average length of sickness absence was estimated to calculate the annual cost of Statutory Sick Pay for businesses.

There is no administrative data collected or recorded when an employee takes a sickness absence. The best evidence available uses findings from the Employee Survey (Employee research Phase 2: Sickness absence and return to work. Quantitative and qualitative research: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64108286d3bf7f02f6e38078/employee-research-phase-2-sickness-absence-and-return-to-work-quantitative-qualitative.pdf.) The survey showed that 64% of respondents had no sickness absence. Of those that do have a sickness absence, 13% of those who have a sickness absence reported an absence of more than 3 weeks. The majority of sickness absences were for up to a week (57%) followed by between 1 to 2 weeks (20%), and between 2 to 3 weeks (10%). These figures demonstrate that when workers took sickness absence, it was usually for a short period of time. Of those who have had a sickness absence, many would receive Occupational Sick Pay. The Employee Survey findings suggest 57% of employees said they would receive OSP, while a further 9% said they would receive some combination of both SSP and OSP. 26% would receive SSP, while the remaining 8% do not know. The estimated cost to business of SSP reforms is derived from a simulation model that incorporates raw sickness absence data from the DWP Employee Survey 2023 alongside characteristic information from the Family Resources Survey. (Family Resources Survey: financial year 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK)

If she will make an estimate of the proportion of employees receiving Statutory Sick Pay whose period of sickness absence reaches (a) one, (b) four, (c) six, (d) eight, (e) sixteen and (f) twenty-eight weeks.

As Statutory Sick Pay is administered and paid by employers, this information is not held by government. Therefore, we are not able to make an assessment of the proportion of employees who are currently receiving Statutory Sick Pay for specific periods of sickness absence.

What estimate she has made of the number of young people out of work in Worsley and Eccles constituency.

The information requested is published and available at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp Guidance for users can be found at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp

How many workers earn under the lower earnings limit in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland.

The Department’s latest estimate is that in Quarter 1 of the financial year 2022/23 there were around 1-1.3 million employees in the UK who earned below the LEL. This figure does not include workers who are self-employed. Of these employees, (a) 86% were in England, (b) 7% were in Scotland, (c) 4% were in Wales and (d) 3% were in Northern Ireland. These figures are drawn from the published estimates from the Department’s Statutory Sick Pay Regulatory Impact Assessment: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6715f848386bf0964853d848/Impact_assessment_improve_access_statutory_sick_pay_removing_lower_earnings_limit_removing_waiting_period.pdf