The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and I both live in Wales and serve Welsh constituencies. We have a consistent presence in Wales as we conduct many visits, events and meetings in Wales on a regular basis.

Details of Ministerial visits and meetings are published on the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales’ website and in Quarterly Ministerial Transparency Returns. In addition, visits and meetings conducted in support of the Wales Office priorities are published in the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales Annual Report and Accounts.

The UK Government has provided extensive support to Ogmore. A typical household in Wales has received almost £2000 in UK Government support to help with the cost of living. This includes over 207,000 payments delivered in Ogmore through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. During the Covid-19 pandemic over 12,000 jobs were supported through the furlough scheme, over £22 million was claimed through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and over £41 million was given to businesses through government-backed business loans

The UK Government has also supported innovation within Ogmore with over £2.4 million awarded by Innovate UK since April 2019. Ogmore has also received over £4,000 through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme to level up local sports facilities.

In addition, Bridgend, the local authority for the Ogmore constituency, is receiving over £23 million from the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The constituency also benefits from the £1.2 billion Cardiff Capital Region City Deal, including the £50 million region-wide sites and premises fund.

This Government is investing in Wales like never before; over £790 million in four City and Regional Growth Deals covering the whole of Wales, £585 million for local authorities to invest through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, including over £100 million for the Multiply adult numeracy programme, £330 million in capital investment through the Levelling Up Fund and £3.2 million to preserve community assets through the Community Ownership Fund. Wales will benefit from two Freeports backed by £52 million, the British Business Bank’s new £130m Regional Investment Fund, and from Project Gigabit which will enable hard to reach communities to access lightning-fast gigabit capable broadband.

The Department does not collect this information.

Customers with traditional prepayment meters should have received their first and second Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) discount vouchers. These have been sent by SMS text, email or post. There is no need to apply for the discount under the Energy Bills Support Scheme in Great Britain.

Data for October indicates all vouchers have been dispatched by suppliers and over 60% of those eligible have claimed these. The Department will publish constituency data in due course.

For private sector employees eligible for automatic enrolment in the Ogmore constituency over the last 5 years, the workplace pension participation rate is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Participation rate for eligible private sector employees in the Ogmore constituency

Source:

DWP estimates derived from ONS ASHE.

Statistical notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest percentage point.
2. Figures in brackets are those with a relatively high degree of uncertainty owing to the low sample size (fewer than 500 respondents).
3. Figures that are different at the 0.05 level of significance are marked *. Results would be statistically significant if there is less than a 1 in 20 chance of any changes being by chance if there is no actual change in the population. The ONS have more guidance here https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/methodologytopicsandstatisticalconcepts/uncertaintyandhowwemeasureit#statistical-significance

In line with the code of practice, the number of Cost of Living Payments made to recipients of a specific constituency is the subject of an upcoming statistical release, and cannot be released before that publication is ready, subject to usual quality assurance.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the total number of Disability Cost of Living Payments made. As of 30 September 2022, 6,000,000 Disability Cost of Living Payments had been made.

The information which will be updated as new payments are made can be found here: Cost of Living Payment management information - GOV.UK.

In line with the code of practice, the number of Cost of Living Payments made to recipients of a specific constituency is the subject of an upcoming statistical release, and cannot be released before that publication is ready, subject to usual quality assurance.

It is not possible to determine how many people are due a Cost of Living Payment, as entitlement may not have been established at the time the payments were made. We will periodically make payments to people who have later been found to be eligible and have not yet received a payment. The payments will continue to be made automatically in the same way the qualifying benefit or tax credit is paid.

The timetable for when Cost of Living Payments are made is published here: Cost of Living Payment - GOV.UK.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the total number of Disability Cost of Living Payments made. As of 30 September 2022, 6,000,000 Disability Cost of Living payments had been made.

The information which will be updated as new payments are made can be found here: Cost of Living Payment management information - GOV.UK.

Every household in the Ogmore constituency on standard gas networks will be covered by the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee scheme, saving around £700 this winter. For those who use off-grid or alternative heating, the Alternative Fuel Payment will provide £100 to support households which do not use mains gas and electricity for heating.

Households in Great Britain should have automatically received the first instalment of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) in October. There is no need for customers to claim the discount.

Prepayment meter customers should have received their first Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) discount voucher. These have been sent by SMS text, email or post.

Suppliers are reporting to BEIS on scheme delivery, including the redemption of prepayment meter vouchers. These figures will be published in due course.

The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) is delivering a £400 non-repayable government discount in instalments over six months from October to March to help 29 million households with energy bills over the winter. The first payment reached consumers in October. There is no need to apply for the discount under the Energy Support Scheme in Great in Britain.

Community energy schemes within Wales have access to support from the Welsh Government.

Ofgem supports community energy projects and welcomes applications from community interest groups, co-operative societies, and community benefit societies to the Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme.

The Government is enabling local areas to tackle net zero goals through UK-wide growth funding schemes. The Government also encourages community energy groups to work closely with their local authority to support the development of community energy projects within these schemes.

Given the level of support already available, the Government has no plans to take further steps to introduce financial incentives for community energy at this time.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19^th January to question number 104377.

On Friday, I was pleased to meet Carole Dawe, who is the manager of the Maesteg JCP office in my constituency. What came across was that this deeply dedicated team of people have been working right through the pandemic as one of the few front-of-house services that is still open, no matter what is put in front of them. Among the real concerns that were put to me was that they are doing an awful lot of bereavement support and that clients are arriving with significant mental health problems. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give me that, as we begin to open up, more support, training and, where needed, staff will be provided to ensure that our constituents get the very best support from what is becoming a lot more than just a simple jobcentre?

The hon. Gentleman is right to praise the staff at Maesteg jobcentre, and I join him in that. This is where the “Plus” is part of Jobcentre Plus. We are conscious that people may need to have many skills, and we continue to try to upskill our work coaches right across the country to make sure they do. It is fair to say that we need to make sure that our work coaches are trained to signpost people to the right services in their area. Many go above and beyond what would normally be expected, and I commend them for doing so.

Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Since automatic enrolment started in 2012 participation rates have been transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.

The Department does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates¹.

I am providing the following information about the impact of automatic enrolment in your constituency, as at end of September 2019²:

In the Ogmore constituency since 2012, approximately 4,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 820 employers have met their duties.

¹Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.

²The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink:

https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests

The Government does not collect official data on the use of food banks. We have worked with the Scottish Government, food insecurity experts, and the Office for National Statistics to introduce a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey starting from April 2019. This means that we will in future be able to able to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups, to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.

The original date for rollout in the Ogmore constituency was for 28 February 2018 and this has been revised to 14 March 2018.

The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) clearances split by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html

The table below shows the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsideration decisions and appeal decisions where the award was changed by year of each decision since the introduction of PIP in the Parliamentary Constituencies of Cardiff Central, Swansea East, Ogmore, Wrexham and Neath

Number of Initial decisions and Mandatory Reconsiderations decisions where the award changed by year of decision.

# is used for instances where there are less than 5 cases to avoid the release of confidential data.