Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff have been trained in disability awareness in (a) his core Department and (b) Jobcentres in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is unable to provide the information you seek within the appropriate cost limit as you have asked for information that is contained across a wide range of learning journeys.
All staff new to DWP undergo mandatory learning followed by role specific learning, this encompasses vulnerabilities and complex needs training which is threaded throughout learning. Staff continue to build on this in the workplace through accessing policy guidance and point of need learning products.
Please refine your request, for example to mandatory learning to enable data to be provided.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Carer’s Allowance cases his Department pursued for overpayments of (a) between (i) £500 and £999.99 and (ii) £1,000 and £2,000 and (b) more than £2,000 in 2023-24.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise the significant contribution of carers to supporting those most in need, which is why we have increased Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010.
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Value Grouping | Volume of new overpayments of Carer’s Allowance in 23/24 |
£500.00 - £999.99 | 11.9k |
£1000.00 - £2000.00 | 13.2k |
More than £2000.00 | 6.8k |
Total | 31.9k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the financial impact of his Department's counter-fraud activities in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP will publish details of the Department’s counter-fraud activities in the Annual Report and Accounts for financial year 23/24, expected to be published in Summer 2024.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the National Audit Office entitled Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2022-23, published on 6 July 2023, whether his Department has taken recent steps to amend the methodology it uses to estimate the financial impact of its counter-fraud activities.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We review the methodology as part of publishing our annual accounts each year and will report on any agreed changes in the Annual Report and Account 2023/24 expected to be published in Summer 2024, following discussion with National Audit Office.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of the Verify Earnings and Pensions Alerts service since it was introduced.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held centrally and to collate it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average value was of Universal Credit claim overpayments in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP measures its overpayments via annual national statistics published each May. However, we do not produce an estimate for the average value of a Universal Credit overpayment.
We estimate that the total value of Universal Credit overpayments in 2022-2023 was £5,540m: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value was of underpayments of the Personal Independence Payment due to recipients’ failure to update their medical need in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP measures its underpayments via annual national statistics published each May. However, we do not produce an estimate for the average value of a benefit underpayment.
Our estimates relating to PIP underpayments in 2022-23 can be found at the link below:
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 6 provides the total estimated value of PIP underpayments in 2022-23.
Table 8 provides the estimated value of PIP underpayments due to claimant error. All claimant error underpayments were due to errors where the claimant’s condition had got worse, and they failed to inform the department (Functional Needs).
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average value was of an underpayment of the Personal Independence Payment in the 2022-2023 financial year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP measures its underpayments via annual national statistics published each May. However, we do not produce an estimate for the average value of a benefit underpayment.
Our estimates relating to PIP underpayments in 2022-23 can be found at the link below:
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2022 to 2023 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 6 provides the total estimated value of PIP underpayments in 2022-23.
Table 8 provides the estimated value of PIP underpayments due to claimant error. All claimant error underpayments were due to errors where the claimant’s condition had got worse, and they failed to inform the department (Functional Needs).
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 3.18 of the National Audit Office report entitled Investigation into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance, published on 26 April 2019, what changes were made to the business rules of the Verify Earnings and Pensions Service that revised downwards the number of alerts that were forecast to be generated from 380,000 to 75,000.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A review of rules has provided a streamlined approach to the identification of VEP rules, enabling alignment with the latest HMRC data that feeds into DWP Real Time Earnings (RTE) system.
Examples of improvements include benefit specific rules, such as details of fluctuations in income, one off payments and irregular payments revision.
The Department is constantly reviewing available resources against priorities.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were underpaid the State Pension due to incorrectly updated National Insurance records in the 2022-23 financial year; and what the total amount is that these people are owed.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This response covers both missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) and UC National Insurance issues.
The exercise to correct National Insurance records for those individuals impacted by errors in their HRP record is underway. The HRP corrections exercise started with HMRC dispatching letters in late 2023. Cases subsequently notified from HMRC started being processed in DWP in early 2024.
In the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, the central estimate was around 187,000 cases who may have an underpayment of State Pension and for whom we expect to correct, with a total underpayment estimate of £1,043 million.
We intend to publish an update on the exercise in this year’s Annual Report and Accounts.
DWP has corrected the UC data issue for the cases impacted for the tax years up to and including the tax year 2022/2023. This data has been shared with HMRC. As HMRC updates NI records, these updates are sent to DWP. Any State Pension entitlement will be reassessed, and any underpayment addressed accordingly.