Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what welfare, housing and health benefits foreign nationals are entitled to; from what point after their arrival in the UK are they entitled to those benefits; and what criteria are used to assess their eligibility.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All claimants, regardless of their nationality, must demonstrate that they are resident in the UK and have an immigration status that qualifies them to receive taxpayer-funded benefits.
Migrants with recourse to public funds are subject to the same eligibility criteria as any other claimant, including the need to be ‘habitually resident’ (meaning they have made the UK their home) in addition to having a legal right to claim benefits.
Most non-UK nationals are granted an immigration status by the Home Office with a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF)’ condition. Individuals may have their NRPF condition removed once they are granted Indefinite Leave to Remain/settled status, which is usually after 5 years. These claimants can still access contribution-based benefits such as New-Style Jobseeker’s Allowance.
The full eligibility criteria, including the residency tests, for each benefit type can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) female, and (2) male, single parents earn less than the median average income.
Answered by Lord Freud
Estimates for the numbers of female and male single parents who earn less than the median average income are shown in the table below:
Millions, 2014/15, United Kingdom | |
| Below 2014/15 median household income |
Number of female Lone Parents in work: | 0.8 |
Number of male Lone Parents in work: | 0.1 |
Average income is defined as the median equivalised net household income, where median income divides the population of individuals, when ranked by income, into two equal sized groups.
These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income analysis.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the people previously claiming Disability Living Allowance at the higher component of (1) mobility, or (2) care, how many have been assessed for (a) the higher rate, or (b) the standard rate, of (i) the mobility component, or (ii) the daily living component, of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in each year since PIP was introduced.
Answered by Lord Freud
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) registrations, clearances and claims in payment for both new claims and reassessed claims (for those previously in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA)) is published on Gov.UK.
In particular, breakdowns of reassessed claims in payment by type and rate of awards can be found from Stat-Xplore, which is a tool for exploring DWP’s statistics.
The Department does not have verified data on the number of DLA claimants who have had their award changed as a result of the move to PIP. We intend to provide more detailed breakdowns of DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes in due course. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the Universal Credit claimants currently in rent arrears did not have a record of being behind with their payments before moving to Universal Credit.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Department holds a range of information relating to Universal Credit and housing but do not hold the information you have requested.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many council tenants in receipt of Universal Credit were in rent arrears in (1) 2014, and (2) 2015; and how many are currently in arrears.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Department holds a range of information relating to Universal Credit and housing but do not hold the information you have requested.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to undertake a review of the impact of the policy by which Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears.
Answered by Lord Freud
The payment arrangements for Universal Credit are designed to help reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, in which 75 per cent of employees are paid monthly. Appropriate budgeting support is available to ensure recipients are supported effectively.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many civil servants involved in the delivery of Universal Credit have left the Department for Works and Pensions in each of the last five years; how large is the team working on Universal Credit delivery; and how many people involved in the delivery team when it was originally created remain within the department.
Answered by Lord Freud
Universal Credit rollout started in April 2013. At the same time the Universal Credit Directorate was established within Operations, to deliver Universal Credit with 80 paid employees.
AT 31st March 2016, the Universal Credit Directorate consisted of 4,295 paid employees.
The numbers of Universal Credit Directorate employees who have left DWP since April 2013 are as follows:
Leaving Period | Number of Employees who left DWP |
April 2013 to March 2014 | 5 |
April 2014 to March 2015 | 46 |
April 2015 to March 2016 | 357 |
Of the original 80 employees who were part of Universal Credit Directorate in April 2013, 67 are still employed by DWP.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, how many households containing children had an underpayment or non-payment of benefit as a result of official error.
Answered by Lord Freud
DWP is unable to provide a breakdown of the number of official errors at the Local Authority level. This is because the estimation of the rate and monetary value of official errors in a particular benefit is based on a sample of cases rather than the entire caseload for that benefit, and this sample is not large enough to split at the Local Authority level.
DWP does not gather information on the number of children in a household when evaluating the rate of fraud and error in any particular benefit.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, how many times official errors have resulted in (1) underpayment, or (2) non-payment, of (a) Jobseekers' Allowance, (b) Employment and Support Allowance, (c) Universal Credit, (d) Housing Benefit, and (e) Income Support, in each local authority in the UK.
Answered by Lord Freud
DWP is unable to provide a breakdown of the number of official errors at the Local Authority level. This is because the estimation of the rate and monetary value of official errors in a particular benefit is based on a sample of cases rather than the entire caseload for that benefit, and this sample is not large enough to split at the Local Authority level.
DWP does not gather information on the number of children in a household when evaluating the rate of fraud and error in any particular benefit.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what case material was examined as part of the review of 105 Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims referenced in the DWP's consultation on PIP aids and appliances (Cm 9171).
Answered by Baroness Altmann
DWP are currently running a consultation to seek views on how support can best be provided to help meet the costs of disability faced by people who are currently awarded points due to aids and appliances. The department is keen to hear views from all interested parties, especially disabled people and disability organisations.
As part of the consultation on aids and appliances and the daily living component of PIP, the Department reviewed a sample of 105 cases where claimants scored all, or the majority, of their points from aids and appliances. These were randomly selected.
DWP doctors, who reviewed these cases, looked at all the relevant information held on departmental systems relating to each case. This included the application form, the results of any face-to-face assessment and any additional supporting evidence provided by the claimant.