Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths since 2000 have been linked to Child Support Agency cases or cases managed by the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
We have interpreted your question to refer to the death, for any reason, of receiving or paying parent who is named on a case managed by the Child Support Agency (CSA) or the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).
Data is only available for the 2003 CSA scheme, and for the CMS since December 2015. It is standard practice for the Department to be informed of a death and for this to be recorded on departmental systems. It is only possible to identify a death of a case participant where the Department has a National Insurance number for the parent involved and has been informed of the death. Where the Department is informed of a death only the date is recorded as standard practice and as such any link beyond involvement in a case cannot be established.
For 2003 scheme cases managed by the CSA there were 71,200 deaths informed to DWP between 2003 and 31st December 2017.
For cases managed by the CMS there were 3,500 deaths informed to DWP between 1st December 2015 and 31st December 2017.
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest one hundred.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 10 February (HL5883), why the incorrect reference to the 20 November 2014 answer has been repeated, and whether they will now state what is the annual cost of paying in-work benefits to non-UK citizens from other EU countries in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Freud
The November 2014 answer (HL 5012) incorrectly referred to question number 211618 as having been responded to by Priti Patel, when in fact the answer was provided by Esther McVey.
I would like to apologise again for this, but would like to be clear that the mistake was to incorrectly state the name of the Minister providing the original response (211618)) and did not relate to the question number. Both responses HL 5012 and 5883 correctly referred the Honourable Lord to question number 211618.
The original reference to question 211618 was provided because the information has not changed; information on benefit receipt by nationality is not available.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 27 January (HL5012), why that answer provided a reference to a Written Answer in the House of Commons given by the then Minister of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, Esther McVey, on 20 November 2014 on a different subject to the question asked; and whether they will now state what is the annual cost of the in-work benefits for EU workers.
Answered by Lord Freud
I apologise to the noble Lord for the incorrect answer to HL5012 this was due to an administrative error. The correct answer was given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for Employment (Ms. Esther McVey) in the House of Commons on 20 November 2014 to Question number 211618 as below:
While the Government checks the immigration status of benefit claimants to ensure the benefit is paid properly and to prevent fraud, traditionally that information has not been collected as part of the payment administrative systems.
However, the Government is looking at ways to reform the current administrative system under Universal Credit so that it will systematically record nationality and immigration status of migrants who make a claim.
The Government has made a radical series of changes over the last year to restrict the access by non-UK citizens from the European Economic Area to UK benefits and tax credits. This is in order to protect the UK’s benefit system and discourage people who have no established connection with the UK from moving here, unless they have a job or a genuine prospect of work, or have savings to support themselves until they do.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the annual cost of the in-work benefits for EU workers, of which the Prime Minister is negotiating to delay payment.
Answered by Lord Freud
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for Employment (Ms Patel) in the House of Commons on 20 November 2015 to Question number 211618.