Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the (a) wait for payment and (b) monthly payment of universal credit on the number of weeks of benefit paid annually to claimants compared with the number they were paid under their legacy benefits.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
There is no need to wait for a Universal Credit payment, as 100 per cent advances are available from day one of a claim. Advance payments are simply an advance of entitlement, meaning that by month 12 of a claim, a claimant would normally have received exactly the same Universal Credit regardless of whether they had an advance or not.
Furthermore, frequency of payment should not affect the total amount of Universal Credit paid over the course of a year. Whilst legacy benefits were paid in two-weekly arrears, Universal Credit is paid in monthly arrears to help reduce welfare dependency by mirroring the world of work, where currently around 70 per cent of tax credit claimants are paid monthly or four weekly.
We know that claimants are currently not getting all the entitlements for which they are eligible on legacy benefits. Requiring claimants to make a new Universal Credit claim will ensure that people will not miss out on any entitlements. This will result in an additional £2.4 billion going to 700,000 families who currently do not take up their full benefit entitlement.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her Department (a) allocated funding for the PACE medical trial; and has not allocated funding for other medical trials since the PACE trial.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Funding, authorised by the then Chief Medical Adviser to the Department for Work and Pensions, was made available as a contribution from the department to the PACE study. The Department continues to be involved in research activity relevant to its remit.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the terms of reference are for the High Court's judicial review into the implementation of the Pension Act 1995 and Pension Act 2011.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Several people have brought a challenge in the High Court in relation to changes to State Pension age on a number of different grounds. On 30th November 2018, the High Court ruled that a case on these matters would go to a full hearing on all grounds. The case is listed to be heard in the Divisional Court on 5th and 6th June 2019. The basis of the claim is available from the High Court. The DWP are unable to comment on live litigation. This approach is consistent with all previous governments approach to live litigation.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2019 to Question 206815 on Independent Case Examiner, of the 2,514 cases closed following the High Court decision, how many of those cases related to complaints made on the grounds of maladministration.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The role of the Independent Case Examiner’s Office (ICE) is to investigate complaints of maladministration (service failure). All of the 2,514 cases closed following the High Court decision to grant permission for a Judicial Review, were complaints of maladministration associated with the way in which changes to women’s State Pension age were communicated.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals have been affected by the erroneous payment of employment and support allowance and jobseekers allowance in December 2018 and January 2019; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Over the New Year period, some JSA and ESA claimants who expected to receive payments fortnightly, actually received two individual weekly payments, rather than a single fortnightly payment. All claimants received the correct amount of benefit and no payments were late (the first part of these ‘split’ payments were paid early).
In total there were 798,211 ESA claimants and 51,977 JSA claimants who received these ‘split’ payments (England, Scotland and Wales). The NI figures were 47,751 ESA and 3,059 JSA.
Operational colleagues were notified how best to support claimants and we also provided a link to key information on gov.uk.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 204482 on Independent Case Examiner, what the reasons were for the complaints that were closed for other reasons in December 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office (ICE) closed 2,521 cases in December 2018 for other reasons as detailed in the response to PQ 204482. The specific categories were:
2,514 cases were closed following a High Court decision to grant permission for a Judicial Review of the Department’s handling of the change to women’s State Pension age.
5 cases were withdrawn as the need for the complaint was removed.
1 case was withdrawn following the complainant’s satisfaction with action taken by the
1 case was withdrawn due to the complainant’s failure to respond to ICE enquiries.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases the Independent Case Examiner has closed (a) after investigation and (b) without investigation; and for what reason those cases were closed in each month since September 2017.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below provides information on the cases closed by the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office and the reason they were closed, for each month since September 2017.
Month | Closed following issue of ICE Investigation Report | Closed following resolution or settlement agreed with the complainant (without the need for an ICE Investigation Report) | Rejected (complaint failed to meet ICE acceptance criteria) | Closed for other reasons (includes withdrawn complaints and those closed following a High Court decision to grant permission for a Judicial Review of the Department’s handling of the change to women’s State Pension age) |
September 2017 | 46 | 25 | 168 | 1 |
October 2017 | 55 | 26 | 182 | 6 |
November 2017 | 64 | 12 | 202 | 2 |
December 2017 | 50 | 15 | 119 | 1 |
January 2018 | 67 | 18 | 213 | 2 |
February 2018 | 70 | 12 | 247 | 4 |
March 2018 | 58 | 25 | 296 | 4 |
April 2018 | 53 | 21 | 172 | 0 |
May 2018 | 69 | 18 | 210 | 2 |
June 2018 | 85 | 23 | 192 | 2 |
July 2018 | 61 | 30 | 222 | 3 |
August 2018 | 79 | 25 | 181 | 1 |
September 2018 | 61 | 30 | 227 | 6 |
October 2018 | 87 | 53 | 201 | 6 |
November 2018 | 82 | 42 | 251 | 6 |
December 2018 | 49 | 26 | 1102 | 2521* |
*Figure is related to the High Court decisions
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many appeals against personal independence payment decisions of the First-tier tribunal were brought by her Department in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16, (c) 2016-17 and (d) 2017-18; and how many of those appeals in each of those years were found in favour of her Department.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The available information is in the following table:
Calendar Year | Number of Completed Appeals Pursued | Number Found in Department’s Favour |
2014 | 9 | 6 |
2015 | 43 | 39 |
2016 | 136 | 120 |
2017 | 51 | 44 |
2018 | 7 | 7 |
There are 57 Personal Independence Payment appeals taken by the Department where we are awaiting an outcome.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2018 to Question 141782 on Carers, how many carer’s received Carer’s Allowance in (a) Derby, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England; and what estimate she has made of the savings accrued to the public purse as a result of care provided by people receiving carer’s allowance instead of by public bodies in 2016-17.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested on the number of individuals in receipt of Carer’s Allowance is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Data on the savings accrued to the public purse as a result of care provided by people receiving Carer’s Allowance instead of by public bodies in 2016-17 is not held.
Carer’s Allowance expenditure is available as part of the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2018 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2018
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made with respect to paragraph 17 of the Second Special Report of Session 2016-17 of the Work and Pensions Committee, Support for the bereaved: Government response to the Committee’s Ninth Report of Session 2015-16, HC230.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are committed to working with stakeholders to improve the scheme, and recently carried out reforms to the Social Fund Funeral Expenses Regulations, to clarify eligibility and simplify the application process. The formal government response can be accessed here, these regulations will come into force from spring 2018.
Funeral Expenses Payments continue to cover the necessary costs involved with funerals and cremations, and up to £700 for other funeral expenses. The funding offered from both Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payments and Social Fund Budgeting Loans offers an adequate level of support whilst maintaining a fiscally viable fund.