Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the mental and physical pressures that medical reassessments relating to a personal independence payment claim has on claimants with a chronic illnesses or a hidden disability.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department aims to continually improve the assessment process for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) through customer insight, stakeholder engagement and qualitative research. For people with the highest level of support and with severe and lifelong health conditions which will not improve or will deteriorate, new guidance was introduced in August 2018 for both new claims and award reviews to ensure they receive an ongoing award of PIP, with a light-touch review at the 10-year point. Since 2019 ongoing awards with a light-touch review at the 10-year point are also applied to most awards for people over State Pension age.
PIP is designed to support an individual’s functional needs arising from a range of disabilities, including chronic or hidden illnesses, and the PIP Assessment Guide (PIPAG) makes clear that Health Professionals must take into consideration the invisible nature of some symptoms such as fatigue and pain in their assessment of a claimant.
We published ‘Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper’ in July 2021 and asked for views on how we might improve health assessments considering a number of options. The consultation closed on 11 October 2021 and we will set out next steps in a White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent comparative assessment her Department has made of level of monies received by pensioners on (a) the former basic State Pension and (b) receiving the new State Pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The published figures can be accessed here - DWP benefits statistics: November 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what provisions are in place to ensure continued receipt of child maintenance payments from a parent who is imprisoned but still in receipt of income from personal assets.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Where a paying parent is in prison and receives income from certain assets, then a variation can be considered and that income may be taken into account when calculating the maintenance liability.
If the paying parent fails to make payments that are due, the Child Maintenance Service can make arrangements to enforce payment of any arrears.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has made representations to the Greek Government on unpaid pension entitlements due to Greek citizens residing in the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement set out the rules on the payment of state pensions when individuals of any nationality have moved, or move in future, between the UK and EU member states.
These agreements maintain the same rules as prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in respect of the payment of their state pension and the coordination between states in its calculation. The UK and EU Member State governments are bound by obligations in those agreements.
The agreements also provide mechanisms for raising issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU with the European Commission and the governments of Member States.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what arrangements her Department has put in place to maintain EU member state derived pension entitlements for EU citizens residing in the UK following the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement set out the rules on the payment of state pensions when individuals of any nationality have moved, or move in future, between the UK and EU member states.
These agreements maintain the same rules as prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in respect of the payment of their state pension and the coordination between states in its calculation. The UK and EU Member State governments are bound by obligations in those agreements.
The agreements also provide mechanisms for raising issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU with the European Commission and the governments of Member States.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials in (a) her private office and (b) the wider Department have been allocated to the production and promotion of online content for use on social media in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The DWP is the largest department in Whitehall, making a difference to the lives of millions of people right across the country, and as such it is vital that communications are far-reaching, clear and effective. DWP manages social media through these key areas;
The following table shows the amount of staff who have a role in the production of social media content.
Year | Number of staff |
2018/19 | 20 |
2019/20 | 27 |
2020/21 | 25 |
Operational staff who manage local jobcentre accounts are not included in these figures as social media forms a small part of their daily role. There are no officials in Ministers’ private offices that create or manage content for social media.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials in their Department were dedicated to their Department's responsibilities associated with the delivery of the Industrial Strategy in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Given DWP’s strong focus on supporting individuals into employment a significant number of officials have been and continue to be involved in aspects of Industrial Strategy design and delivery. However, the Department does not keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will bring forward proposals to extend jobseeker's allowance eligibility beyond 182 days for unemployed people who are ineligible to receive universal credit or other covid-19-specific benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 119284.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020, whether he plans provide unpaid carers with a supplementary Carer's Allowance payment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Parliamentary Question 54856 on 9 June 2020.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to reform calculation of monthly equivalents for universal credit claimants with weekly rent liabilities by multiplying the weekly rent by the (a) number of rent weeks in the year, and dividing that figure by 12 or (b) average number of weeks in a year.
Answered by Will Quince
Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. When rent is always paid on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will result in the correct amount of housing element being paid.
Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.
There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.