Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the effect of the franchise of crown post offices to WHSmith on people who receive and access their welfare and pensions from a Post Office card account.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The DWP will continue to maintain Post Office card accounts until 2021 and anyone affected after this date will be able to access their money via a suitable banking product that they are able to open themselves. Most bank accounts are available over the counter at Post Office branches and supportive messages are used to signpost customers and encourage them to continue collecting their money at the Post Office. Where this is not possible, the DWP will provide a suitable replacement service after this date.
The DWP has a contract in place with Post Office Limited to provide access to Post Office card accounts throughout its network of branches and ATM’s, this includes some retail outlets. The contract ensures that Post Office card account users have reasonable access to their benefit and pension payments.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with dementia have had a personal independence payment re-assessment in each year since 2015.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below shows the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessments, comprising of award reviews and changes of circumstances reviews for claimants who had a main disabling condition of Dementia at the point a decision was made in each financial year from April 2015 to October 2018.
The figures below represent the number of claims, not the number of people that have had an Award Review or Change of Circumstances Review; and shows only the first Award Review for each claim.
Table 1: Breakdown of award reviews and changes of circumstances Reviews by Financial Year for PIP claimants with Dementia.
Financial Year | Award Review | Changes of Circumstances | Total |
2015/16 | 290 | 110 | 400 |
2016/17 | 800 | 250 | 1,050 |
2017/18 | 960 | 300 | 1,270 |
2018/19* | 590 | 220 | 800 |
Total | 2,640 | 880 | 3,520 |
*Covers April 2018-October 2018 only.
Source: PIP ADS
Notes:
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when Ministers authorised a change to the ESA65B letter to GPs telling them there is no longer a need for them to supply fit notes to their patients who had been found fit for work through a Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the Honourable Member to the response given on 6 June 2018 to Parliamentary Question 146986.
The original internal recommendation to change the ESA65B letter was in summer 2016.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sick and disabled people have lost social security support payments whilst they appealed their work capability assessment as a result of GPs receiving the amended ESA65B letter; and what savings to the public purse have accrued as a result of stopped social security support arising from that change.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Claimants should not experience a loss of benefit in this situation.
Claimants can be paid Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whilst appealing a decision, the rate of which is equivalent to that of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). In order for someone to be paid ESA pending an appeal they need to provide the Department with fit notes in order to be treated as having Limited Capability for Work until the appeal is determined. However, this doesn’t apply where the claimant fails a second Work Capability Assessment. Where this is the case then ESA will not be paid pending the appeal and the claimant would need to claim new style Jobseeker’s Allowance (NSJSA) or Universal Credit (UC).
If a claimant’s GP does not provide them with a fit note during the appeal period they cannot be paid ESA but are able to claim UC or NSJSA where eligible.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 changes to her Department's ESA65B letter to GPs on employment and support allowance claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is committed to ensuring all of its communications are clear, accurate and understandable and we continuously improve our letters. We do not routinely evaluate changes to external communications, however we do engage regularly with the welfare benefits advice sector and disability charities and take into account all of the feedback we receive.
We have received comments from a number of sources including MPs, stakeholder organisations and GPs on the current version of the ESA65B letter and will take all of their feedback into account when revising it.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth, of 6 March 2019, Official Report, column 969, what plans she has to change the culture of her Department.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As set out in the Secretary of State’s speech, the Department is committed to continue helping disabled people to achieve their potential and lead positive flourishing lives
We have listened to, and acted on a number of concerns raised by our customers and stakeholders, which includes stopping those who have been awarded the highest level of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), whose needs are unlikely to decrease, now receive an ongoing award – with only a light touch review a decade later and SPA announcement. We have also listened to the feedback from claimants about their experience of assessments which is why we are now trialling the video recording of PIP assessments.
However, there is more that we need to do, which is why we have announced it is our ambition to go further, to listen and reform effectively to deliver policies, strategies and structures that are co-produced with disabled people.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth, of 6 March 2019, Official Report, column 969, what the terms of reference will be for the review into the adequacy of social security support for disabled people; and who will be involved in that review.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has listened to the concerns and views of a wide range of organisations and individuals and we have been working to deliver real improvements, and we will continue to do so. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced on 5th March that the Department would be commissioning a new piece of research to better understand disabled claimants’ experiences of the benefit system, and how to meet their needs.
This research will be delivered by external research contractors who have expertise in this area and involve in-depth interviews with claimants. We will look to commission this work later this year, with a view to publishing next year. As with all externally commissioned DWP social research, the findings will be published and available on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have contacted her Department since 1 December 2018 on non-payment of the 2018 Christmas bonus.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Christmas Bonus was first paid in 1972 as a result of The Pensioners and Family Income Supplement Payments Act 1972 and was introduced as a means of providing additional financial support to customers in receipt of a pension or qualifying benefit.
Both Pensioners and working age customers in receipt of certain benefits receive the tax-free £10 Christmas Bonus and payments are usually automatically generated based on receipt of a qualifying benefit.
For the 2017/2018 qualifying period (latest data available) 15,922000.00 (fifteen million, nine hundred and twenty two thousand) DWP customers received the Christmas Bonus.
DWP does not retain information relating to the number of customers who contacted the Department to report non-payment of the Christmas Bonus as it does not have a business requirement to do so. Therefore, this information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the medical records of claimants will be made available automatically to her Department as part of the new digital system for social security assessments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Medical records of claimants are not automatically available to my Department. We use explicit and informed patient consent to access patient information from the NHS to support applications for health related benefits. The new digital platform will streamline this process to the benefit of claimants.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of (a) personal independence payment and (b) disability living allowance were (i) entitled to the £10 Christmas bonus and (ii) received that Christmas bonus in 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Christmas Bonus is a one-off tax-free £10 payment paid to claimants who receive certain qualifying benefits including Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA). To qualify, the claimant must be in receipt of the qualifying benefit in the qualifying week which is normally the first full week of December. If a DLA or PIP claimant receives another qualifying benefit their bonus may be attached to that benefit rather than to their PIP or DLA award.
The Department publishes a range of detailed statistics for PIP and DLA on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. These statistics include monthly caseloads (claims in payment) to August 2018 for DLA and to October 2018 for PIP. Caseloads for December 2018 have not yet been published.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
The number of claimants, regardless of qualifying benefit, who received the Christmas Bonus in 2017/18 can be found in Table 1c of the “Outturn and forecast: Autumn Budget 2018 (XLS)” spreadsheet in the 2018 Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables. Outturn figures for 2018/19 will be published in due course.