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Written Question
Habitual Residence Test
Monday 20th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many habitual residence tests were carried out in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those tests were passed.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The table below gives the total number of Habitual Residency Tests (HRT) completed by Universal Credit (UC) full service claimants for the last five years, and the proportion of these HRT where a pass outcome was recorded.

Year UC claim declared

UC claims with an associated HRT

UC claims with an associated HRT that passed

Proportion of Passes

2015

50

50

100%

2016

4,600

4,100

89%

2017

51,400

44,800

87%

2018

245,900

201,900

82%

2019

417,400

364,100

87%

2020

231,400

211,900

92%

Table Notes:

  1. All figures rounded to 100, but 2015 figures are rounded to the nearest 50.
  2. Figures are taken from Management Information on Universal Credit Full Service claims and do not include Live Service claims for which HRT data is not available.
  3. The month used in this data is the month in which the UC claim was declared (regardless of when the UC claim passed the HRT).
  4. Subtracting the number of HRT passes from the total number of UC HRTs undertaken would not provide the number of HRT fails, as this also includes HRTs where the outcome could not be determined, for example, a claim was withdrawn before the HRT result was recorded.
  5. The year refers to the calendar year, January – December apart from 2015 data which only includes June-December 2015 data and 2020 data which only includes January-March 2020 data.
  6. Information on Universal Credit Full service claims may be subject to future change; this is because claim data may be entered retrospectively for past months. Any retrospective changes are most likely to affect recent months; for this reason, we have provided data up to the end of March 2020.
  7. The UC full service data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.
Written Question
Soical Security Benefits: Coronavirus
Tuesday 14th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to provide additional financial support to (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment recipients during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic.

Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance
Monday 13th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how long an employment and support allowance decision is valid for.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

An award of income-related ESA will be an indefinite award but it’s continued receipt is subject to the claimant meeting all the conditions of entitlement, and in particular that they continue to have, or be treated as having, Limited Capability for Work (LCW) or Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity (LCWRA).

An award of contributory ESA is for a period of 12 months except where the claimant has LCWRA. Where the claimant continues to have or is treated as having LCWRA the award will be indefinite subject to the claimant meeting all the conditions of entitlement.

Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Coronavirus
Monday 13th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the emergency £20 top-up given to universal credit recipients in response to the covid-19 outbreak was not extended to people receiving employment and support allowance and personal independence payment.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for Welfare Delivery, my Hon. Friend Will Quince on 29 June 2020 to Question UIN 57361.

Written Question
Universal Credit
Monday 13th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to financially support universal credit claimants during the five-week waiting period for their first payment.

Answered by Will Quince

Nobody has to wait five weeks for a payment under Universal Credit. New Claims Advances of up to 100% of potential entitlement can be requested at any point in the first assessment period. Advances are a mechanism to provide support during the first assessment period, allowing claimants to receive 13 payments over 12 months with up to 12 months to repay the advance.

Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations
Thursday 9th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to restart face-to-face assessments for claimants for (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment when jobcentres reopen as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

I refer the hon. Member to my Department’s press release of 6th July, on gov.uk, which confirms that face-to-face assessments remain suspended, but under regular review. We will announce any changes to this in due course.

Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Energy
Monday 6th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much energy her departmental buildings have used in (a) each of the last five years and (b) 2020 to date.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department for Work and Pensions recently submitted its annual Greening Government Commitments (GGC) return for 2019/20. Whilst we await final confirmation from DEFRA, the indication is that we have met our carbon targets for departmental buildings for 2019/20.

COVID-19 has delayed confirmation of the post-2019/20 GGC targets. When these targets are received our view forward will be clearer, however in the meantime we are in the process of writing a Carbon Management Plan which makes reference to the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, as well as the UK’s commitment to Net Zero Carbon by 2050 and the UKGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Framework. This will include recommendations to:

- Improve the operational performance of our estate;

- Invest in our estate to improve energy efficiency;

- Ensure we lease highly energy efficient buildings;

Ensure that energy efficiency standards are adhered to when we refurbish or fit out buildings

Energy consumption figures in kWh for buildings on the DWP Estate for the previous five financial years, and the current financial year to date:

2015/16

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

142,938,047

172,577,338

4,546,526

2016/17

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

137,911,182

178,514,275

6,203,224

2017/18

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

134,436,097

178,514,275

4,579,998

2018/19

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

122,279,492

165,419,232

3,113,567

2019/20

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

116,856,847

178,964,821

3,672,365

2020/21 (YTD)

Electricity

Gas

Oil

kWh

8,552,288

17,368,769

153,920

Written Question
Bereavement Support Payment: Cohabitation
Monday 6th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for bereavement support payment were refused on the grounds that a co-habiting couple is not eligible, in each year since 2015.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not available.

Written Question
Bereavement Support Payment
Monday 6th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for bereavement support payment were (a) made and (b) successful at the (i) higher and (ii) lower rate in each year since its introduction.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Experimental official statistics for Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) are published quarterly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistical-summaries

The latest statistics were published in May 2020 and Table 1 provides the number of BSP claims received by month between April 2017 and December 2019 here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-may-2020

Additional BSP statistics are not currently available and will be published in due course, however, BSP caseload statistics, by rate, are published in the benefit expenditure and caseload tables here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2020

Written Question
Bereavement Support Payment
Monday 6th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been paid in bereavement support payments in each year since its introduction.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Annual Bereavement Support Payment expenditure statistics are published in the benefit expenditure and caseload tables here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2020