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Written Question
Universal Credit: Carers
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the Universal Credit claimant commitment for kinship carers equal to that for foster carers.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such assessment has been made.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Appeals
Thursday 18th January 2024

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate has been made of the average length of time between submission of a PIP mandatory reconsideration and the decision.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The monthly average clearance time of a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) can be found in the latest PIP quarterly release: Personal Independence Payment statistics to October 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

In particular, the figures on MR average clearance times can be found in Table 4A in the Customer Journey Excel.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Dementia
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making dementia patients eligible to claim benefits under the special rules for end of life.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

People with dementia, who are deemed by their clinicians to be at the end of their lives, may be eligible to claim benefits under the ‘Special Rules for End of Life’ (SREL).

Eligibility under SREL is not determined by medical condition, but rather based on clinical judgment about patients’ estimated prognosis. The department’s supporting clinical guidance advises clinicians to assess whether they would be surprised if their patient dies within the next 12 months if they are claiming UC or ESA, or 6 months if they are claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), or Attendance Allowance (AA).

The Government announced in July 2021 that it intended to replace the current six-month eligibility criteria with a 12-month end of life approach. The DWP implemented this change to Universal Credit and Employment Support Allowance regulations on 4th April 2022 and similar changes will also be made to Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, and Attendance Allowance in April 2023.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Dementia
Wednesday 22nd February 2023

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of personal independence payment reassessments on the (a) physical and (b) mental wellbeing of dementia patients.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Entitlement to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is assessed on the basis of the needs arising from a health condition or disability, rather than the health condition or disability itself. Award rates and their durations are set on an individual basis, based on the claimant’s needs and the likelihood of those needs changing. Award reviews allow for the correct rate of PIP to remain in payment, including where needs have increased as a consequence of a congenital, degenerative, or progressive condition.

We recognise that attending a PIP assessment can be a stressful experience, which is why we do not carry out face-to-face assessments where there is enough existing evidence to determine benefit entitlement, whether on a new claim or on review. Where there is sufficient evidence on which to make an assessment, the claimant will be assessed on a paper basis. Where a telephone, video, or face-to-face assessment is required, companions are encouraged to attend and can play an active role, which can be particularly helpful for claimants with mental, cognitive, or intellectual impairments who may not be able to provide an accurate account of their condition due to a lack of understanding or unrealistic expectations of their ability.

We announced in the Shaping Future Support: Health and Disability Green Paper, that we will test a new Severe Disability Group (SDG) so that those with severe and lifelong conditions can benefit from a simplified process to access PIP, ESA and UC without needing to go through a face-to-face assessment, or frequent reassessments. We will consider the test results once complete to influence thinking on the next stages of this work.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Written Questions
Thursday 19th January 2023

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The latest official statistics produced by the Table Office are as follows and show that DWP answered the following Parliamentary Questions on time:

Jan 2022 – Apr 2022:

Named Day PQs – 83%

Ordinary Written PQs – 86.9%

May 2022 – Jul 2022:

Named Day PQs – 90.8%

Ordinary Written PQs – 93.5%

Statistics for September to the December recess are currently being compiled.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Complaints
Wednesday 7th December 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints submitted to the DWP Independent Case Examiner are awaiting allocation to an Investigation Case Manager as of 2 December 2022; what the average wait time was for complaints to be allocated to an Independent Case Manager in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce Independent Case Examiner waiting times.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Post-Covid, ICE has seen an increased number of referrals accompanied by an increase in the number of cases it has accepted. In the year April 2021 to March 2022, there was a 17% increase in the number of complaints being referred to ICE and a 68% increase in the number of complaints being accepted for examination, compared to the previous reporting year.

Currently, there are 1249 cases awaiting allocation to an ICE investigator.

The rate at which complaints can be allocated to an investigator is dependent on multiple factors, including the volume and complexity of complaints received, as well as available investigative resource.

The average time taken, as at 5 December, from complaint receipt to allocation to an investigator (based on all current live cases being investigated) is 53 weeks (67 weeks for CMS cases, 50 weeks for DWP cases, 44 weeks for Provider cases).

The ICE office is continuously reviewing its own processes and operating model to improve productivity and is piloting a new way of allocating cases according to their nature and complexity as part of the initial complaint review.

The office has recruited 11 more investigators since April with a further 6 due to start in January 2023.


Written Question
Pension Credit: Take-up
Monday 14th November 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of eligible people were claiming Pension Credit in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021 and (e) 2022.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Estimates for Pension Credit take-up in a financial year are only available at the Great Britain level and are available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2019-to-2020


Written Question
Pension Credit: Wales
Monday 14th November 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of eligible people are claiming Pension Credit in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Estimates for Pension Credit take-up are only available at the Great Britain level. They are included in the publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2019-to-2020


Written Question
Pension Credit: Take-up
Monday 14th November 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the uptake of Pension Credit among eligible people.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Pension Credit provides vital financial support to our most vulnerable pensioners and we want all those eligible to claim it.

To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, we launched a £1.2m nationwide communications campaign in April. The campaign included:

  • Promotion of Pension Credit on social media, via internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit;
  • Information screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries across GB;
  • Advertising in regional and national newspapers and on national and local broadcast radio;
  • Advertising on the sides of buses, interior bus panels and digital street displays;
  • Leaflets and posters in Jobcentres, as well as digital versions which could be used by stakeholders and partners across local communities;
  • Engagement with Local Authorities nationwide through the Government Communication Service local network and promotional materials to enable them to support the campaign; and
  • An updated digital toolkit with information and resources that any stakeholder can use to help promote Pension Credit.

As part of the annual uprating of State Pension, we will once again be writing to over 11 million pensioners in the new year and promoting Pension Credit in the accompanying materials.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Correspondence and Written Questions
Tuesday 8th November 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department for Work and Pensions attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence, and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service.

All departments have access to regular training on the full suite of Parliamentary business, led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.

The Ministerial Correspondence Team held tailored training sessions for correspondence drafting colleagues to drive up quality and timeliness of responses. These sessions were delivered twice between April and June 2022.