Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to change the qualifying criteria for the enhanced mobility component of personal independence payment to allow claimants with dwarfism to access specially adapted mobility vehicles.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is intended to act as a contribution towards the extra costs that arise as a result of a long-term health condition or disability.
Entitlement to PIP is assessed on the basis of the needs arising from a health condition or disability, rather than the health condition or disability itself.
We consulted extensively while developing the mobility component of the assessment, notably undertaking a second consultation exercise following feedback that the moving around activity was difficult to understand.
We carefully considered all the responses, including the suggestions for alternative approaches and the final consultation response was published on 21 October 2013.
The enhanced rate of the PIP Mobility component was always intended to be for those "unable" or "virtually unable" to walk and we believe the current assessment criteria are the best way of identifying those whose physical mobility is most limited.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to encourage businesses to offer meaningful employment to people with dyslexia.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Improving employment opportunities for people with learning difficulties, including those with dyslexia, is a Government priority.
When employers sign up to our Disability Confident scheme they are asked to make specific meaningful offers of opportunities for disabled people, such as jobs, apprenticeships, internships, and work experience opportunities. Disability Confident employers who use the Find a Job service to advertise jobs can now add a searchable Disability Confident tag to their vacancies. This allows disabled people to find Disability Confident employers who are offering jobs that match their skills. Over 10,500 employers have signed up to Disability Confident, and their number continues to grow.
Where people with dyslexia require additional support at work above the level of reasonable adjustments, the Access to Work scheme can help. In 2018, 3,440 people whose primary medical condition was recorded as dyslexia had an Access to Work award approved.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the introduction of universal credit on the financial sustainability of private sector landlords.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
There are many complex factors which contribute to and affect the financial sustainability of landlords in this sector. Research carried out by the National Federation of ALMOs shows over three quarters of their tenants come onto Universal Credit with pre-existing rent arrears.
Arrears are usually temporary and the majority of claimants do succeed in paying their rent, managing their monthly payments and clearing their arrears over time
We continually review and improve Universal Credit in response to feedback. In 2018, following Autumn Budget 2017, we have implemented a comprehensive and wide-ranging package of improvements worth £1.5 billion. These include making advances of up to 100% of the indicative award available (from the start of a claim) and increasing the repayment period to 12 months, removing the 7 waiting days, providing an additional payment of 2 weeks of Housing Benefit to support claimants when they transition to Universal Credit, and changing how claimants in temporary accommodation receive support for their housing costs.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for reassessment of child maintenance following a change in circumstances.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The processing of changes of circumstance remains a key priority for the Child Maintenance Service. The numbers of people working within the Child Maintenance Service is reviewed regularly to ensure we have sufficient resources to answer customer calls and progress cases.
So far in 2018, we have recruited 835 people into the Child Maintenance Service, with these people joining us between February 2018 and October 2018, and we have plans in place for a further 40 people to join the Child Maintenance Service between November 2018 and January 2019.
The performance and timeliness of progressing changes to circumstances is under regular review and forms part of our external publication offering. We continue to explore opportunities to introduce improvements and efficiencies within the Child Maintenance Service and we are currently in the process of implementing Real Time Information from HMRC which will ensure that we have access to the latest income information to make efficient changes to assessments.“
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the introduction of universal credit on the financial sustainability of private sector landlords.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
There are many complex factors which contribute to and affect the financial sustainability of landlords in this sector. Research carried out by the National Federation of ALMOs shows over three quarters of their tenants come onto Universal Credit with pre-existing rent arrears.
Arrears are usually temporary and the majority of claimants do succeed in paying their rent, managing their monthly payments and clearing their arrears over time
We continually review and improve Universal Credit in response to feedback. In 2018, following Autumn Budget 2017, we have implemented a comprehensive and wide-ranging package of improvements worth £1.5 billion. These include making advances of up to 100% of the indicative award available (from the start of a claim) and increasing the repayment period to 12 months, removing the 7 waiting days, providing an additional payment of 2 weeks of Housing Benefit to support claimants when they transition to Universal Credit, and changing how claimants in temporary accommodation receive support for their housing costs.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to extend direct to landlord payments to all claimants of the housing element of universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit incentivises work by making the journey from unemployment to employment as smooth as possible, without the hurdles that exist within the current system. Paying claimants their housing costs direct means their landlord sees no changes in rent payments when they move into work. Consequently the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will, in the majority of cases, pay eligible housing costs directly to the claimant as has been the case for Housing Benefit in the Private Rented Sector since 2008.
Nonetheless, both the claimant and landlord are able to request an alternative payment arrangement (APA) to have rent paid direct to the landlord at any point in the claim should the need arise.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the hardship experienced by universal credit claimants who have their early wage payment towards the end of one month counted by HMRC as a second wage payment in a single universal credit assessment period and therefore do not receive universal credit for that period, whether changes will be made to tackle that inflexibility; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit seeks to take earnings into account in a way that is fair and transparent. The amount of Universal Credit paid reflects, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household each monthly assessment period, including any earnings reported by the employer during that assessment period. Monthly reporting allows Universal Credit to be adjusted on a monthly basis, which ensures that if a claimant’s income falls, they will not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit.
On 7 June we also announced that we propose to re-award claimants’ transitional protection that has ceased owing to short-term increases in earnings within an assessment period, if they make a new claim to Universal Credit within three months of when they received the additional payment. The written statement can be accessed at: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-06-07/HCWS745/
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to people with autism in relation to personal independence payment assessments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
When we identify a claimant requires additional support we have a process to ensure that this is provided. We recognise that attending any face-to-face assessment can be a stressful experience for some people, which is why we do not carry out face-to-face consultations where there is enough existing evidence to determine benefit entitlement. If a face-to-face consultation is required, we encourage claimants to take a companion, for example a carer, friend, or family member, to their consultation for support. It is recognised that information given by a companion can be useful, particularly in cases where the claimant may lack insight into their condition, understate the challenges they face or have difficulty communicating.
Where a claimant does not return their PIP claim form, we will still ask our Assessment Providers to make contact and gather evidence and / or invite the claimant for an assessment.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made on the number of personal independence payment assessment decisions that have been overturned at tribunals.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The number of appeals for PIP cleared at hearing where the appeal decision was in favour of the claimant can be found in Table SSCS.3 of the quarterly bulletin “Tribunals and gender recognition certificate statistics quarterly – October to December 2017”.
It is important to note that appeals figures in this data can relate to a number of processes in the claimant journey and not solely assessment decisions.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made on the number of personal independence cases that have been rejected at the mandatory reconsideration stage.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The volumes of disposal types at the mandatory reconsideration stage broken down by month for Personal Independence Payment can be found in Table 7b of the quarterly bulletin “Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to January 2018”.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-january-2018