Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Personal Independence Payment applicants were awaiting a (a) decision (b) mandatory reconsideration decision and (c) tribunal hearing on 20 April 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
For questions a) and b), data in line with the relevant latest published statistics has been provided, rather than the requested 20th April 2023.
a) The number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applicants who were awaiting a decision in January 2023 was 207,000.
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS).
Notes:
b) There were 12,800 PIP mandatory reconsiderations awaiting a decision on 30th September 2022.
Source: PIP ADS.
Notes:
c) There were 36,400 PIP claims awaiting a tribunal hearing in December 2022. This figure has been provided by the Ministry of Justice.
Notes:
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to provide additional resources to support the processing of any increase in Personal Independence Payment applications when the transitional protection for the limited capability for work and work-related activity top-up is phased out.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We continually review both current and forecast demand with a view to informing levels of resource required to meet delivery aspirations.
Recruitment is currently underway to provide increased resource to meet current demand and known future requirements.
These resource plans are regularly reviewed and adjusted to allow for future impacts and would consider in future anything related to the White Paper and the potential removal of the WCA process.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 March to Question 171416 on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, for what reasons his Department suspended sanction duration and median sanction length statistics from quarterly benefit sanctions statistics.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This is found in the publication here at section 5 of the Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2022 (experimental) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sector-based work academy programme placements have been undertaken in (a) Feltham and Heston, (b) Hounslow, (c) Greater London, (d) England, since the start of the scheme.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Sector-based work academies were first launched in August 2011 in England and January 2012 in Scotland. Regular statistical releases on sector-based work academies, covering participation by those on legacy unemployment benefits, began in 2011 and ended in 2017. These statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/employment-schemes-work-experience-sector-based-work-academy-and-skills-conditionality-starts-to-november-2017
The scheme was relaunched as ‘SWAP’ in July 2020 as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs. Due to data limitations, we are unable to provide a geographical breakdown for SWAPs that took place before the start of the 2021/22 financial year.
Data for the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23 shows that as of 12th March 2023, there was a total of 179,000 starts to a Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP). The breakdown of these starts by the regions specified and by financial year is displayed in the following table:
Table 1: SWAP starts
| Starts FY 2021/22 | Starts FY 2022/23 – up to 12th March 2023 | Total Starts |
(a) Feltham and Heston | 260 | 290 | 560 |
(b) Hounslow | 520 | 530 | 1040 |
(c) Greater London | 15200 | 16300 | 31500 |
(d) England | 66500 | 73400 | 139800 |
Notes on the data:
Attached are tables listing the number of SWAP starts to date by Country, Region, Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency. The figures used are correct as of 12th March 2023 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
These figures reflect the number of starts by claimants in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Income Support (IS).
It is important to note that the information provided shows the current home location of the person who has started a SWAP. For starts by those in receipt of JSA, ESA or IS, due to data limitations a location cannot be assigned to these starts and as such they are categorised as unknown within the figures. SWAPs are run in England and Scotland, where a person’s current home location is outside of this they have also been categorised as unknown.
Although care is taken when processing and recording SWAP starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any clerical recording system, but is provided in the interests of transparency.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the proportion of invoices his Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in (a) the 2021-2022 financial year and (b) each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All government departments publish payment performance quarterly showing the percentage of invoices paid in 5 days, the percentage of invoices paid in 30 days, and net debt interest liability. This is available on GOV.UK. DWP Department’s payment performance is available at:
DWP: prompt payment data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
DWP: prompt payment data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In addition, in accordance with 113 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015, Contracting Authorities are required to publish annually the percentage of invoices paid in 30 days online. This is available at:
DWP: prompt payment data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Procurement Bill, currently passing through Parliament, will create a simpler and more transparent procurement regime that will further open up public procurement to SMEs. The Bill includes a new duty on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing SMEs.
Specifically, the Procurement Bill will imply 30 day payment terms into every sub-contract that is substantially for the purpose of performing a public contract. This will ensure SMEs at every tier of the public supply chain can benefit from faster payments, even if 30 day terms aren't explicitly written into the contract.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department records data on benefit sanctions; and whether that data is held centrally.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Details of how sanctions data is recorded is published in the Universal Credit Sanctions: background, information and methodology.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2023 to Question 166241 on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, for what reasons his Department is not making data on benefit sanctions readily available; and if he will make an estimate of the cost to his Department of tabulating that data.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I refer the Hon Lady to my previous answer to PQ171416
Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants have a sanction lasting (a) 91 and (b) 182 days attached to their account as of 22 March 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 21 March to Question 166241, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of making this information available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As Universal Credit sanction duration and median sanction length statistics have been suspended from the quarterly benefit sanctions statistics publication we are unable to provide the information.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March to Question 163821 on Social Security Benefits: Applications, how were participants in the (a) digital Personal Independence Payment and (b) Attendance Allowance service trials selected.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Personal Independence Payment
We are currently operating a small-scale test of the new online apply service for PIP as a limited service, initially offering it to a small number of claimants who call the phone line to begin their claim for PIP.
Currently, we are offering the service to 60 claimants a day. Call agents offer the voluntary option to claim online to claimants within scope of the current service until the daily limit is met.
The following groups will be incrementally included as we grow the scope of the service:
This approach allows us to build, develop and design the service, exploring and making improvements as we gradually increase its availability.
Attendance Allowance
We are currently inviting up to 60 claimants per week into the private beta trial from a variety of sources. The current split is 25 claimants via Age UK, 25 claimants who have called the helpline in Great Britain and 10 claimants who have called the helpline in Northern Ireland.
Invites are being offered to anyone who meets the current scope of the private beta, until a daily limit is reached. The daily limits are 5 per day at Age UK, 5 per day for the Great Britain helpline and 2 per day for the Northern Ireland helpline.
Those not being included currently in the private beta are:
We plan to scale the number of self-serving claimants through telephony in the future and also extend the sources we recruit from. This includes visiting officers and other third-party organisations.