Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many visits were made by Ministers of his Department to Torbay constituency in the 12 months to 14 October 2014; whom the invitation for each such visit was issued by; and what the cost to the public purse was of each such visit.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the ministers of his Department have made no visits in the 12 months to October 2014 to the Torbay constituency in a ministerial capacity.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff by grade and full-time equivalence are currently employed by his Department in dealing with policy on benefit sanctioning.
Answered by Mike Penning
The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will place in the Library a copy of the risk register for the universal credit programme.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In line with standard practice, as the Universal Credit risk register includes details of a sensitive nature the Department will not be putting the risk register into the public domain.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reforms his Department plans to make to the Work Programme following the downgrading of the project's rating from green to amber by the Major Projects Authority.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Major Projects Authority has not downgraded the Work Programmes project rating. The rating was amber in 2012/13 and has remained amber in 2013/14.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for a personal independence payment assessment for claimants in (a) the Torbay local authority area, (b) the South West and (c) England.
Answered by Mike Penning
Personal independence payment (PIP) started from April 2013 and although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy:
An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on 11 February 2014.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many posts in his Department will be relocated to the South West in the next five years.
Answered by Mike Penning
The deployment of staff and efficient use of the departmental estate is always subject to review. At the present time, there are no plans to relocate Departmental staff to the South West in the next five years.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his letter of 20 March 2014, what the evidential basis is for his statement that allowing people receiving employment and support allowance to do some work within a specified 52 week period is the best way of encouraging a move towards work of 16 hours or more a week.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The permitted work rules in Employment and Support Allowance are based on those which applied to Incapacity Benefit. This approach was supported by evidence contained in DWP Research Report 268 “Final outcome from Permitted Work Rules”.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time for a work capability assessment is for claimants in (a) Torbay local authority area, (b) the South West region and (c) England.
Answered by Mike Penning
The average waiting time for a Work Capability Assessment in the period from March 2013 to February 2014 is as follows:
Torbay local authority area – the information is not available in respect of Local Authority areas
The South West - 110 working days
England - 71 working days
We announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 27 March our plans to achieve a reduction in waiting times and next steps, including Atos Healthcare's withdrawal from delivery of Work Capability Assessments in Great Britain before the end of the current contract .
Atos Healthcare will continue to deliver Work Capability Assessments until contract exit and will still be subject to a quality and service credit regime. We will continue to work with Atos to ensure they can deliver the best service possible to claimants until they leave the contract.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the capability of the Work Programme to provide adequate support to jobseekers with long-term medical conditions.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department has commissioned an independent evaluation of the Work Programme, and will publish findings once the evaluation is complete.