Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help people who wish to move from part-time to full-time employment.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Department is continuing to modernise the way Jobcentre delivers its services and has given responsibility to Jobcentre Work Coaches - trusting them to assess the individual needs of people and offer the support they think is best. Jobcentre Work Coaches personalise the support they provide to claimants to help them find work and have the freedom and flexibility to support claimants based on their individual need. This includes helping claimants who wish to move from part-time to full-time employment.
UC gives us the opportunity, for the first time, to support people who are in work to progress, and we are building the evidence base about what works through a large scale In Work Progression Randomised Control Trial, in order to find the best way of helping claimants to increase their earnings and become financially independent. Evaluation of this trial will be published in 2018.’
Universal Credit contains structural incentives to encourage people work more and earn more. It is simple and, as people’s earnings increase, there are no cliff edges, their payments reduce at a steady rate, so it is clear that they will always be better off working and earning more.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to assist people in Pendle who are in receipt of jobseeker's allowance to enter employment.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Each claimant in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance has a named Work Coach who will work with the claimant to identify their individual needs, delivering a personalised service to best meet the needs of the claimant and the local labour market.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many deceased people are under investigation for overpayment of the state pension; and how long on average such an investigation has taken to conclude in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department’s policy is to recover all debt where it is reasonable and cost effective to do so. Therefore, action is taken to try to recover any outstanding recoverable debt from the estate of a deceased debtor. I have assumed for the purposes of answering your questions that by the term ‘investigation’ you are referring to cases where the Department is seeking to recover overpayments from a deceased claimant’s estate as described below.
I can confirm that after a holding period of 14 days from recording the date of death, the system will automatically check to see if it holds a correspondent (e.g. next of kin or former appointee). If a correspondent exists, the system will auto issue a request for repayment of the outstanding balance.
If no correspondent details are held (i.e. where the deceased person was the previous correspondent), the system will start its weekly search of probate records for a legal estate. I am unable to give an average time for this process but if probate is granted within 2 years of the date of death, a claim letter will be issued to the Executor / Solicitor dealing with the estate – this is done automatically once probate details have auto-downloaded from the Probate Office. If probate is not granted within 2 years of the date of death, no claim will be made and the balance of the debt will automatically be written off.
The current number of State Pension cases for which a search of probate records is being taken forward is not available, as we do not hold validated data that is specific to State Pension.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of how long it takes British citizens to find work after returning from a long period living overseas.
Answered by Damian Hinds
No such assessment has been made by DWP.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support in finding work is available to British citizens returning to the UK after a long period overseas.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Eligibility for support in finding work is determined by eligibility for benefits and then need, rather than length of time abroad.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people found a lost pension scheme through the Pension Tracing Service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Pension Tracing Service (PTS) located the following number of schemes:
2011/12 Successful Traces 69,143
2012/13 Successful Traces 93,975
2013/14 Successful Traces 125,502
2014/15 Successful Traces 107,834
2015/16 Successful Traces 133,702
These numbers represent the number of schemes PTS located for customers but PTS have no way of knowing how many customers went on to find a lost pension.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Pendle have found lasting work through the Work Programme.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The information held by the department relates to the number of Work Programme job outcomes by various geographies and this can be found at:
http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/WorkProg/tabtool.html
Guidance for users can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance