Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford 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 claimants of universal credit manually reported their wages in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
A monthly breakdown of adjustments to Universal Credit payments owing to Real Time Information and self-reported earnings is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
From the information that is readily available for Universal Credit Full Service, in the twelve months to September 2019, on average 1.7m payments were processed each month. Of the payments processed, on average 1.2% or 20,000 had self-reported earnings information recorded.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what monitoring is undertaken of errors arising from the RTI system leading to overpayment of universal credit due to lack of notification of wages; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The amount of Universal Credit paid to claimants reflects the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period, as closely as possible.
Monthly assessment periods align to the way the majority of employees are paid and also allows Universal Credit to be adjusted each month. This means that if a claimant's income falls, they will not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit.
The IT systems between HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) system and the DWP are monitored 24/7 for any IT failures, so these can be addressed immediately. Universal Credit does not run its Payment Calculations until all earnings files transferred from HMRC are received. However, this does not address instances where an employer has failed to notify HMRC of earnings timeously. In these circumstances we have processes in place, including the opportunity for claimants to self-report earnings to help avoid overpayments.
The DWP has been working closely with HMRC since Universal Credit went live in 2013 to support and inform employers who report earnings to emphasise the importance of timely reporting via the Real Time Information (RTI) system.
HMRC have updated their guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles; the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is also working closely with HMRC and employers to do this.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the overall levels of payment were from the Flexible Support Fund (a) in each region, and (b) on (i) childcare, (ii) training, (iii) clothing for work and (iv) other categories of activity in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables attached.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times (a) Ministers and b) civil servants from her Department met with representatives from the Low Income Tax Reform Group in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department engages with a diverse range of stakeholders on a wide range of topics and issues including with the Low Income Tax Reform Group (LITRG).
They are a member of the Departmental Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum (OSEF) which meets quarterly allowing stakeholders to shape operational delivery and builds positive relationships between national stakeholders and DWP. The forum also enables key messages to be communicated to stakeholders in the most efficient and cost effective way.
LITRG have also attended two events with Civil Servants working on Universal Credit in the last year. Further information on meetings over the past 5 years is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her speech entitled, Universal Credit: personal welfare, delivered on 11 January 2019, how many recipients of universal credit where the woman is the payee are recorded as lead carers in relation to their claimant commitment.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with referenced to her speech entitled Universal Credit: personal welfare delivered on 11 January 2019, how many recipients of universal credit where payments go to the woman’s bank account are in paid work.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government guidance entitled Procurement policy note 03/14: promoting tax compliance, how many suppliers were allocated contracts by her Department Department as a result of complying with (a) one and (b) more than one of the mitigating circumstances after failing the tax compliance questions in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. To obtain the information a search through individual records would be required as this is not recorded on departmental systems.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many suppliers have been excluded from bidding for contracts due to not meeting the criteria in her Department's Procurement Policy Note 03/14 in each year since 2014.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
From April 2018 to February 2019 DWP have not excluded any suppliers from bidding for contracts due to not meeting the criteria in PPN 03/14. To provide a response for 2014 to March 2018 would exceed the cost threshold limit set for central Government.