Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) were eligible for and (b) participated in the Work Programme in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency in each month since October 2012.
Answered by Esther McVey
In response to the first part of the question, statistics on the number of people who were eligible for the Work Programme are not available.
Information on those referred to the Work Programme, by parliamentary constituency, is published and can be found at:
http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/WorkProg/tabtool.html
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much benefit was withheld from claimants in benefit sanctions in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Department does not estimate the amount of benefit withheld as a result of benefit sanctions. Sanctions are designed to ensure claimants comply with their requirements in order to move off benefits and into work.
There are no benchmarks or targets for sanctions referrals.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority in Scotland have had their income support capped since the introduction of the benefits cap.
Answered by Esther McVey
The number of households subject to the benefit cap by (a) Parliamentary Constituency and (b) Local Authority is published quarterly through Stat-Xplore, the Department’s online interactive tabulation tool. The latest data, showing the total number of households capped from 15 April 2013, when the benefit cap was introduced, to August 2014, can be found in Table 1 of the data tables published here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
The benefit cap applies to the combined income from a number of benefits, including Income Support.
• the main out-of-work benefits (Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, and Employment and Support Allowance except when the Support Component is in payment);
• Housing Benefit;
• Child Benefit;
• Child Tax Credit;
• other benefits such as Carer’s Allowance.
The cap is currently administered through Housing Benefit. This means that, if affected, it is only a household’s Housing Benefit entitlement that is reduced so that the total amount of benefit received is no longer higher than the cap level.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency were waiting for (a) a decision on an application for personal independence payment and (b) a work capability assessment on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Harper
Information on the number of applications for personal independence payment awaiting a decision from a DWP decision maker is not available. The published information does not break down applications by where they are in the claiming process, which has several stages.
The information requested for work capability assessments is not available as Atos Healthcare do not record information at a constituency level.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency are currently in receipt of personal independence payments.
Answered by Lord Harper
Information on the number of claimants in receipt of personal independence payment, by parliamentary constituency, has been published and can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in East Ayrshire had had housing benefit capped since the introduction of the benefit cap at the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Esther McVey
The latest official benefit cap statistics, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-cap-statistics, show that in East Ayrshire between April 2013 and May 2014, a total of 36 households have been capped.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in East Ayrshire are currently subject to housing benefit being capped as a result of the benefit cap introduced in April 2013.
Answered by Esther McVey
The latest official benefit cap statistics, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-cap-statistics, show that in East Ayrshire as at May 2014, there were 16 households subject to the cap.