Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase the effectiveness of the assessment process for Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire Personal Independence Payment service, from finding out about benefits through to decisions, eligibility, and payments. It will modernise the service to improve efficiency and customer experience. This includes introducing new options to apply online, improving how we gather health information, and tailoring the process to the customer’s needs and circumstances.
We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we will, in future, record assessments by default, unless the claimant asks that the assessment should not be recorded. This will give us the means to check what happened when an assessment is found later to have been incorrect, and, we expect, an effective lever for improvement
We have also launched a review of the PIP assessment, which I am leading. Through the review, we want to make sure the PIP assessment is fit for the future. We have now begun the first phase of this work which includes speaking to stakeholders to gather views on how best to approach the review.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations she plans to have discussions with during the review of the Personal Independence Payment assessment process.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through the review of the PIP assessment, we want to make sure that the PIP assessment is fit for the future. We have now begun the first phase of this review, during which I am speaking to stakeholders to gather views on how best to approach the review.
We will work closely with disabled people, the organisations that support them and other experts, to ensure that the voices of those who go through the PIP assessment and those with expertise in the system are embedded in the review.
We are committed to listening to and learning from people with a range of expertise and experience. As part of the review process, we will be engaging extensively with a variety of stakeholders to input and shape the direction of the review.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to introduce reforms to the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments before the conclusion of her Department's review of the Personal Independence Payment assessment process.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Subject to Parliamentary approval, the proposed reforms will take effect only at the point of a claimant’s next scheduled award review after November 2026.
In parallel, we have launched a comprehensive review of the PIP assessment process, which I shall lead. The review aims to ensure the assessment remains fit for the future and continues to support those with the greatest needs. We are currently in the first phase of this work, engaging with disabled people, representative organisations, and other stakeholders to shape the scope, timings, and approach of the review. The Terms of Reference will be published once this initial engagement is complete.
We envisage the Review as the vehicle for any changes to be made to the assessment.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of transferring powers for (a) skills and (b) training for employment support from job centres to (i) mayors and (ii) unitary councils under devolution deals.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Department for Work and Pensions will devolve funding for Connect to Work via grants to Strategic Authorities (including unitaries with a devolution agreement), and other agreed local authority clusters across the rest of England. This funding, in addition to the local Get Britain Working plans these areas will produce, will enable them to design and deliver an offer that is shaped around local priorities and provision. For Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, Connect to Work funding forms part of their Integrated Settlement.
All Mayoral Strategic Authorities will have a role in co-designing any future non-Jobcentre Plus employment support. Their subsequent role in commissioning or delivery will be determined as part of agreeing the policy objectives, design and funding parameters of any future programme. Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will play an integral role in the design and delivery of this support, subject to evaluation and readiness conditions being met, with a clear outcomes and accountability framework.
The Department for Education already devolves the Adult Skills Fund to all Strategic Authorities, including Mayoral ones.
Full details of the governments employment and skills devolution commitments are set out within the recently published English Devolution White Paper: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-devolution-white-paper-power-and-partnership-foundations-for-growth/english-devolution-white-paper
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 potential merits of using the appointee scheme to support disabled young people who do not have the mental capacity to access the money in their Child Trust Fund accounts.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The DWP appointee system gives access to social security benefits only. It does not give access to monies held in Child Trust Funds. Where the child is incapable of accessing the funds themselves, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides for how a third party can do that on the child’s behalf, namely, through the Court of Protection. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the savings in benefits payments that will be made because of the restriction on social housing rents increasing by the lower rate of seven per cent in the next financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Details of the DWPs estimated expenditure were published at Autumn Statement 2022 and can be found here.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of the Household Support Fund has been used to help renters pay off rent arrears by (a) region and (b) local authority as on 22 July 2022.
Answered by David Rutley
We do not hold this information.
Local Authorities have discretion on how their funding is used within the scope set out in the fund guidance and the accompanying grant determination. Support with rent arrears is not the primary intent of the Household Support Fund and should not be the focus of spend.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what way allocations to local authorities are to be calculated in the context of the £500 extension to the household support fund.
Answered by David Rutley
Government is providing an additional £500 million from October to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England £421m will be used to extend the Household Support Fund (October 2022 – March 2023).
Guidance and individual local authority indicative allocations for this further extension to the Household Support Fund will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will provide details of the (a) three trigger point targets in the universal credit system and (b) the proportion of the working day that universal credit service centre employees are expected to spend on each trigger point.
Answered by David Rutley
Our case managers, work coaches and decision makers work together to support claimants. Our Universal Credit Case Management approach has been designed to enable case managers to prioritise their workload by using their dashboard and triggers, which contain categories of cases requiring action selecting the most urgent cases to work on first, therefore they are not performance targets. The categories are those requiring payment; action to prevent a payment from being blocked; responses to claimant contact; and further action to manage a claim. The aim is to clear any pending actions once a case is taken up, therefore there is no expectation on how long a case manager should spend on each section of their dashboard.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many funds are allocated to local authorities by her Department through a process of competitive bidding; and if she will publish the names of those funds.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery (LA-PED) provides funding to local authorities for the costs in delivering Housing Benefit (a DWP benefit delivered by local authorities) and reimburses local authorities for Housing Benefit expenditure incurred. More recently, we fund for further grants delivered by local authorities, such as, the COVID Winter Support Grant. The delivery of HB and grants (as applicable) is legislated and therefore a statutory duty for local authorities. All funding provided through LA-PED does not go through a process of competitive bidding.
To date we have had no competed grants to LAs in 2021/22