Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people of pension age are entitled to pension credit but do not receive it in Norwich South constituency.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The information requested on the number of people of pension age entitled to pension credit but do not receive is only available at national level.
Official statistics on the take-up of income-related benefits at Great Britain level including Pension Credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up in 2016 to 2017’ publication.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are being taken to protect the pensions of UK and EU citizens who have previously worked in the UK but now live overseas.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Under existing domestic legislation, the UK State Pension can be claimed from and is payable worldwide to those who are entitled. This will continue to be the case whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal.
As we have stated previously, we will continue to uprate the UK State Pension for those living in the EU in 2019-20, with a view to securing continued reciprocal social security arrangements in the future.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of providing free television licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in Norwich South constituency in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.
The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.
This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.
On 10 June 2019, the BBC announced that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.
The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 years and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.
| Expenditure (£m) (Nominal) |
| 2017-18 |
Norwich South constituency | £0.96 |
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Alternative Payment Arrangements have been agreed by (a) constituent part of the UK, (b) English region and (c) parliamentary constituency to date; and how many of those arrangements relate to universal credit payments being made to claimants fortnightly as opposed to the monthly in arrears standard.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Such information that is available for managed payments to landlords can be found in the Universal Credit statistics published here:
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/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on allowing prisoners near the end of their sentence to apply for universal credit in advance of their release.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Universal Credit is primarily an online service. Due to restrictions on accessing and using computers in prisons, prison leavers cannot currently make a claim in advance of their release.
Prison based Work Coaches can provide information to prison leavers on the services provided the Department for Work and Pensions, including how to make a claim and any additional support available where required. An appointment can be made for the first day of release.
This additional support includes access to Universal Credit Advances of up to 50% of the household’s monthly entitlement, if the claimant needs financial support before they receive their first monthly payment.
These measures should ensure that prisoners are not disadvantaged by the inability to make advance claims prior to release.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who have been reassessed to remain in the support group of employment support allowance have medical conditions that are not expected to improve.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Between October 2008 and September 2015 a total of 38,100 people in the Support Group have been reassessed and found to still be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance, and to remain in the Support Group, and were also found to either be terminally ill or had a prognosis of “in the longer term”, suggesting that their conditions are not expected to improve in the short term.
Source: Data is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by Atos and the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments.
Notes:
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
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 number of people who are eligible to receive the winter fuel payment and have voluntarily chosen not to receive it in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Details of the number payments made to individuals and households are publicly available on the GOV.UK website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/winter-fuel-payments-caseload-and-household-figures
The voluntary relinquishments requests for the past three years are as follows:-
2013 139
2014 78
2015 82