Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure fraudulent universal credit claims are (a) identified and (b) reported as soon as possible.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP takes fraud and error very seriously and it should be noted that, during a period when we have faced the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19, fraud and error in the benefits system remains low, with 95% of benefits, worth more than £200bn. paid correctly in 2020/21.
We recognise that a small percentage of Universal Credit claims made during COVID-19 are in payment incorrectly and we are now re-visiting those cases which have the highest residual risk of incorrectness. Any overpayments will be pursued and where fraud is a factor, we will consider formal action.
We continue to invest in fraud and error prevention, with the Chancellor announcing £44m at the Spring Budget to support the expansion of both our Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service and our new Enhanced Checking Service and the development of Transaction Risking as a means of identifying high risk claims.
Our work with other Government departments and law enforcement agencies, both nationally and across borders, helps ensure appropriate intelligence and resources are shared,
enabling the totality of any criminality to be identified and investigated.
Our Annual Report and Accounts published on 15 July 2021 provides more information on what we are doing to prevent fraud from occurring: DWP annual report and accounts 2020 to 2021
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department will take to implement its commitments on the triple lock for state pensions.
Answered by Guy Opperman
As a result of the Triple Lock, the full yearly basic State Pension is now over £2,050 higher than in 2010 in cash terms.
Decisions on the rates for State Pensions are made each Autumn as part of the Up-rating review by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
We are committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve; the State Pension is the foundation of support for older people
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps will her Department take to improve the accessibility of the Access to Work Scheme for visually impaired people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
DWP is committed to ensuring that the Access to Work (AtW) scheme is accessible to visually impaired people. We work closely with stakeholders (including organisations who support blind and visually impaired people) to identify and deliver improvements to the scheme to broaden its accessibility and reach.
Recent accessibility improvements include:
In addition, we are currently developing an online journey to enable citizens to claim the grant; this will be fully accessible and allow users to submit claims, check the status of claims and view their remaining grant. We have done extensive user research and prototype testing with users who have visual impairments to ensure the future service meets their needs. We are also discussing ways of reducing the amount of invoices and other evidence users might need to upload or supply; ensuring a more inclusive service across all channels.
To raise awareness of the scheme, Access to Work was supported with paid campaign activity that ran between 24 February and 31 March, and the Department continues to assess how the scheme can be promoted to support both those with visual impairment and people with other disabilities and health conditions. The campaign ran across a broad channel mix to reach a wide but targeted audience. To coincide with the Access to Work campaign launch, we also produced a new Access to Work toolkit. This was shared with a wide range of stakeholders, including Business Disability Forum, Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), Disability Rights UK and the RNIB.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that correspondence sent to her Department is responded to within 20 working days.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department aims to respond to correspondence from hon. Members and their constituents within 20 working days wherever possible. Where the matters raised are complex it may take longer, but we aim to keep any delay to a minimum.
The Cabinet Office publishes information about individual Department’s performance in responding to hon. Members; the most recent information will be published in due course.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to enforce deduction from earning orders.
Answered by Guy Opperman
When a payment has not been received from an employer through a Deduction from Earnings Order (DEO), the Child Maintenance Service receive an alert and takes prompt action to investigate.
Account Managers and enforcement colleagues engage with employers to ensure they understand the DEO process and legal implications of not implementing the order, which could result in prosecutions or fines.
We have also introduced a new on-line service specifically for employers to ensure money deducted through DEOs is promptly allocated and paid to customers.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Child Maintenance Service is taking to ensure that the maintenance liability of paying parents reflects their income.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The income information for a child maintenance calculation is obtained directly from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). This method is consistent for all of our paying parents including earnings from self-employment.
Either parent may request a variation to a maintenance calculation to allow the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to consider some circumstances which are not covered by the basic calculation. This includes unearned income such as rental income from property or land, or dividends and interest from savings and investments. If a variation succeeds, the maintenance liability may be adjusted.
Cases involving complex income or suspected fraud can be referred to the CMS’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU), a specialist team who can request information from financial institutions to check the maintenance calculation accurately reflects financial circumstances. If an investigation finds evidence of criminality the FIU may seek to prosecute or forward to HMRC for fraud action.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is in place for workers who are paid on an hourly rate, in the event that they need to self-isolate in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Chancellor has announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms continue to keep people in employment. Employers can put workers on temporary leave and the government will pay them cash grants of 80% of their wages up to a cap of £2,500, providing they keep the worker employed.
The Chancellor has also confirmed that, depending on their status, workers on zero hours contracts may be eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and we would urge people to explore this avenue too.
The Chancellor has announced a Self-Employed Income Support Scheme that will help millions of people across the UK, with those eligible receiving a cash grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the last three years. This covers 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.
The scheme brings parity with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whereby the Government committed to pay up to £2,500 each month in wages of employed workers who are furloughed during the outbreak.