Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date the longest outstanding access to work funding application was submitted to his Department.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The longest outstanding Access to Work application was received on 19h January 2022. This application is currently on hold at the request of the customer to allow them time to gather information to support the application.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what matters were assessed by the latest statutory review of the benefit cap levels as set out in Section 96A subsection (3) paragraph (b) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State took into account evidence and statistics held in the department, the views of stakeholders, the wider economic climate, public funds and the circumstances of capped households were also considered. At the new levels the cap will continue to incentivise work, particularly at a time of high vacancies.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2023 to Question 157005 on Universal Credit: Disqualification, when his Department last made an assessment of the effectiveness of the deterrent effect of benefit sanctions on Universal Credit claimants who have been subject to repeat adverse sanction decisions.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have made no such assessment.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the Equality Analysis of the changes made to the Administrative Earnings Threshold for Universal Credit which came into force in (a) September 2022 and (b) January 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has completed an Equality Analysis for both of the changes made to the Administrative Earnings Threshold.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the Equality Analysis of the changes made to the Benefit Cap due to come into force on 1 April 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has complied with his duties under the Equality Act 2010 in respect of the statutory review of the benefit cap levels and the changes that will come into force from 1 April 2023.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2022 (experimental) and pursuant to the Answer of 27 September 2022 to Question 49219 on Social Security Benefits: Disqualification, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the deterrent effect of benefit sanctions on Universal Credit claimants who have been subject to repeat adverse sanction decisions in the last year.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are currently no plans to undertake further research on sanctions.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the data used to inform the review of the Benefit Cap carried out under S96A of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to publish the data used to inform the review of the Benefit Cap levels carried out under S96A of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason his Department has not published online versions of its Touchbase newsletter since March 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Touchbase newsletter was previously published online monthly as well as being shared by email to those who had subscribed for updates.
At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, a decision was made to create a weekly version of the email. Digital resources were focussed on updating online guidance available for everyone. The online version was no longer published to avoid any confusion with historical versions giving out of date messages.
The weekly email version of Touchbase still continues and anyone can subscribe to these updates. Touchbase editions after March 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's publication Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2022, how many full time equivalent (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff are tasked exclusively with the investigative work on sanction durations data.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We do not hold the information requested.
We will provide updates on progress of the investigative work through the quarterly bulletins and the DWP Statistical Work Programme.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's publication Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2022, how many hours of (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff were dedicated to the investigative work on sanction durations data in each month for which data is available since November 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We do not hold the information requested.
We will provide updates on progress of the investigative work through the quarterly bulletins and the DWP Statistical Work Programme.