Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North of 20 December 2016 on housing benefit policy and student loans on behalf of a constituent.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
I replied to the hon. Member on 17 January 2017.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2017 to Question 59041, on members: correspondence, whether the information contained in that Answer relates to substantive replies being sent to hon. Members.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The performance data provided in the response to question 59041 to the hon. Member is in relation to substantive replies to Members correspondence.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the hon. Member for Walsall North will receive a reply to his letter to the Benefit Director on 6 December 2016 on employment and support allowance; and what the reasons are for the delay in responding to that letter.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department for Work and Pensions offers its apology for the delay in responding. We have been investigating the issues raised in your letter to the Benefit Director on 6 December.
Whilst the Department aims to provide a full response to MP enquires on behalf of their constituents within 15 working days, there will be occasions where, for a variety of reasons this is not possible. In this case additional information received from the customer generated further enquiries. Regrettably, the MP's office was not kept informed of progress when it became clear in this particular case there would be a delay. A full response has now been issued to the hon. Member.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether in his meetings with the Benefits Director he has discussed the process of replies being sent to hon. Members.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Secretary of State holds regular meetings with the Director General, Operations to discuss operational matters and performance. The process of replies being sent to hon. Members has not featured in discussions to date, primarily because the Department’s performance in respect of the timeliness of responses is broadly on track. For the calendar year 2016, 89% of responses to hon. Members were issued within 15 days, against a target of 90% in 15 days. The 90% target reflects the fact that some matters raised by hon. Members can be particularly complex and, in such cases, it is not always possible to respond within 15 days.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is by the Benefit Director in his Department to reply to hon. Members' correspondence.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The average time taken by Benefit Directors to respond to hon. Members’ correspondence so far this calendar year is 12 working days.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedure is in place for the Benefits Director in his Department to send written replies to letters from hon. Members writing on behalf of constituents.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Letters from MPs, raising concerns on behalf of their constituents, are allocated to the DWP Complaints and Correspondence Team to investigate and draft a response on behalf of DWP. DWP has procedures in place for handling correspondence from Ministers and MPs.
DWP has answered 4264 pieces of correspondence in relation to Benefits from MPs so far this calendar year, so the Benefits Director has authority to delegate cases to other DWP Directors to reply to hon. Members.
However, the Benefits Director will be aware of all types of enquiries coming into DWP.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to attend interviews with claimants conducted by his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Secretary of State has attended several Jobcentreplus sites, where he has had the opportunity to observe and discuss a range of operational issues. He has not sat in on interviews with work coaches whilst they have conducted interviews with claimants, as standard practice is to seek agreement first with claimants for any third party to be in attendance. Future visits to Jobcentreplus are planned for the Secretary of State.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) which food banks he has visited since taking office.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Details of Ministerial UK official visits and official meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly and made available on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the hon. Member for Walsall North did not receive a written response to his letter of 25 May 2016 on a constituent's concern about personal independence payments, ref NM580509C/PIP 10531938/101; when a reply will be received to that letter and the follow-up letter of 3 October 2016; and for what reasons those delays occurred.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department for Work and Pensions apologises for any delay in responding. We have been investigating the issues raised in your Parliamentary Question but unfortunately there is no trace of your stated correspondence within the department. Therefore we are unable to respond at this time. The department requests that the honourable gentleman for Walsall North sends in duplicate copies, to enable the department to understand the content, investigate further and provide an appropriate response.
Asked by: David Winnick (Labour - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North of 1 August 2016 to the Benefits Director on pension credit related to a constituency case.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department for Work and Pensions apologises for the delay in responding. We have been investigating the issues raised by your constituent and a response has sent to the hon. Member for Walsall North, Mr David Winnick, today.