Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2020 to PQ 62300 on Universal Credit: Fraud, at what stage her Department's investigations into cases of universal credit scams for claimants in the Borough of Halton are; and when those claimants will have their benefits restored.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not store information at a constituency level. As a result, providing the requested information would incur disproportionate costs.
If an individual approaches DWP alleging they have had their identity fraudulently used, we will investigate the matter. We endeavour to ensure that these investigations are brought to a conclusion as quickly as possible.
Where a person has had their details used to make a fraudulent claim for Universal Credit, the Department may consider the reinstatement of legacy benefits where it is clear they played no part in the making of the claim.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what stage his Department's investigations into cases of universal credit scams for claimants in Halton constituency are; and when those claimants will have their benefits restored.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold this data by constituency and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has he made of the accuracy of medical assessments for personal independence payment claimants who have autism.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is not a medical assessment requiring the assessor to diagnose a condition and recommend treatment options. It is a needs based assessment which considers how an individual’s condition(s) affects their ability to undertake everyday tasks. The Department continually monitors the performance of contracted suppliers including the requirements for delivering high quality and accurate assessments to all claimants regardless of their condition.
All Health Professionals undertaking PIP assessments must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training and competence. They must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor and must also be fully registered and have at least 2 years post full-registration experience, although this can be waived in exceptional circumstances by the Department.
All Health Professionals receive training on a wide range of conditions, including autism, as part of their initial new entrant training. This includes detailed modules covering all aspects of autism and learning disabilities, as well as simulated assessments to enable Health Professionals to understand how these conditions impact on a person’s ability to undertake the activities in the PIP assessment. This is followed by on-going professional training and support which continues for the duration of their employment in the role. All Health Professionals are subject to on-going audit by our Assessment Providers to ensure that they deliver high quality assessments.
We are continually working with the Assessment Providers to further improve the quality of all assessments including increasing clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. We are undertaking more observations of assessments and our independent audit of assessment reports ensures that the advice provided to the Department’s decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to specifically help people with autism into work.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government is strongly committed to increasing employment opportunities for disabled people, including those with autism. Taking a life course approach, we are working across Government and with local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers in the public and private sectors to achieve this. Specific help for people with autism includes:
On Thursday 30 November 2017 we published ‘Improving Lives the Future of Work,
Health and Disability’, which sets out details of our life course approach to improving employment opportunities for disabled people and people with a health condition. Whilst the initiatives are not all aimed exclusively at autistic people, we expect that many will benefit from these initiatives.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2018 to Question 130479, on state retirement: pensions, how many complaints the Independent Case Examiners Office has received in total by constituency.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Independent Case Examiner is considering from Halton constituency relating to the equalisation of the state pension age; and how many such complaints from Halton constituency that examiner has resolved since 2 October 2017.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office has to date received one complaint relating to the equalisation of state pension age from the Halton constituency, which was declined for investigation in February 2018 as the relevant acceptance criteria had not been met.