Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a yellow card warning system for benefit sanctions in England.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department committed to look at processes to give claimants a written warning, instead of a sanction, for a first sanctionable failure to attend a Work-Search Review and to undertake a series of small-scale Proof of Concepts of this warning system. The Department would like to complete all testing before making an assessment of the merits of introducing such a system.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of personal independence payment decisions have been challenged (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully at (i) mandatory reconsideration and (ii) tribunal.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Data on Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) and appeals for initial decisions following a PIP assessment can be found in Table 5A of the “Data tables: PIP award rates, clearance/outstanding times and tracking of initial decisions following a PIP assessment through to mandatory reconsiderations or appeals, to October 2019” available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2019
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants have successfully disputed the Real Time Information on which their awards have been based in the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has been working closely with HMRC since Universal Credit went live in 2013 to support and inform employers who report earnings to emphasise the importance of timely reporting via the Real Time Information (RTI) system.
HMRC have guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles; the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is also working closely with HMRC and employers to do this.
Between February 2019 to January 2020 the Department completed over 23 million Universal Credit earnings calculations using RTI data. Of these, 107,463 were disputed and 20,418 were upheld.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring all personal independence payment assessments to be recorded.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the Rt.Hon Member to the answer I gave on 10 February 2020 to Question UIN 12293.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of giving in-work universal credit claimants the option to move their assessment period to reflect more closely the dates on which they receive their earnings.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has been working closely with HMRC since Universal Credit went live in 2013 to support and inform employers who report earnings to emphasise the importance of timely reporting via RTI system.
Employers should already record on HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system the date a salary is scheduled to be paid, rather than the date it is paid, where it is earlier due to a weekend, bank holiday or at Christmas.
HMRC have updated their guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles; the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is also working closely with HMRC and employers to do this.
Universal Credit takes earnings into account in a way that is fair and transparent. The amount paid reflects, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period. This allows Universal Credit awards to be adjusted on a monthly basis, ensuring that if claimant’s incomes falls, they do not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit award. Currently there are no plans to change assessment periods.
Claimants can discuss queries about how fluctuating income effects Universal Credit with their case managers and work coaches, who can also signpost to services appropriate to individual circumstances.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on the inclusion of food insecurity questions in the Family Resources Survey; and what the timeframe is for publication of the results of that survey.
Answered by Will Quince
Food security questions were included in the Family Resources Survey questionnaire from April 2019 onwards. Data are being collected throughout the current financial year. The extent of information published will be subject to the usual quality assurance processes, which are applied to both survey responses and DWP statistical publications. If the data on food security are sufficiently robust, publication would take place in the first quarter of 2021.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 April 2019 to Question 238363 on Food Banks, what her timescale is for publication of the final report.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is currently working on the literature review and a release date is yet to be determined.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has received feedback from Dyspraxics on the accessibility of its online platforms.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit has been designed with accessibility in mind and we are committed to providing personalised support for all claimants. The Department commissioned an independent accessibility audit of our Universal Credit online service in September 2018 and will receive the final report and accessibility statement this Summer. We continue to provide training and process improvements so that we can maintain an excellent level of accessibility.
Where claimants may struggle to access the Universal Credit online system, face-to-face support in Jobcentres is available to assist them in making and accessing their claim and claimants can also make a claim via the Freephone Universal Credit helpline.