Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to respond to the Work and Pensions Committee’s (a) twenty-seventh report of Session 2017-19, Universal Credit: natural migration, HC 1884 and (b) twenty-eighth report of Session 2017-19, Welfare safety net, HC 1539.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has carefully reviewed the recommendations made by the Work and Pensions Select Committee in both reports. A response to the (b) twenty-eighth report of Session 2017-19, Welfare safety net, HC 1539 was sent on 1 November 2019.
The Government’s response to (a) twenty-seventh report of Session 2017-19, Universal Credit: natural migration, HC 1884 will be sent to the Work and Pensions Committee in due course.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where maternity allowance was administered prior to April 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Prior to April 2018 Maternity Allowance was processed at Wrexham Benefit Centre and Chesterfield Benefit Centre.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will list (a) all of the sites where maternity allowance has been administered and (b) the period of time they were administered at those sites.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Known sites for processing MA and the period that MA was processed at them is as follows:
Chesterfield – February 2016 to February 2019
Wrexham – 2005 (exact date unknown) to August 2019
Birkenhead – From April 2018
Walsall – From July 2019
St Helens – From August 2019
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her Department's target to process maternity allowance claims within 24 working days.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The recovery plan is to return to the aim of clearing Maternity Allowance claims within 24 working days.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 58 on the fast tracking of emergency cases of maternity allowance, how emergency is defined in that instance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In this case emergency cases are considered to be:
However, each case is considered on it’s own merit, taking into account an individual’s circumstances, age of claim etc.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to respond to the email from the hon. Member for Birkenhead on the disability living allowance award of his constituent Ella May Allinson.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A response was sent to the Rt Hon. Member on Friday 1 November 2019.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alternative payment arrangement requests for universal credit were rejected in the most recent 12 month period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alternative payment arrangements have been agreed with universal credit claimants in each year since the introduction of universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
Statistics on the number of Households on Universal Credit that make use of a Managed Payment to Landlord, More Frequent Payment and Split Payments under Alternative Payment Arrangements is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October to Question 2694 on Maternity Allowance, on what date her Department's messaging changed; and what the estimated number of days was in relation to that change.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
From 15 October 19 all Enquiry Line greeting messages, Gov.uk and SMS messages were aligned to notify customers that the working day turn around for MA claims was 70 days. This estimate reflected potential concerns that processing times could increase still further – which did not ultimately prove to be the case. In light of this we are reviewing our messaging to ensure our actual processing times are correctly reflected.
SMS texts only go to those customers that provide mobile contact numbers and are automated from the mail opening unit on receipt of the claim form.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alternative payment arrangements have been arranged with universal credit claimants; and what the reasons were for those arrangements in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available.
Answered by Will Quince
Statistics on the number of Households on Universal Credit that make use of a Managed Payment to Landlord, More Frequent Payment and Split Payments under Alternative Payment Arrangements is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Information regarding the reasons for the alternative payment arrangements is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.