Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the universal credit standard allowance for claimants aged under 25 who live independently to align with the amount received by claimants aged over 25.
Answered by Will Quince
The £20 per week uplift to everyone on Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. This measure remains in place until March 2021.
The lower rates for younger claimants under 25 years reflects the fact that they are more likely to live in someone else's household and have lower living costs and lower earnings expectations. It also reinforces the stronger work incentives that Universal Credit creates for this age group which have been aided by the Department’s £2bn Kickstart scheme which is already creating thousands of high-quality jobs for young people.
For claimants who live independently, Universal Credit already includes separate elements to provide support for housing costs, children and childcare costs and support for disabled people and carers.
Care leavers up to the age of 22 are exempt from the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Shared Accommodation Rate and are entitled to the higher, one bed LHA rate.
For those who require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHPs to local authorities to support households with their housing costs.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of awarding a retrospective £20 uplift that was received by universal credit claimants to people who remain on legacy benefits such as (a) employment and support allowance, (b) income support and (c) jobseeker's allowance.
Answered by Will Quince
The temporary Universal Credit Standard Allowance uplift was introduced to support those facing the most financial disruption due to the pandemic. There are no plans to extend the uplift to legacy benefits. Claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for Universal Credit (UC) if they believe that they will be better off. Claimants should check carefully their eligibility and entitlements under UC before applying as legacy benefits will end when claimants submit their claim and they will not be able to return to them in the future.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will conduct a thematic review of the success of claimants with autism in migrating from disability living allowance to personal independence payment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have no plans to conduct thematic reviews based on condition.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Oersonal independence payments by claimants with autism were (a) successful, (b) unsuccessful and (c) overturned on appeal in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is provided in the table below.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) initial decisions and decisions overturned at appeal for claimants with a primary disabling condition of autism, April 2013 - 31st December 2018, Great Britain
Initial decision | Number |
Awarded | 51,540 |
Disallowed | 16,480 |
Overturned at appeal | 2,740 |
Since PIP was introduced 3.9m decisions have been made in Great Britain across all health conditions up to December 2018, of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned.
PIP data is for both new claims and DLA reassessment claims.
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10. This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
An appeal can only be made against a decision which has gone through the Mandatory Reconsideration process.
Appeals data is up to December 2018. Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.
Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this appeal data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
Decisions overturned at appeal include claimants awarded PIP at initial decision and the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award.
Decisions overturned at appeal may include a number of appeals that have been lapsed (which is where DWP changed the decision after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at Tribunal).
Note that main disabling condition is only recorded for claims which reach the assessment stage. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which their entitlement decision is based but only the main disabling condition is recorded and shown in these statistics.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding her Department has allocated to the Health and Safety Laboratory in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Prior to April 2015 the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) operated as an in-house agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It received funding of £28.8 million in 2012/13, £28.2 million in 2013/14 and £26.2 million in 2014/15.
In April 2015 HSL was integrated as a major part of HSE’s Science Division. To deliver its strategic objectives, HSE allocates its resources across its divisions. The Science Division (SD) received £32.1 million in 2015/16. In 2016/17 it received £16.0 million which excludes the cost of IT and estates. These were previously managed by SD but are now managed centrally by HSE.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the level of profit earned by the Health and Safety Laboratory in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), operated as an in-house agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) until it was integrated as a major part of HSE’s Science Division in April 2015.
The Science Division does not make a profit. The primary objective is to undertake research and investigations on HSE’s behalf. Revenue is generated through the provision of workplace health and safety research, training and consultancy in order to maintain capability and reduce dependency on taxpayer funding. In line with HM Treasury’s Managing Public Money, all such work is charged on a full cost recovery basis. Revenue generated contributes to the total running cost of HSE.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much revenue the Health and Safety Laboratory generated from external contracts in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), operated as an in-house agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) until it was integrated as a major part of HSE’s Science Division in April 2015.
The following table shows the level of revenue Science Division generated from external contracts in each of the last five years:
Financial year | Commercial income |
2016/17 | 13.6 |
2015/16 | 12.9 |
2014/15 | 12.9 |
2013/14 | 10.2 |
2012/13 | 8.7 |
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the funding allocated to the Health and Safety Laboratory on the ability of private sector companies to compete for contracts.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), operated as an in-house agency of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) until it was integrated as a major part of HSE’s Science Division in April 2015.
Most of the commercial work HSE undertakes is through the process of bidding for the work alongside any competitors. All work won through a bidding process is subject to 'Fair and Open Competition'. In addition, goods and services offered to the market such as training courses, are competing alongside any other providers. Funding allocated by DWP is not used to subsidise Science Division's commercial activities which recover their full economic cost.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people with multiple sclerosis making new claims for Disability Living Allowance in 2013 (a) had their claim refused and (b) received an award.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The available information on the number of individuals in receipt of Disability Living Allowance payments by medical condition is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to publish his response to the second independent review into personal independence payments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We are still considering the review’s recommendations and plan to respond in due course.