Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to revise the payment dates for universal credit payments over Christmas and new year to allow claimants whose specified payment date is on or after 25 December 2018 to be paid more than one working day in advance of 25 December 2018.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department has extensive experience of paying claimants over holiday periods and we have also paid Universal Credit to significant numbers of claimants over previous Christmas periods.
The Department will advance the timing of all payments for people affected by bank holidays, to make sure they have money over the festive period.
Universal Credit payments due to be received on 24, 25 and 26 December will be paid no later than 21 December.
Universal Credit payments due to be received on 30, 31 December and 1 January will receive payment no later than 31 December.
This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-have-your-benefits-paid
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the guidance issued by her Department on the thresholds for (a) financial hardship when a universal credit claimant applies for an advanced payment and (b) exceptional circumstances when a universal credit claimant with an advance payment applies for repayments to be delayed for up to three months.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing the information on a regular basis.
New claimants to Universal Credit have always been able to apply for a Universal Credit Advance in their first month if they need financial support until their first regular payment of Universal Credit is made.
We have previously increased the maximum amount available for advances from 50 per cent to 100 per cent of the total award, and increased the repayment period from 6 months to 12 months. Last month’s Autumn Budget 2018 extended - from October 2021 - the maximum period over which an advance can be recovered, from 12 to 16 months. From October 2019, we will also reduce the maximum rate at which deductions can be made from a Universal Credit award from 40% to 30% of the standard allowance
If during the recovery of an advance the claimant experiences an unforeseen expense that would cause them or their family genuine hardship if they were required to continue to repay the advance, then they can be offered a deferral period of the repayment of the advance of up to 3 months for a new claim, benefit transfer or change of circumstance advance and up to 6 months for a budgeting advance.
In addition Personal Budgeting Support (PBS) is also offered to Universal Credit claimants from the outset of their claim. PBS helps claimants as they transition to Universal Credit and adapt to the financial changes that Universal Credit brings. PBS can be online, telephone or face to face support. Face to face support is currently delivered through local authorities via Universal Support.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to universal credit, what estimate she has made of the (a) proportion of claimants who apply for an advanced payment that are successful, (b) number of claimants who seek a deferred payment of three months when repaying an advanced payment and (c) proportion of claimants who receive an advanced payment and apply successfully for a deferred payment.
Answered by Lord Sharma
I refer the hon Member to the reply to Question 176262 on 11 October.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2018 to Question 185131 on Independent Case Examiner, if she will publish that same information for complaints by women on the equalisation of the state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Individual departments have set up complaints procedures. That approach has not changed under Labour 1997-2010 or successive governments. The DWP has a two tier complaints process which considers formal complaints about our service. Once a complainant has exhausted the DWP complaint process they are signposted to the Independent Case Examiner’s Office if they are dissatisfied with the final response to their complaint.
The Independent Case Examiner is independent, and discusses complaints. The Independent Case Examiner is appointed under contract to adjudicate on escalated complaints about the DWP, and its contracted service providers, in cases where the complainant has exhausted the relevant internal complaints process and remains dissatisfied. If a complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of an I Independent Case Examiner investigation (or the service provided by the Independent Case Examiner) they can ask their Member of Parliament to escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
The table below provides details of the number of complaints concerning the equalisation of women’s state pension age, that have been (a) received; (b) accepted for investigation and (c) resolved by the Independent Case Examiner in each month since January 2017 (we have interpreted (c) as a request for the number of concluded complaint examinations).
At the end of October 2018, there were 865 such cases awaiting a decision on whether the complaint could be accepted for investigation, which explains the drop in the number of cases accepted for investigation since April 2018.
Month | Complaints received | Complaints accepted for investigation | Concluded complaint examinations |
January 2017 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
February 2017 | 26 | 5 | 0 |
March 2017 | 211 | 187 | 0 |
April 2017 | 172 | 157 | 0 |
May 2017 | 171 | 148 | 0 |
June 2017 | 144 | 124 | 1 |
July 2017 | 222 | 185 | 0 |
August 2017 | 290 | 243 | 0 |
September 2017 | 297 | 232 | 0 |
October 2017 | 418 | 338 | 3 |
November 2017 | 320 | 265 | 6 |
December 2017 | 222 | 177 | 4 |
January 2018 | 314 | 254 | 11 |
February 2018 | 240 | 210 | 28 |
March 2018 | 171 | 132 | 16 |
April 2018 | 196 | 2 | 11 |
May 2018 | 159 | 2 | 15 |
June 2018 | 147 | 2 | 30 |
July 2018 | 131 | 0 | 13 |
August 2018 | 108 | 5 | 14 |
September 2018 | 101 | 1 | 15 |
October 2018 | 119 | 0 | 14 |
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been (a) received, (b) accepted for investigation and (c) resolved by the Independent Case Examiner in each month since January 2017 for which information is available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below provides details of the number of complaints (a) received; (b) accepted for investigation and (c) resolved by the Independent Case Examiner in each month since January 2017 (we have interpreted (c) as a request for the number of concluded complaint examinations).
Month | Complaints received | Complaints accepted for investigation | Concluded complaint examinations |
January 2017 | 283 | 121 | 72 |
February 2017 | 250 | 92 | 70 |
March 2017 | 448 | 140 | 109 |
April 2017 | 380 | 244 | 58 |
May 2017 | 445 | 252 | 84 |
June 2017 | 391 | 226 | 85 |
July 2017 | 491 | 304 | 83 |
August 2017 | 507 | 336 | 69 |
September 2017 | 512 | 326 | 71 |
October 2017 | 664 | 428 | 81 |
November 2017 | 556 | 373 | 76 |
December 2017 | 358 | 66 | 65 |
January 2018 | 585 | 130 | 85 |
February 2018 | 517 | 82 | 82 |
March 2018 | 451 | 17 | 83 |
April 2018 | 479 | 177 | 74 |
May 2018 | 430 | 147 | 87 |
June 2018 | 444 | 309 | 108 |
July 2018 | 415 | 370 | 91 |
August 2018 | 442 | 238 | 104 |
September 2018 | 373 | 116 | 91 |
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 number of instances where universal credit claimants have not received universal credit payments due to being paid every four weeks rather than per calendar month.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The amount of Universal Credit paid reflects, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period, including any earnings reported by the employer during that assessment period, regardless of when they were paid. Monthly assessment is aligned to the way the majority of employees are paid and also allows Universal Credit to be adjusted each month. This means that if a claimant’s income falls, they will not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit.
Some claimants are paid in differing patterns, including four-weekly, fortnightly, weekly or on a variable day every month, which may mean that for some months these claimants receive two or more sets of earnings during one Universal Credit assessment period (AP). This may reduce, or in some cases completely reduce the Universal Credit award the claimant receives that month.
We have produced guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles: this is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cycles.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have contacted (a) her Department and (b) pension providers on having been unaware that they had a pension which had been contracted out.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Under successive governments the Department has never kept records on numbers contacting the Department or pension providers on having been unaware that they had a pension which had been contracted out.
Asked by: Ged Killen (Labour (Co-op) - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of 7 February 2018, Official Report, column 1489, when an online password reset function will be implemented for universal credit claimants.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Universal Credit Claimants are able to reset their password online unless they have forgotten all of their details.
We are currently making some improvements which we hope will simplify the process for claimants.