Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Education to (a) identify and (b) tackle the causes of child poverty in Easington constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
This Government is committed to delivering a sustainable, long-term solution to poverty in all its forms. Tackling child poverty requires an approach that goes beyond targets - which focus on income alone- to one that addresses the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and improves long-term outcomes for families and children.
Through Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published in 2017, we set out detailed evidence on the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and their impact on the outcomes of children in families where none of the parents is working. We also set out nine indicators to track progress in the areas that matter, including two statutory measures of parental worklessness and educational attainment – the two areas that we know can make the biggest difference to children’s outcomes.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase the uptake of pension credits in Easington constituency.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Potential customers can use the Pension Credit Calculator https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive. People wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling the Freephone number 0800991234.
There are over 1.6 million people already claiming some £5.4 billion in Pension Credit, but the Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled. In Easington there are around 3,000 pensioners already claiming Pension Credit.
On a national basis, the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits to potential customers; including information on https://gov.uk/, in leaflets and by telephone. DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.
We welcome and encourage initiatives to promote take up of Pension Credit by local organisations who may often be best placed to understand the local circumstances and needs in the community. To help facilitate this, we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit
The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 272815 on Personal Independence Payment, what assessment he has made of the effect of the quality-driven approach to personal independence payment on the number of cases going to tribunal.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is still too early to assess the full impact of this approach. However initial feedback has been positive and the recently published PIP Official Statistics up to April 2019 showed an increase in the proportion of decisions changed at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage since the approach was implemented.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2019 to Question 270341 on Personal Independence Payment, what improvements to processing mandatory reconsiderations have been made since her Department adopted the quality-driven approach.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have been engaging with stakeholders to explore how we can improve the Mandatory Reconsideration process. We have also recently implemented a new operational approach in PIP where we are proactively contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision. Early indications are that this is helping decision makers.
Further to this we have already been working on reviewing cases at the appeal stage and where new evidence is provided that changes the decision we are lapsing cases so that claimants don’t need to wait for a hearing.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to increase the uptake of pension credit in Easington constituency.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled. We welcome and encourage initiatives to promote take up of Pension Credit by local organisations who may often be best placed to understand the local circumstances and needs in the community.
On a national basis, the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits to potential customers; including information on https://gov.uk/, in leaflets and by telephone. DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.
Potential customers can use the Pension Credit https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive. People wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.
One of the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholder working in the community and we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit
The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.
Most recently we have provided to relevant stakeholders a fact sheet about Pension Credit and the changes introduced on 15 May for mixed age couples to ensure that accurate information is available in the places where people are most likely to seek information. In Easington there are just over 3000 pensioners already claiming Pension Credit.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2019 to Question 267733 on Personal Independence Payment: County Durham, what key performance indicators his Department uses to monitor the processing of personal independence payments mandatory reconsiderations.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There is no target in law for processing mandatory reconsideration (MR) applications. Decisions are made without delay, but the focus is on making sure that the decision under dispute is thoroughly reviewed.
We are engaging with stakeholders to explore how we can improve the MR process. We have also recently implemented a new approach in PIP which includes contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision ourselves at an earlier stage. To support this, we are investing additional time and resource for communication, evidence gather and review, which means that some cases can take longer. However, this approach supports our aim; to make the right decision as early as possible so that claimants don’t need to progress to the Appeal stage.
Introducing performance indicators - be they in relation to outcomes or the speed of clearance - would compromise the Department’s quality-driven approach. But as explained in my previous reply, from late May 2019 claimants have been advised that as a guide, and to manage their expectations, that they should hear from the Department within 10 weeks.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2019 to Question 267733 on Personal Independence Payment: County Durham, if she will make it her policy to (a) establish and (b) publish a waiting time target for processing personal Independence payment mandatory reconsiderations.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There is no target in law for processing mandatory reconsideration (MR) applications. Decisions are made without delay, but the focus is on making sure that the decision under dispute is thoroughly reviewed.
We are engaging with stakeholders to explore how we can improve the MR process. We have also recently implemented a new approach in PIP which includes contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision ourselves at an earlier stage. To support this, we are investing additional time and resource for communication, evidence gather and review, which means that some cases can take longer. However, this approach supports our aim; to make the right decision as early as possible so that claimants don’t need to progress to the Appeal stage.
Introducing performance indicators - be they in relation to outcomes or the speed of clearance - would compromise the Department’s quality-driven approach. But as explained in my previous reply, from late May 2019 claimants have been advised that as a guide, and to manage their expectations, that they should hear from the Department within 10 weeks.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2019 to Question 265489 on Personal Independence Payment, for what reason recent correspondence on casework enquiries to hon. Members states that waiting times for personal independence payments mandatory reconsiderations are 10 to 12 weeks in County Durham and table 7D, entitled MR clearance time (median calendar days), normal rules, by year of clearance, region and local authority of her Department's quarterly statistical publication, Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to April 2019 states that such waiting times are 39 median calendar days.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The figures published in table 7D of the publication “Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to April 2019” are based on median calendar days that a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) is cleared in each Financial Year. Clearance times can vary over time, and the median time is the middle value if all the times were ordered from lowest value to highest value.
Table 7C of the same publication shows median clearance times by month for Great Britain as a whole, with April 2019 being the latest month official statistics have been published for.
There is no legislative clearance target for a mandatory reconsideration. However, from late May 2019 claimants have been advised that, as a guide, they should hear from the Department within 10 weeks.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2019 to Question 265490, what steps her Department is taking to (a) assess staff efficiency and (b) identify the adequacy of staffing levels to manage changes in mandatory reconsideration caseloads in the absence of data on staff levels.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
With reference to the previous question regarding PIP mandatory reconsideration work; for new claims and award reviews, these are managed at a national level to ensure that cases which have been outstanding for longest are actioned first. This means that a claimant could have their mandatory reconsideration considered at any of our 12 sites.
Operational Managers are in place at all of the sites to ensure that mandatory reconsiderations are processed as efficiently as possible.
The staffing for mandatory reconsiderations in PIP and across all benefits is currently adequate and is in constant review to ensure caseloads can be processed as efficiently as possible.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of providing free TV licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in (a) Easington constituency and (b) County Durham local authority area in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.
The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.
This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.
On 10 June 2019, the BBC announced that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.
The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.
| Expenditure (£m) (Nominal) |
| 2017-18 |
(a) Easington constituency | £0.86 |
(b) County Durham local authority area | £5.52 |