Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims have been incorrectly calculated resulting in an overpayment.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Our internal data from the last full financial year, 2017/18, shows that around 6%* of the individuals that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18, were overpaid and were referred to Debt Management for the recovery of these overpayments. This figure includes fraud, claimant error and official error overpayments.
* The percentage figure has been calculated by dividing the number of Universal Credit claimants who were overpaid and referred to Debt Management for the recovery of an overpayment, by the number of individual claimants that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18. Not all of the claimants would have been in payment.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received a benefit sanction in December 2017.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The available information on the number of individuals sanctioned by benefit (which can also be broken down by geographic area such as constituency or local authority) is published and can be accessed 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: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to pause all benefits sanctions over the Christmas and new year period from 21 December 2018 to 5 of January 2019.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
We have not paused sanctions nationwide during the Christmas and New Year period since 2010 and there are no plans to pause sanctions in the upcoming period. This is consistent with the approach taken prior to 2010.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps have been taken to pause benefits sanctions over the Christmas and New Year period since 2010.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
We have not paused sanctions nationwide during the Christmas and New Year period since 2010 and there are no plans to pause sanctions in the upcoming period. This is consistent with the approach taken prior to 2010.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of constituents in Livingston constituency have had their personal independence payments overturned as a result of (a) mandatory consideration and (b) an appeal hearing in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) clearances split by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) can be found at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
The table below shows the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsideration decisions and appeal decisions where the award was changed by year of each decision since the introduction of PIP in the Parliamentary Constituency of Livingston.
Number of Mandatory Reconsiderations decisions and appeal decisions where the award changed, by financial year of decision.
Year of Mandatory Reconsideration | 2013/14 | 2014/ 15 | 2015/ 16 | 2016/ 17 | 2017/18 (April 17 to July 17) | Total |
Number of Awards Changed at Mandatory Reconsideration | # | 40 | 50 | 70 | 20 | 190 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year of Appeal Decision | 2013/14 | 2014/ 15 | 2015/ 16 | 2016/ 17 | 2017/18 (April 17 to July 17) | Total |
Number of Awards Changed at Appeal | # | 10 | 60 | 60 | 40 | 170 |
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) medical and (b) other guidance his Department makes available to staff making decisions on benefit claims for people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Departmental decision makers have access to specific online guidance on Joint Hypermobility Syndrome that contains a link to the Ehlers - Danlos Support UK website.