Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps her Department has taken to help ensure the financial security of universal credit claimants with cancer.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department takes seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants. We are committed to ensuring that people who have cancer are treated with the upmost sensitivity and care, when making a claim to Universal Credit. For instance, the UC50 questionnaire incorporates a 'light touch' evidence gathering process for cancer patients, and makes clear that Clinical Nurse Specialists and consultants can provide information on the form, therefore making the claim and assessment process simpler for people with cancer.
We are continuously reviewing and improving the service for vulnerable people who claim Universal Credit to ensure that it is accessible and responsive to their needs. This includes how they are identified and supported, either from our own staff or via referrals from local services.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
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 roll-out of universal credit on claimants of benefits with cancer.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department takes seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants. We are committed to ensuring that people who have cancer are treated with the upmost sensitivity and care, when making a claim to Universal Credit. For instance, when a claimant is asked to attend a Work Capability Assessment to determine entitlement to the additional component of Universal Credit specifically for disabled claimants, they must complete a UC50 questionnaire which incorporates a 'light touch' evidence gathering process for cancer patients; and makes clear that Clinical Nurse Specialists and consultants can provide information on the form, therefore making the claim and assessment process simpler for people with cancer.
We are continuously reviewing and improving the service for vulnerable people who claim Universal Credit to ensure that it is accessible and responsive to their needs. This includes how they are identified and supported, either from our own staff or via referrals from local services.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government is taking steps to ensure that claimants in the managed migration pilot who are deemed to be vulnerable are not put at risk due to their benefits stopping.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The pilot phase will allow the Department to test our processes carefully to ensure that claimants on all legacy benefits with a range of characteristics can be successfully moved onto Universal Credit. The Department is working with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders to design the process and we are currently developing the detailed planning on how we will start the pilot process, including which groups or individuals we will begin to move to Universal Credit.
The pilot will be evaluated to ensure that the design of our processes meet the desired outcomes of supporting all eligible legacy claimants to make a claim for Universal Credit and to put in place transitional protection, where appropriate. The Department has committed to reporting its findings from the pilot to the House of Commons before we continue with the process.
We will be providing any necessary support to those claimants who are part of the pilot to ensure they are fully supported throughout. Subject to Parliamentary approval, of the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, discretionary hardship payments will be available from July 2019 to support the successful transition of claimants who are moved from legacy benefits to Universal Credit and experience hardship. From July 2020 we are introducing a two-week run-on for all those on Employment Support Allowance, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance who move to Universal Credit and their claim for Universal Credit terminates their existing benefit award. The two-week Transitional Housing Payment is already available to eligible claimants who move from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to evaluate the managed migration pilot phase; whether that evaluation will be an independent evaluation; and whether her Department plans to publish an evaluation report.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The pilot phase will allow the Department to test our processes carefully to ensure that claimants on all legacy benefits with a range of characteristics can be successfully moved onto Universal Credit. The Department is working with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders to design the process and we are currently developing the detailed planning on how we will start the pilot process, including which groups or individuals we will begin to move to Universal Credit.
The pilot will be evaluated to ensure that the design of our processes meet the desired outcomes of supporting all eligible legacy claimants to make a claim for Universal Credit and to put in place transitional protection, where appropriate. The Department has committed to reporting its findings from the pilot to the House of Commons before we continue with the process.
We will be providing any necessary support to those claimants who are part of the pilot to ensure they are fully supported throughout. Subject to Parliamentary approval, of the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, discretionary hardship payments will be available from July 2019 to support the successful transition of claimants who are moved from legacy benefits to Universal Credit and experience hardship. From July 2020 we are introducing a two-week run-on for all those on Employment Support Allowance, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance who move to Universal Credit and their claim for Universal Credit terminates their existing benefit award. The two-week Transitional Housing Payment is already available to eligible claimants who move from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the managed migration pilot phase will include sufficient numbers of claimants who are deemed to be vulnerable to allow for the collection of meaningful data on how vulnerable claimants can be safely migrated.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The pilot phase will allow the Department to test our processes carefully to ensure that claimants on all legacy benefits with a range of characteristics can be successfully moved onto Universal Credit. The Department is working with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders to design the process and we are currently developing the detailed planning on how we will start the pilot process, including which groups or individuals we will begin to move to Universal Credit.
The pilot will be evaluated to ensure that the design of our processes meet the desired outcomes of supporting all eligible legacy claimants to make a claim for Universal Credit and to put in place transitional protection, where appropriate. The Department has committed to reporting its findings from the pilot to the House of Commons before we continue with the process.
We will be providing any necessary support to those claimants who are part of the pilot to ensure they are fully supported throughout. Subject to Parliamentary approval, of the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, discretionary hardship payments will be available from July 2019 to support the successful transition of claimants who are moved from legacy benefits to Universal Credit and experience hardship. From July 2020 we are introducing a two-week run-on for all those on Employment Support Allowance, Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance who move to Universal Credit and their claim for Universal Credit terminates their existing benefit award. The two-week Transitional Housing Payment is already available to eligible claimants who move from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2019 to Question 223219 on Personal Independence Payment: Epilepsy, how many people with epilepsy who were in receipt of disability living allowance but did not receive an award as a result of a reassessment for personal independence payment have chosen to appeal that decision through (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) a tribunal.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessments is shown in the table below.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) initial decisions, Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) and appeals for claimants with a primary disabling condition of Epilepsy, April 2013 to September 2018, Great Britain
| Reassessments |
Initial Decisions | 28,880 |
Initial decisions - disallowed due to failing the assessment | 15,600 |
Of which |
|
MR registered | 10,710 |
Appeal lodged | 5,750 |
Under PIP, 27 per cent of working age claimants with epilepsy recorded as their primary disabling condition receive the highest level of support compared to 6 per cent under Disability Living Allowance when PIP was introduced.
Notes
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer system. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. The disability subgroup of Epilepsy in the PIP Computer System includes Cataplexy, Generalised seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months), Generalised seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months), Narcolepsy, Partial seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months), Partial seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months) and Seizures - unclassified.
PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claimants.
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.
Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this 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.
An appeal can only be made against a decision which have gone through the Mandatory Reconsideration process. The number of people who registered an MR and the number of people who lodged a tribunal appeal cannot be added together.
Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of using existing data to pre-populate Universal Credit applications for people who are (a) terminally ill and (b) in the support group; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has no plans to pre-populate Universal Credit applications for a number of reasons.
We want to ensure data is accurate and up-to-date to avoid transferring errors from legacy benefits to the Universal Credit system. Furthermore, the legacy system does not have all of the information needed for a Universal Credit claim. Implementing a claim on inaccurate data will lead to inaccurate awards and claimants not receiving the money they are entitled to.
It is also important to note that not everyone will want to move on to Universal Credit and the Department cannot simply assume that all existing claimants want to claim Universal Credit.
We have however said that we will use existing decisions or verification to make aspects of the process easier. For example, if a claimant has an existing Work Capability Assessment decision, there will be no requirement to have another assessment in order to receive the disability elements of Universal Credit. Also, for claimants who do not have any work-related requirements, we already operate a digital claimant commitment acceptance process and we will carry that forward when moving claimants over to Universal Credit without a change in circumstances.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 28 January 2019 to Question 211713 on Universal Credit; when the (a) minutes of the meeting between the Social Security Advisory Committee and officials in her Department and (b) joint report will be published.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The minutes of the meeting on 30 January 2019 have been published and are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782301/ssac-minutes-jan-2019.pdf
The joint report will be published in due course.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in reference to the Answer of 19 July 2018 to Question 162165 on Personal Independence Payment: Epilepsy, what the most up to date figures are on the number of people with epilepsy who were in receipt of disability living allowance who (a) did not receive an award as a result of a reassessment for personal independence payment and (b) then received an award at either mandatory reconsideration or on appeal.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) reassessments is shown in the table below.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) initial decisions, Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) and appeals for claimants with a primary disabling condition of Epilepsy, April 2013 to September 2018, Great Britain
| Reassessments |
Initial Decisions | 28,880 |
Initial decisions - disallowed due to failing the assessment | 15,600 |
Of which |
|
MR - new decision award changed | 1,200 |
Appeal - decision overturned | 3,610 |
Under PIP, 27 per cent of working age claimants with epilepsy recorded as their primary disabling condition receive the highest level of support compared to 6 per cent under Disability Living Allowance when PIP was introduced.
Notes
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer system. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics. Question 162165 defined epilepsy as people who have Epilepsy Partial seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months) and Generalised seizures (with status epilepticus in last 12 months) listed as their main condition. To answer this question the definition of epilepsy has been expanded to include the following five additional conditions: Cataplexy, Generalised seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months), Narcolepsy, Partial seizures (without status epilepticus in last 12 months) and Seizures - unclassified.
PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claimants.
Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.
Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore this 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 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).
Some decisions which are changed at MR, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal. Therefore the number of people who had a decision changed at MR and the number of people who had a decision changed at tribunal appeal cannot be added together.
Claimants who have received benefit decisions more recently may not yet have had time to complete the claimant journey and progress to appeal.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with epilepsy who have applied or been reassessed for personal independence payment in the last twelve months have received (a) daily living only, (b) mobility only and (c) both daily living and mobility.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Between 1st November 2017 and 31st October 2018, the last year for which data is available, 8,480 claimants with epilepsy were awarded Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Of these claimants, 540 received the daily living component only, 4,300 received the mobility component only and 3,640 received both the daily living and the mobility components.