Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency in receipt of employment and support allowance have been affected by her Department's errors in the calculations of benefits.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We are not able to make robust estimates of the numbers of cases likely to be due arrears as part of the exercise to correct underpayments of Employment and Support Allowance, at regional or parliamentary constituency level. All estimated numbers and amounts are available at national level only.
We are focusing our efforts on contacting all potentially affected individuals to ensure they are paid as quickly as possible.
A Written Statement and Frequently Asked Question document was deposited in the House of Commons Library on Wednesday 17th October which can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/deposited-papers/. Ad hoc statistics can also be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-underpayments-forecast-numbers-affected-forecast-expenditure-and-progress-on-checking.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the lessons learned from the errors in the calculation of payments of employment and support allowance.
Answered by Sarah Newton
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the urgent question on 18 October 2018: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-10-18/debates/3FBBBA7F-57A4-460C-AE64-C58BA2A44F1E/EmploymentAndSupportAllowanceUnderpayments
We have learned a great deal from this exercise. As we have regularly told the House and Select Committees, the culture and mechanisms in the Department for spotting errors have been fundamentally reviewed. As we have discussed at length—this is a matter of public record—people in the Department and stakeholders came forward and pointed out some of the problems with the migration, but the Department responded in the belief that they were a series of one-off errors.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
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 effectiveness of the procedures her Department has in place to ensure that pension enquiries from members of the public are resolved in a reasonable time period; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Guy Opperman
For customers wishing to enquire about future pension provision they can request an on-line State Pension forecast. The majority of forecasts are through ‘Check Your State Pension’ or issued the same day, with any follow up enquiries resolved at the point of enquiry.
DWP has a dedicated telephone line for citizens wishing to enquire about any aspect of State Pension. 95% of all incoming calls are answered in real time, with the remaining 5% withdrawing from call waiting queue without being answered. This may be due to demand or customer choice.
The most recent published survey for period 2016/2017 states that 86% of customers are satisfied with the service offered by DWP. Satisfaction amongst State Pension customers had an overall satisfaction rate of 93%, with 62% stating they are “very satisfied” with the service provided.
Services are continually monitored and assessed both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.
There are of course other resources for citizens to enquire about future pension entitlement, for example Pension-wise and Gov.uk.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's policy is on advising claimants who are appealing decisions on employment support allowance whether to apply for universal credit.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Following a decision that an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant is found well enough for work and is therefore no longer entitled to ESA, the Department provides information on what benefits might instead be available to them. If a claimant lives in an area where Universal Credit has fully rolled out, they will be informed that they can claim Universal Credit, including whilst making an appeal to the original decision.
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place all reports she received on the practice of HSBC Bank plc in deducting state deduction claw-back from its pensioners in the Library.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Work and Pensions has not received any reports about the practices of HSBC Bank plc on integrated pension schemes (or deducting state deduction clawback). The Department has received a number of written representations regarding integrated pension schemes from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf.
There is a detailed explanation on integrated pension schemes in the 15 February 2018 briefing from the House of Commons Library titled ‘Pension integration (or ‘clawback’)’, which was published on the UK Parliament website and is available here:
http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01121
In addition, the Chair of the Trustees Board of HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited has written to the Work and Pension’s Select Committee with more details on its practices. This letter was published on the UK Parliament website on 24 January 2018 and is available here:
Asked by: Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party - Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reports she has received on the practice of HSBC Bank plc to deduct state deduction claw-back from its pensioners.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Work and Pensions has received a number of written representations on the Midland Pension which is now part of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Schemes about its integrated pension scheme (or claw-back) policy from individuals and from Members of Parliament writing on their behalf.