Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people affected by administrative errors made by her Department which led to the overpayment of benefits in Coventry.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is focused on paying people their correct entitlement.
Administrative errors are referred to as ‘official errors’ which have arisen from processing errors or delays by DWP or a Local Authority.
A quality checking regime is in place and this is helping address official error.
National Statistics Fraud and Error 2018/19 published 9 May 2019, indicate that estimated losses from official error account for 0.4% of total benefit expenditure.
Internal Management Information shows that 48k claimants with a CV postcode had an actual ‘official error’ overpayment in 2018/19.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of disabled people in food poverty.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We will spend over £55 billion this year (2019/20) on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions. This is around 2.5% of GDP, and over 6% of government spending, and as a share of GDP, the UK’s public spending is second highest in the G7, bar Germany [OECD 2015 data]. This year spending on the main disability benefits (PIP, DLA and Attendance Allowance) will be over £6bn higher in real terms than it was in 2010.
Alongside this, we want to build a better understanding of household food needs so that future support reaches those who need it most. The new questions that we are including on the Family Resources Survey starting from April 2019 will enable us to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.
We are committed to helping people with health conditions and disabilities move nearer to the labour market and, when ready, into work, by building more personalised tailored employment and health support, such as:
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the Trussell Trust recommendation to change the five-week wait for universal credit payments to reduce the use of foodbanks.
Answered by Lord Sharma
No UC claimant has to wait five weeks for their first payment. If required, advances of up to 100 per cent of their expected UC award are available to claimants from day one of their claim. Advances are paid back over a maximum of 12 months and in the Autumn Budget 2018, we announced that from October 2021, the payback period for these advances will be extended further, allowing claimants up to 16 months. This is just one of a number of measures the Department has put in place to support claimants such as paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit onto Universal Credit a two week ‘transitional housing payment’. We are also introducing a two-week run on for eligible claimants of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance from July 2020.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of unprocessed change in circumstance notifications which led to the over-payment of carer's allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
There is no estimate. When we receive a notification of change, consideration is given as to whether the change will affect the benefit. Where it does, action is taken to prevent an overpayment, or to stop an overpayment. Once the customer has notified us of a change in their circumstances, any delay in actioning that notification would be official error and would not be recoverable from the customer.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what safeguards are in place to ensure reasonable rates of repayment from recipients of carers' allowance who have been overpaid through no fault of their own.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Claimants are required to tell us about any changes in their circumstances. Once a claimant has advised us of a change, any subsequent overpayment is called official error.
The Department does not seek the recovery of Carer’s Allowance official error overpayments as this is not permitted under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 Section 71 (1).
Where a claimant has failed to report a change, or has provided inaccurate information, overpayments are recoverable. When recovering overpayments, the Department ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the welfare of claimants, including renegotiating repayment rates where this is needed.