Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls made to the universal credit helpline in each month from September 2016 to date were abandoned.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The numbers of calls received and abandoned are set out in the table below.
| Calls received | Of which, calls abandoned |
September 2016 | 752931 | 107647 |
October 2016 | 672617 | 74729 |
November 2016 | 707690 | 91348 |
December 2016 | 607582 | 60856 |
January 2017 | 860875 | 105893 |
February 2017 | 779433 | 102557 |
March 2017 | 894979 | 84618 |
April 2017 | 692843 | 51493 |
May 2017 | 751837 | 55915 |
June 2017 | 763052 | 96626 |
July 2017 | 754367 | 99094 |
August 2017 | 790936 | 124427 |
September 2017 | 780989 | 121939 |
October 2017 | 849779 | 123556 |
The ratio of calls relative to caseload has fallen from 1.8 calls relative to caseload in September 2016 to 1.3 calls per case in October 2017. That reflects our success in encouraging claimants to deal with us on-line. The numbers of calls abandoned reflects that also claimants call and realise, through our messaging that they can deal with their enquiry on-line and do not need to continue with their call.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2017 to Question 109193, where the £500 million in investment in IT has been spent; how that amount compares with the original estimate the Government was given from the providers and on which contracts were signed; and whether there are penalties under those contracts for any overspend.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
To provide the requested information would incur disproportionate cost.
However, some information about contracts worth over £10,000 with the government and its agencies are available at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were charged with benefit fraud in each year from 2010 to date; and how many of those people served a custodial sentence as a result of that benefit fraud.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate (CFCD), part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for the prevention, detection and where appropriate, investigation of Fraud and Error against all benefits administered by and on behalf of DWP.
DWP does not hold these data requested. However, Ministry of Justice has said The number of defendants proceeded against for benefit fraud offences and offenders sentenced to immediate custody for these offences in England and Wales 2010 – 2016 can be found by going to the ‘outcomes by offence’ tool at –
and selecting the following offences from the Offence filter:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the rate of child poverty has been in each year from 2010 to 2017; and what the rate of child poverty is forecast to be in each year from 2018 to 2020.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Estimates of the child poverty rate since 2010 are published annually in Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data tables.
These are publicly available in the link shown (see file “4_children_trends.ods” and tabs 4.1tr and 4.2tr).
We do not forecast rates of low income. Statistics on the proportion and number of children living in households in low income in 2016/17 have been pre-announced and will be published in the Households Below Average Income release by the end of March 2018. The government is committed to continue publishing this series on an annual basis.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse to date of the IT system supporting universal credit.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The overall investment cost forecast for Universal Credit development reduced to £1.7 billion in the Outline Business Case (OBC) from an earlier forecast of £2.4bn; demonstrating the on-going cost control focus of the Programme. As part of that overall investment cost the Programme has spent around £500m of investment in IT related expenditure up to September 2017 to support the delivery of Universal Credit.
Our latest estimate of the whole life costs, the costs of investment plus the costs of running the system every year from 2015/16 to 2024/25 is £13.6bn, a reduction of £2.4bn from the previous estimate.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many claimants are currently in receipt of universal credit and (b) what estimate he has made of the number of such claimants once the roll-out of universal credit has been completed in each of the 10 local authority areas in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
(a) The latest figures are available in the Official Universal Credit Statistics at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-29-apr-2013-to-14-sep-2017
(b) The information is not currently available
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if it will publish the risk register for the roll-out of universal credit.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is not Government’s policy to publish documents of this nature.
The Universal Credit programme is already subject to a robust regime of internal and external scrutiny, including oversight from the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many 0345 telephone numbers are in use by his Department; and how much revenue has been generated by each such telephone number in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) currently has 297 0345 numbers in use and this includes Fax machines, textphone services and also the provision of services in line with legislative requirements.
99% of the calls received by the Department are managed through 60 of the 0345 numbers available.
DWP continually monitor activity on all its telephony platform and in the last 12 months have removed 214 0345 numbers from use, where it is safe to do so and without any impact on customers or service delivery
DWP does not receive any revenue from 0345 telephone lines.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to invest in the Jobcentre Plus building in Union Street, Oldham; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There are no changes planned for the Jobcentre plus building in Union Street, Oldham (Tweedale Jobcentreplus) however, there will be appropriate investment in the building and the services delivered from it.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 disabled people have the right support in place to stay in work.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
‘Improving Lives’, the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, published in October 2016, sets out our intention to remove the long-standing injustices and barriers that stop disabled people and people with health conditions from getting into work, staying in work and getting on. Through the Green Paper we are asking about the barriers preventing employers from recruiting and retaining disabled people and people with health conditions, and what measures would help them in doing so.
We are also reforming and expanding Government schemes that support employers and employees with health and disability issues. For example, through Access to Work and Disability Confident. Access to Work provides practical and financial support with the additional costs faced by individuals whose health or disability affects the way they do their job.