Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the removal or reduction of personal independence payment on claimants’ mental health.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Under Personal Independence Payment (PIP) a higher proportion of people with a mental health condition receive the top rates than under Disability Living Allowance (DLA): 65 per cent get the enhanced Daily Living rate compared to 22 per cent under DLA; and 33 per cent get the enhanced mobility award compared to 10 per cent under DLA.
Regular reviews of PIP, which can be paid at one of eight rates, are a key feature of the benefit and ensure that not only do awards remain correct where needs may change, including where needs become greater, but that we also maintain contact with the claimant.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library copies of assessments conducted by her Department relating to the mental well-being of applicants during and/or immediately after the work capability assessment process in the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department has not completed any such assessments within the timeframe, though in the latest official DWP survey, 82 per cent of Employment and Support Allowance claimants said that they were satisfied with their overall experience of the benefit journey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-claimant-service-and-experience-survey-2016-to-2017.
As well as this a number of safeguards were built into the Work Capability Assessment from the outset, and we have introduced further improvements to try and ensure that people who have mental health conditions are treated fairly and sensitively.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to allow private companies to access state pension data as part of the Pensions Dashboard scheme.
Answered by Guy Opperman
On Tuesday 4 September 2018, I published a written statement providing an update on pensions including the pensions dashboard.
As part of the Department's feasibility work we have been considering whether State Pension data should be available alongside private pension information. We will shortly report on the findings from the feasibility study.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library copies of assessments conducted by her Department relating to the mental well-being of applicants during and/or immediately after the work capability assessment process in the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department has not completed any such assessments within the timeframe, though in the latest official DWP survey, 82 per cent of Employment and Support Allowance claimants said that they were satisfied with their overall experience of the benefit journey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-claimant-service-and-experience-survey-2016-to-2017.
As well as this a number of safeguards were built into the Work Capability Assessment from the outset, and we have introduced further improvements to try and ensure that people who have mental health conditions are treated fairly and sensitively.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an estimate of the (a) number and (b) proportion of benefit claimants who have been sanctioned and subsequently find employment at (i) 3 months, (ii) 6 months and (iii) 12 months after having been sanctioned.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Department has not made the estimates requested, however Departmental statisticians are currently developing these statistics further to look at destinations into employment following a sanction.
The Department also publishes experimental statistics on claimants receiving a benefit sanction which currently show information on the number and proportion of individuals receiving sanctions, including time spent on benefits following the sanction. These figures can be found in our quarterly Benefit Sanction Statistics available at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/710021/benefit-sanctions-statistics-to-january-2018.pdf
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which external recruitment agencies are used by his Department's non-departmental public bodies.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The information requested is in the table below:
Recruitment Agency | Used By |
Adecco | The Pensions Ombudsman |
Ashe Consulting | The Pensions Ombudsman |
Badenock and Clark | The Pensions Regulator |
Capita (CL One Framework) | The Pensions Regulator |
DGH Recruitment | The Pensions Regulator |
Drew Chapman | The Pensions Ombudsman |
Foreman IT | The Pensions Regulator |
Hays | The Pensions Advisory Service The Pensions Ombudsman The Pensions Regulator |
Hayes Executive | Health & Safety Executive |
IRG Advisors LLP (t/a Odgers Berndtson) | The Pensions Regulator |
Methods Consulting | Health & Safety Executive |
Michael Page Recruitment | Health & Safety Executive The Pensions Advisory Service The Pensions Regulator |
Office Angels | The Pensions Ombudsman |
People Source Ltd (Experis) | Health & Safety Executive The Pensions Regulator |
RBW Consulting | The Pensions Regulator |
Reed Business Support | Health & Safety Executive The Pensions Advisory Service |
Reed Employment | The Pensions Regulator |
Reed Technology | Health & Safety Executive |
ROC Search | Health & Safety Executive |
Sammonds Pensions | The Pensions Advisory Service The Pensions Ombudsman |
Search | The Pensions Regulator |
Tate | The Pensions Regulator |
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
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 improve access to social security payments for people who are terminally ill and have a variable diagnosis of life expectancy.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Special rules for people who are terminally ill provide a guaranteed entitlement to benefit, with claims dealt with sensitively, without a face-to-face assessment and under a fast track process. These rules apply across Attendance Allowance (AA), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit.
For legislative purposes, someone is considered terminally ill if they have a progressive disease and death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within six months. We recognise that determining life expectancy is not an exact science, therefore claimants are not asked to provide evidence of life expectancy. All claims made under these rules are assessed on the basis of the claimant’s diagnosis, current and proposed treatment and details of clinical findings. This means that many existing terminally ill claimants will remain on benefit for longer than six months, for example of the 65,500 terminally ill claimants in receipt of a disability benefit (AA, DLA or PIP), over two thirds have been on benefit for six months or more.
We are committed to meeting the needs of terminally ill claimants, therefore these rules are kept under review on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of universal credit users in rental arrears of (a) one month, (b) three months and (c) greater than three months.
Answered by Damian Hinds
This information is not available.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
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 effect of the (a) two child limit element in child tax credits and(b) the equivalent element in universal credit on the use of food banks families over the next 5 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
This Department has made no projection of trends in food bank use.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria were used to determine which job centres in Wales would have their full transition to universal credit delayed as set out in the Universal Credit Transition to Full Service Guidance update issued on 23 November 2017.
Answered by Damian Hinds
There are no plans to pause or delay the rollout of Universal Credit. We have however, carefully revised the rollout plan to ensure we continue safely and gradually to rollout this important welfare reform, and this will mean a slight change in date for when Universal Credit Full Service will be rolled out in some jobcentres.