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Written Question
Children: Maintenance
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Ninth Report of the Committee of Public Accounts published on 22 June 2022, HC 255, and the Treasury Minute published on 14 October 2022, HC 255, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations on (a) low customer satisfaction and (b) slow enforcement timescales.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department has made the following progress in relation to customer satisfaction and enforcement timescales:

Customer Satisfaction

We continue to improve services including digital through the wider Departmental Service Modernisation.

  • Services that have been made available online are therefore accessible 24/7 and, in many cases, now delivered via automation making them faster and more responsive.
  • The introduction of online Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance service providing support to separated parents in managing their own affairs as well as making the CMS more accessible.
  • A wider organisational redesign is underway with a key priority to improve customer experience.

Use of the DWP customer experience survey to track satisfaction levels and provide insight.

  • The Department’s 2020/21 Customer Experience Survey and the CMS Customer Experience Survey are currently unpublished, so we are unable to share the findings at this time. The reason for the delay is because of the impacts of Covid on the survey, resulting in an extended QA process. Steps are in place to publish the findings and the final sign off procedures are currently taking place within the Department, with the intention to publish by Summer 2023.

The Child Maintenance Service recently piloted ‘Real Time Customer Feedback’ on behalf of the department to better understand customer experience.

  • Customers were given the opportunity to rate the service immediately after their contact with the department and provide narrative feedback on their experience. As this feedback has been provided in real time, where service concerns or failures were identified Child Maintenance colleagues were able to go back to the customer to further resolve their enquiry, improving customer service outcomes as well as providing valuable learning to improve our service offering. This pilot is currently supporting a business case for wider rollout.

Sessions planned in March for MP researchers to support them in constituency casework relating to Child Maintenance.

Enforcement

  • We are committed to making the most effective use of our strong enforcement powers and have made a number of improvements to our processes.
  • Our strategy is to tackle breakdowns at earliest opportunity and use preferred Method of Payments (Deductions of Earnings Orders/Direct Debits) which achieve a higher rate of compliance, whilst agreeing more sustainable ongoing payments.
  • Deduction from earnings orders processes have been simplified to increase efficiency of this process.  Improvements have been introduced to the way employers make DEO payments through CMS to get money to families quicker by reducing or removing any manual intervention in allocating a payment.
  • We have also brought forward the point at which we make deductions from bank accounts. This has not only increased the volume of deductions from bank accounts but also means we are getting money to children more quickly.
  • A Private Members’ Bill (PMB) to streamline CMS enforcement, sponsored by Siobhan Baillie, had its Second Reading stage on 9 December 2022. The PMB removes the requirement to make court applications for liability orders which enable the CMS to progress with enforcement action, thus improving the efficiency of the enforcement process.
Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Overpayments
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's approach to recovering benefit overpayments where there has been no misrepresentation or failure to disclose a material fact.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The department maintains vigorous control of error via its Quality Assurance Framework, which provides an assurance that the necessary quality controls are in place.

The findings in the latest National Statistics publication (Financial Year Ending 2022) into Universal Credit (UC) show that UC Official Error overpayments have fallen in each of the last 3 years, from 2.1% of UC expenditure in 2018/19, to 0.7% in 2021/22.

Where overpayments do occur, legislation protects all claimants from excessive deductions. In Universal Credit, the overall deduction cap is set at 25% of the standard allowance, having been reduced from 40%.

We remain committed to working with anyone struggling with their repayment terms, and encourage them to contact DWP Debt Management to negotiate a reduction.

Written Question
Low Pay
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2022 to Question 78760 on Low Pay, when the Government will respond to the Supporting progression out of low pay: a call to action report recommendations.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government has already responded on 13 December 2022, we published our report.

Written Question
Pensioners: Cost of Living
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

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 impact of recent rises in the cost of living on people receiving a pension whose pensionable service before April 1997 is not linked to inflation due to the terms of the Pension Protection Fund.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The information required to carry out such an assessment is not readily available and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Written Question
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he plans to (a) retain and (b) replace the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (S.I.1992/2966); and what plans his Department has to discuss those Regulations with industry.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape. Our standards of health and safety protections are among the highest in the world.

HSE will continue to review its retained EU Law to seek opportunities to reduce business burdens and promote growth without reducing health and safety standards. HSE will engage with stakeholders as appropriate.

Written Question
Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he plans to (a) retain and (b) replace the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (S.I.1999/3242) ); and what plans his Department has to discuss those Regulations with industry.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape. Our standards of health and safety protections are among the highest in the world.

HSE will continue to review its retained EU Law to seek opportunities to reduce business burdens and promote growth without reducing health and safety standards. HSE will engage with stakeholders as appropriate.

Written Question
Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he plans to (a) retain and (b) replace the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 (S.I.1996/341); and what plans his Department has to discuss those Regulations with industry.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape. Our standards of health and safety protections are among the highest in the world.

HSE will continue to review its retained EU Law to seek opportunities to reduce business burdens and promote growth without reducing health and safety standards. HSE will engage with stakeholders as appropriate.

Written Question
Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he plans to (a) retain and (b) replace the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 (S.I.1981/917); and what plans his Department has to discuss those Regulations with industry.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape. Our standards of health and safety protections are among the highest in the world.

HSE will continue to review its retained EU Law to seek opportunities to reduce business burdens and promote growth without reducing health and safety standards. HSE will engage with stakeholders as appropriate.

Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Minimum Wage
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has contracted work to a business named in round 18 of the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme in the last three years.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We have checked our contracts database and can confirm that the Department for Work and Pensions has not contracted work to any business named in round 18 of the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme in the last three years.

Written Question
Health and Safety: EU Law
Tuesday 21st February 2023

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of retaining the (a) Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations, (b) Manual Handling Operations Regulations, (c) Display Screen Equipment Regulations, (d) Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, (d) Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations and (e) the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulations following the passage of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (REUL Bill), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape. Our standards of health and safety protections are among the highest in the world.

HSE will continue to review its retained EU Law to seek opportunities to reduce business burdens and promote growth without reducing health and safety standards.