Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications to cancel passports have been made as a result of non-payment of child maintenance in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a wide range of enforcement powers available to use for those parents who will not engage in a negotiated debt repayment plan for unpaid maintenance. Any enforcement power that would be recommended to the Courts is usually based on the level of debt and consideration of the ability to repay within the time periods set out in our legislation, as well as the most appropriate sanction for the circumstances of the parent.
These powers are intended to be a strong deterrent to encourage parents to meet their obligations.
During the last 12 months CMS has not applied for a passport confiscation on non-paying cases.
Details of enforcement powers used can be found within the Child Maintenance published statistics at tables 7.1 and 7.2 here.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, many fraud investigations conducted by his Department which resulted in the finding of fraud have been overturned at appeal in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the average amount of time it took his Department to complete a benefit fraud investigation in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fraud investigations conducted by his Department are ongoing.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
In the 2022/23 reporting year it took on average 235 working days for the DWP to complete a benefit fraud investigation.
These investigations vary significantly in their nature and complexity and no set time can be attributed to an individual investigation. Our investigators, working with the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate, seek to expedite all investigations as quickly as possible to ensure the criminal burden of proof is met.
As of the end of March 2023, the DWP had 18,691 open investigations into alleged benefit fraud recorded on its reporting systems. Not all of these will be fraud and it is right we follow the due process.
Outside of that figure there will be a number of ongoing investigations into serious and organised crime where there may be more than one alleged offender or complicit individuals.
Information on successful appeals relating specifically to decisions made as a result of a fraud investigation are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any paying parents were placed on deduction of earnings orders incorrectly due to backlogs in the Child Maintenance Service linking payments to cases in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Child Maintenance Service apply the Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO) process when a missed payment is identified. There is no data held identifying the number of occasions where an application of a DEO has been made in error due when a Paying Parent has in fact made a payment to the service but that payment has not been identified at the time of placing the DEO.
To encourage contact and dialogue from Paying Parents when a missed payment is identified the Child Maintenance Service attempts to make contact with Paying Parents prior to considering a DEO. These include sending an automated SMS text message and a warning letter highlighting the missed payment to the Paying Parent. The warning letter explains the consequences of non-payment including enforcement action.
If the Paying Parent does not make contact the Child Maintenance Service automatically search for a current employer link via the HM Revenue and Customs database. A call is then made to the employer to confirm the Paying Parent is still employed with them and payroll information is obtained. Once the DEO is issued Child Maintenance Service contact the employer once again to confirm safe receipt and to advise on how to implement the order. Throughout this period the Paying Parent has the opportunity to contact Child Maintenance Service to discuss the missed payment.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2023 to Question 148651 on the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, if he will list the stakeholders that his Department have consulted on those regulations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Officials from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders as part of their day-to-day business, covering many matters on both a formal and informal basis. HSE has good working knowledge to inform any decisions they need to make in relation to their approach with the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. If required, HSE has various established channels of communication with stakeholders to obtain supplementary information.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 - Shadow Minister (Women)
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.
Use of the DWP customer experience survey to track satisfaction levels and provide insight.
The Child Maintenance Service recently piloted ‘Real Time Customer Feedback’ on behalf of the department to better understand customer experience.
Sessions planned in March for MP researchers to support them in constituency casework relating to Child Maintenance.
Enforcement
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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
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.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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
The Government has already responded on 13 December 2022, we published our report.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The information required to carry out such an assessment is not readily available and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.