Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people unable to claim universal credit as a result of having savings of over £16,000.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2019, 8,670 claims were not eligible to Universal Credit due to having savings of over £16,000.
Time of Claim | % of claims ineligible due to capital | Number of claims ineligible due to capital | Number of Claims (declarations) |
2019 claims | 0.20% | 8,670 | 3,472,000 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households did not receive additional support through (a) tax credits and (b) universal credit due to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children in April 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has committed to annual statistics releases related to the operation of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children. Statistics related to the period up to April 2019 are available on GOV.UK. Statistics related to the period up to April 2020 will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 23 January to Question 5323 on Maternity Allowance, what the average working day turn around for maternity allowance claims was from (a) 1 to 15 March 2020, (b) 16 to 31 March 2020, (c) 1 to 15 April 2020, and (d) 16 to 30 April 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The average working day turnaround for Maternity Allowance claims for the following periods are as follows:
1 Mar – 15 Mar – 6.9 days
16 Mar -29 Mar – 9.4 days
30 Mar – 12 Apr – 9.4 days
13 Apr – 26 Apr – 11.4 days
27 Apr – 3 May – 9.5 days
We continue to monitor performance on a weekly basis.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims have been received for (a) contributions-based employment and support allowance and (b) contributions-based jobseekers' allowance in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information on the number of claimants who receive contribution-based employment and support allowance, including those in the assessment phase, by month of claim, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
The information on number of all on-flows to Jobseeker’s Allowance can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
Guidance for users can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many child maintenance arrangements have been (a) altered and (b) withdrawn by the Child Maintenance Service since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff employed in the Child Maintenance Service have been redeployed to other duties in her Department since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Within CMG we made 2886 available to support benefit activities, of which 1629 have been trained and deployed. The balance are currently unavailable due to leave relating to Covid-19.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for universal credit required a habitual residence test; and of those claims how many have been closed as a result of failing that test in each month since July 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The table below gives UC claims with an associated HRT, whether the claimant passed the HRT, failed or the outcome could not be determined. Of these, the number of UC claims that were closed due to failing the HRT. The UC data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.
Month claim declared | UC Full Service claims with an associated HRT | UC Full Service claims closed due to failing the HRT |
Jul-18 | 21,700 | 2,700 |
Aug-18 | 22,700 | 2,700 |
Sep-18 | 25,200 | 2,800 |
Oct-18 | 30,400 | 3,500 |
Nov-18 | 31,800 | 3,700 |
Dec-18 | 27,600 | 3,200 |
Jan-19 | 41,900 | 4,800 |
Feb-19 | 36,200 | 4,400 |
Mar-19 | 37,200 | 4,600 |
Apr-19 | 33,700 | 3,800 |
May-19 | 35,900 | 3,800 |
Jun-19 | 33,200 | 3,600 |
Jul-19 | 36,400 | 3,900 |
Aug-19 | 32,500 | 3,300 |
Sep-19 | 36,900 | 3,300 |
Oct-19 | 38,100 | 3,800 |
Nov-19 | 32,900 | 3,400 |
Notes:
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
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 ensure (a) serving prisoners and (b) people remanded in custody do not receive social security benefits to which they are not entitled by reason of being in custody.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is routinely notified by Prison Services in England, Wales and Scotland when offenders enter custody, including those on remand. We have specialist teams to identify claimants who are in receipt of Universal Credit and Legacy working age benefits so that the appropriate action can be taken.
Serving prisoners and those remanded can continue to receive the housing element of Universal Credit if they are due to serve 6 months or less in prison and were in receipt on of these payments on entry to prison.
The Department does not centrally collect data for claimants who are serving a custodial sentence, or who are remanded, in prison and in receipt of housing benefit, or the housing element of Universal Credit. To provide this would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) women and (b) men (i) serving custodial sentences and (ii) remanded in custody received housing benefit or the housing element of universal credit during their time in custody in each of the past two years.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is routinely notified by Prison Services in England, Wales and Scotland when offenders enter custody, including those on remand. We have specialist teams to identify claimants who are in receipt of Universal Credit and Legacy working age benefits so that the appropriate action can be taken.
Serving prisoners and those remanded can continue to receive the housing element of Universal Credit if they are due to serve 6 months or less in prison and were in receipt on of these payments on entry to prison.
The Department does not centrally collect data for claimants who are serving a custodial sentence, or who are remanded, in prison and in receipt of housing benefit, or the housing element of Universal Credit. To provide this would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of disabled car parking spaces at each assessment centre for (a) personal independence payments and (b) employment and support allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ensuring our assessment services are accessible to all claimants is a priority in line with the standards under the Equality Act 2010. Where claimants are not able to access particular assessment centre, our assessment providers provide alternative means of delivering the service. There is no requirement to provide on-site parking.
All assessment providers delivering the Work Capability Assessment and Personal Independence Payment assessments are required to consider the needs of claimants such as proximity to public transport routes and access to suitable parking e.g. Blue Badge parking.
Individuals can claim the cost of public and private transport from their current address plus parking fees. Taxi fares can also be claimed if customers cannot travel by public transport due to their health condition or disability. The assessment provider will try and meet any such reasonable requests.
Individuals will be issued details about the assessment centre, if they are unable to attend or have any concerns they should contact the assessment provider.