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.