Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the average time taken to reach an outcome for mandatory re-considerations of personal independence payment applications.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Statistics on the average clearance time for Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) for Personal Independence Payment are found in Table 7C, ‘MR Clearance Time (median calendar days), Normal Rules, by month of clearance’ of the quarterly statistical publication ‘Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to April 2019’ published by the Department for Work and Pensions and available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-april-2019
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any errors have been identified recently in the calculation of entitlement to benefits consequential on entitlement to personal independence payment.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Please see the response provided to PQ 155836 that was tabled on 20 June 2018.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has identified errors in its calculation of personal independence payments in the last three months.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department takes our responsibility for the prevention of error very seriously. We understand that the need to make sure payments are correct as incorrect payments will have implications for benefit claimants.
We ensure the accuracy and quality of payments through internal assurance processes. This enables the Department to identify and correct error and to focus on those points in the customer journey where there is a risk of error occurring.
When a benefit is reviewed the consequential impacts on other benefits are also reviewed.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to ensure the accuracy of the calculation of personal independence payment entitlements.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department takes our responsibility for the prevention of error very seriously. We understand that the need to make sure payments are correct as incorrect payments will have implications for benefit claimants.
We ensure the accuracy and quality of payments through internal assurance processes. This enables the Department to identify and correct error and to focus on those points in the customer journey where there is a risk of error occurring.
When a benefit is reviewed the consequential impacts on other benefits are also reviewed.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to ensure the accuracy of the calculation of benefit entitlements that are consequential on personal independence payment entitlements.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department takes our responsibility for the prevention of error very seriously. We understand that the need to make sure payments are correct as incorrect payments will have implications for benefit claimants.
We ensure the accuracy and quality of payments through internal assurance processes. This enables the Department to identify and correct error and to focus on those points in the customer journey where there is a risk of error occurring.
When a benefit is reviewed the consequential impacts on other benefits are also reviewed.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the calculation of personal independence payment entitlements.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Personal Independence Payment is discussed regularly across Government, including the calculation of entitlement.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money non-resident parents owed resident parents in child maintenance arrears in each Scottish local authority area in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As at December 2017 the total amount of Child Support Agency Arrears owed to parents with care for each Local Authority in Scotland was:
Local Authority | Child Support Agency Arrears Owed (£ million) |
Aberdeen | 5.2 |
Aberdeenshire | 7.4 |
Angus | 3.8 |
Argyll & Bute | 2.7 |
Clackmannanshire | 1.8 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 4.2 |
Dundee | 5.0 |
East Ayrshire | 4.2 |
East Dunbartonshire | 1.9 |
East Lothian | 2.7 |
East Renfrewshire | 1.5 |
Edinburgh | 7.8 |
Falkirk | 5.0 |
Fife | 12.0 |
Glasgow | 14.3 |
Highland | 6.8 |
Inverclyde | 2.5 |
Midlothian | 2.6 |
Moray | 2.9 |
North Ayrshire | 4.8 |
North Lanarkshire | 10.8 |
Orkney Islands | 0.6 |
Perth & Kinross | 4.3 |
Renfrewshire | 5.0 |
Scottish Borders | 3.2 |
Shetland | 0.9 |
South Ayrshire | 3.3 |
South Lanarkshire | 9.3 |
Stirling | 2.0 |
West Dunbartonshire | 2.8 |
West Lothian | 5.4 |
Western Isles | 0.6 |
As at September 2017 the total amount of Child Maintenance Service Unpaid Maintenance owed to receiving parents for each Local Authority in Scotland was:
Local Authority | Child Maintenance Service Unpaid Maintenance (£ million) |
Aberdeen | 0.6 |
Aberdeenshire | 0.6 |
Angus | 0.3 |
Argyll & Bute | 0.1 |
Clackmannanshire | 0.1 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 0.3 |
Dundee | 0.4 |
East Ayrshire | 0.2 |
East Dunbartonshire | 0.1 |
East Lothian | 0.2 |
East Renfrewshire | 0.1 |
Edinburgh | 0.9 |
Falkirk | 0.4 |
Fife | 0.9 |
Glasgow | 1.2 |
Highland | 0.6 |
Inverclyde | 0.2 |
Midlothian | 0.2 |
Moray | 0.3 |
North Ayrshire | 0.3 |
North Lanarkshire | 0.8 |
Orkney Islands | 0.0 |
Perth & Kinross | 0.2 |
Renfrewshire | 0.4 |
Scottish Borders | 0.1 |
Shetland | 0.1 |
South Ayrshire | 0.2 |
South Lanarkshire | 0.6 |
Stirling | 0.1 |
West Dunbartonshire | 0.2 |
West Lothian | 0.4 |
Western Isles | 0.0 |
Notes:
1) Figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1 million.
2) For the Child Support Agency, cases have been allocated to a local authority in Scotland by matching the residential postcode of the parent with care for all cases administered on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems, as well as cases managed off system, to the Office for National Statistics Postcode Directory.
3) The figures exclude any arrears from the CSA schemes owed to the Secretary of State
4) Figures on the total Unpaid Maintenance in the Child Maintenance Service to December 2017 are due to be published in the Child Maintenance Service statistics: Aug 2013 to Dec 2017 on 28th February 2018.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of Child Support Agency Arrears are deemed uncollectable in (a) Aberdeen City (b) Aberdeenshire and (c) Scotland.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
For the Child Support Agency (CSA), Page 7 of the Client Funds Account publication provides figures on the CSA Arrears deemed uncollectable. The publication can be accessed at this link:
Information on geographical breakdowns on the Client Funds Account is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much is owned to resident parents by non-resident parents in child support arrears in each local authority in Scotland in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Child Support Agency
As at July 2017 the total amount of Child Support Agency Arrears for each Local Authority in Scotland was as follows:
Local Authority | Arrears owed (£ Million) |
Aberdeen | 8.3 |
Aberdeenshire | 10.9 |
Angus | 5.6 |
Argyll & Bute | 4.2 |
Clackmannanshire | 2.7 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 6.7 |
Dundee | 9.0 |
East Ayrshire | 6.9 |
East Dunbartonshire | 3.1 |
East Lothian | 4.0 |
East Renfrewshire | 2.3 |
Edinburgh | 12.8 |
Falkirk | 7.6 |
Fife | 19.1 |
Glasgow | 28.2 |
Highland | 11.1 |
Inverclyde | 4.8 |
Midlothian | 4.1 |
Moray | 4.4 |
North Ayrshire | 8.3 |
North Lanarkshire | 19.1 |
Orkney Islands | 0.8 |
Perth & Kinross | 6.6 |
Renfrewshire | 8.1 |
Scottish Borders | 5.1 |
Shetland | 1.3 |
South Ayrshire | 5.1 |
South Lanarkshire | 14.5 |
Stirling | 3.2 |
West Dunbartonshire | 5.4 |
West Lothian | 8.4 |
Western Isles | 1.2 |
Child Maintenance Service
Information on the total value of arrears on cases in each Local Authority in Scotland for the Child Maintenance Service could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Notes:
1) Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100,000.
2) Cases have been allocated to a local authority in Scotland by matching the residential postcode of the parent with care for all cases administered on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems, as well as cases managed off system, to the Office for National Statistics Postcode Directory.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applicants have appealed the level of personal independence payment awarded in (a) Aberdeen North constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK in each year since April 2013; and how many of those applications were awarded less at tribunal.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The information is not readily available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.