Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where and how the universal credit helpline staff and case managers record the contents of a telephone enquiry including any advice given in cases where a person has not yet submitted their universal credit claim or has a previous universal credit claim which is now closed.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
All calls taken by helpline staff and case managers in UCFS are recorded in full and are retrievable from our telephony provider based on the originating telephone number.
For callers with an active claim, agents will update the Universal Credit system with any relevant information from the call to allow for a continuous service across multiple interactions. Where a caller does not have an active claim this is not possible and the call recording would be the repository for the content of the call.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
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 length of time claimants are waiting for a decision to be made on their mandatory reconsideration of carer’s allowance claims in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Average Actual Clearance Times (AACT) for a Mandatory Reconsideration for a Carer’s Allowance claim are shown in the table below.
| Apr 2018 | May 2018 | Jun 2018 | Jul 2018 | Aug 2018 | Sep 2018 | Oct 2018 | Nov 2018 | Dec 2018 | Jan 2019 | Feb 2019 |
Average Actual Clearance Time (working days) | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 15.6 |
Source: Decision Making and Appeals Case Recorder (DMACR).
This is unpublished data based on internal management information. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
The increase in clearance times in February 2019 was due to work being undertaken on the Carer’s Allowance backlog and this has resulted in more older cases impacting the AACT. This backlog is due to be cleared by the end of April 2019.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many medical assessments for personal independence payment have been held in private gyms and spas in (a) County Durham, (b) North East of England and (c) the UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the number of assessments for Personal Independence Payment held in private gyms and spas is only held for the last two years, not the three that has been requested.
For the last two years for which data is available; covering March 2017 to February 2019, the total number of assessments held in private gyms and spas in (a) County Durham, (b) North East of England and (c) the UK is set out in the table below.
| March 2017 - Feb 2018 | March 2018 - Feb 2019 |
(a) County Durham | 6000 | 5300 |
(b) NE England | 6000 | 5300 |
(c) UK | 8800 | 7200 |
These numbers have been supplied direct from the provider and have been rounded to the nearest 100. The answers to (a) and (b) are the same as all assessments carried out in private gyms and spas in the North East of England are carried out in County Durham.
Capita do not carry out PIP assessments at private gyms or spa locations; the numbers included in this response are from Independent Assessment Services (IAS).
IAS uses its network of supply chain partners and their estates to help in the delivery of PIP consultations. All locations comply with the required contractual specifications and all of the sites used by IAS have been selected to ensure that they meet the standards set by the Department.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many home consultations were (a) requested, (b) granted and (c) refused for work capability assessments for universal credit claimants in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Information is not held on the number of home Work Capability Assessments (a) requested or (c) refused for Universal Credit claimants in the last 12 months.
However, I can confirm that over 1,000 home Work Capability Assessments for Universal Credit claimants were (b) granted in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Family support, housing and child maintenance to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on 21 November 2018, what progress has been made on introducing implicit consent in universal credit for organisations offering support to claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have had a number of workshops with stakeholders during which consent has been discussed. As we said in our response to the Social Security Advisory Committee, we will do further work on explicit consent. This activity will include working with claimants and their representatives to ensure the process works effectively for vulnerable claimants to access the service. We expect to complete this in the autumn.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2018 to Question 190938, whether (a) for a closed universal credit claim there is read-only access to the payment statements as well as the journal and (b) there is read-only access to all closed previous universal credit claims even after a new claim has been opened.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
In the event of a closed claim, claimants can still see their previous journal entries and payment statements in a read-only format.
If a claimant opens a new claim, this read-only access will no longer be accessible to the claimant. However, if a claimant, who has had a previous claim closed, needs to access their previous statements or their journal, a case manager can access them on their behalf and provide them with any information they might require.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has to amend the Universal Credit (Managed Migration) Regulations 2018 after the conclusion of the 2019 test pilot.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
On 14 January 2019, we withdrew the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration) Regulations 2018, and laid two new sets of regulations. The draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 will allow the Department to begin the managed migration pilot phase. This pilot phase is to ensure that our systems and processes are working well. We have committed to reporting on our findings from the pilot before bringing forward legislation to continue with managed migration.
The regulations for the pilot phase are subject to Parliamentary approval and will be debated and voted on in due course.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Autumn Budget 2018, whether the Department has plans to bring forward the two week run-on of legacy benefits for the universal credit managed migration pilot.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
In the 2018 Autumn Budget, we committed to allowing DWP income-related legacy benefits to continue for two-weeks after a claim has been made to Universal Credit from July 2020. This measure will give around 1.1 million households a one-off gain of approximately £200 between 2020/21 and 2023/24.
The Department has committed to supporting all claimants who are moved on to Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process. The draft regulations, currently before Parliament, will deliver on our commitment to provide transitional protection to those who are managed migrated onto Universal Credit without a change in their circumstances. The Department already offers a range of support to claimants who migrate to Universal Credit, such as advances worth up to 100 per cent of their indicative award. Claimants may also be eligible for the two-week Universal Credit Transitional Housing Payment.
The Department will be introducing a Discretionary Hardship Payment to support those claimants who will be managed migrated as part of the pilot phase. The power for Discretionary Hardship Payments is broad and could be used to pay the equivalent of the two-week legacy run on to the 10,000 claimants who will be moved to Universal Credit as part of the piloting phase and who are in hardship on account of the absence of the run on. We will also have the discretion to make payments if any other issues related to managed migration have resulted in hardship.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 908384, Official Report, column 3, if she will published the updated guidance on real-time support for universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We have worked with HMRC and employers to ensure that they are aware of the actions they need to take to reflect an employee’s earnings. Guidance was issued to employers by HMRC in December on Real Time Information reporting obligations for payments made early over the festive period.
The Department’s Universal Credit guidance for staff on earnings and the actions to take is regularly reviewed. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Asked by: Laura Pidcock (Labour - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to ensure that the 10,000 people selected for the universal credit managed migration test phase will not be worse off as a result of participation in that test phase.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
On 11 January 2019, Written Statement HCWS1243 confirmed our plans for a pilot phase for the managed migration of 10,000 claimants from legacy benefits onto Universal Credit.
The Department will proceed with care and attention to ensure that every single claimant moved accesses Universal Credit smoothly and receives the support they need during the transition. The draft regulations, which are currently before Parliament, contain provision to provide transitional protection to those who are moved through managed migration onto Universal Credit without a change in circumstances. This will ensure that these claimants receive the same level of entitlement to Universal Credit as they were entitled to on legacy benefits.
The aim of the pilot is to ensure that claimants on all legacy benefits, with a range of differing characteristics are successfully migrated to Universal Credit. The Department is currently working closely with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders to design the managed migration process and we are considering our approach to the pilot, including which groups or individuals we might begin to migrate first.