Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money the Child Maintenance Service has collected from paying parents in collection fees in (a) the UK and (b) in Scotland in each year since 2014.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The amount collected from parents in non-child-maintenance receipts under the Child Maintenance Service is published yearly in the client fund accounts available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-maintenance-client-funds-accounts
Non-child-maintenance receipts in these reports relate mainly to application fees, collection fees and enforcement charges, collected from paying and receiving parents
For GB the total collected since 2014 is:
Year | GB Non-maintenance receipts |
2016-17 | £14.7m |
2015-16 | £8.5m |
2014-15 | £2.9m |
It is not currently possible to give an accurate breakdown of these figures below a national level or to provide average fees charged per parent.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents are in maintenance arrears through the Child Maintenance Service; and what amount of money is outstanding in such arrears in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The number of paying parents with maintenance arrears, and the corresponding amount of money outstanding of such arrears as of December 2017 for both Scotland and the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is outlined in the table below.
| Number of paying parents with Maintenance arrears | Amount of Maintenance Arrears (£m) |
Scotland | 8,940 | 13.2 |
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath | 240 | 0.3 |
Notes:
- Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents are in maintenance arrears through the Child Maintenance Service; and what amount of money is outstanding in such arrears in Scotland.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The number of paying parents with maintenance arrears, and the corresponding amount of money outstanding of such arrears as of December 2017 for both Scotland and the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is outlined in the table below.
| Number of paying parents with Maintenance arrears | Amount of Maintenance Arrears (£m) |
Scotland | 8,940 | 13.2 |
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath | 240 | 0.3 |
Notes:
- Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims include a child component in (a) Scotland and (b) Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The available information on the number of households in receipt of the childcare element of Universal Credit, including by country and constituency, is published and can be accessed at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be obtained at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are included on universal credit claims in (a) Scotland and (b) Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The information for the number of children included on Universal Credit claims is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Information on the number of households with a child element included as part of the claim is published and can be obtained from Stat-Xplore, which can be accessed at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have requested an advance payment when applying for universal credit; and what proportion of people that figure applies to in (a) Scotland and (b) the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Data on the number of requests for a Universal Credit advance or number of advances awarded by constituency is not held by the Department.
However, our latest national internal data for number of advances awarded indicates that, for eligible new claims to Universal Credit Full Service that were due a first payment in January 2018, 60% received either a ‘new claim’ or ‘benefit transfer’ advance.
This shows an increase of around 10 percentage points since the latest published data for July 2017, and that people are getting the support they need in the first assessment period. The published data is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-payment-advances-may-2016-to-june-2017
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many payments for housing costs have been paid directly to landlords from people's universal credit payments; and what proportion of people that figures applies to in (a) Scotland and (b) the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The available information on the number of households on Universal Credit that have payments made directly to their landlord, including by country and constituency, is published and can be accessed at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be obtained at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been seen by work coaches since the introduction of universal credit full service in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency; and how many of those people have subsequently secured employment.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department does collect information on individuals seen by work coaches but this data is not currently available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
However, statistics available at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/ show that in March 2018 there were 2,205 people on Universal Credit in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
As stated in the Strategy for Releasing Official Statistics we are currently assessing what information is available on flows between conditionality groups including the feasibility of producing statistics on flows from Universal Credit into work.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people on universal credit have been sanctioned in (a) Scotland and (b) Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency since its introduction.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The available information on the number of individuals with Universal Credit sanction decisions by region and parliamentary constituency is published and can be accessed at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
We engage at an individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring the support that we give and any conditionality requirements to the specific circumstances of the individuals.
DWP employees take a number of steps to ensure our decisions are fair. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
Asked by: Lesley Laird (Labour - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employment and support allowance claimants have been successful on appeal at tribunal against decisions to reject those claims in (a) Scotland and (b) Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.