Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the accuracy of the current British Sign Language translation published in 2015 of the Access to Work factsheet for customers.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to Work have been working hard to ensure high standards of their British Sign Language (BSL) translations, including working with the British Deaf Association (BDA) to obtain feedback on their videos and BSL translations and to better understand what matters to BSL users.
Access to Work works with one professional translator when developing BSL products. Recognising the need to ensure the translator has enough time to understand the key messages and interpret them in a way that can be easily understood by BSL users, additional time is built into the contract. The additional times enables Access to Work to work closely with the translator to go through the draft scripts and ensure information is accurately translated and that key messages are interpreted in a way that makes sense for BSL users whilst ensuring accuracy.
Wherever possible, post-production testing is included as part of the assurance process, to ensure user comprehension. This has been more difficult during the COVID-19 outbreak, due to the pace of change and social distancing measures.
Please note that the Access to Work factsheet was not published in 2015 – it was first pub-lished on 1 October 2012 and has been amended 12 times in subsequent years.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September to Question 12927 on the Independent Serious Case Panel, what qualifications the independent members have for membership of the panel.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are absolutely committed to improving our services, especially to the most vulnerable, which is why we have set up the Serious Case Panel. The panel was developed to take themes and systemic issues that come out of various case reviews and make recommendations for improvements.
More information about the Serious Case Panel will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2019 to Question 12926 on Social Security Benefits, on what dates the Independent Serious Case Panel has met in each year since 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are absolutely committed to improving our services, especially to the most vulnerable, which is why we have set up the Serious Case Panel. The panel was developed to take themes and systemic issues that come out of various case reviews and make recommendations for improvements.
The Serious Case Panel met on 30 September 2019 and 7 November 2019 and will meet quarterly from now on.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2019 to Question 12926 on Social Security Benefits, if she will publish the agendas of the Independent Serious Case Panel meetings for each meeting that panel has held since 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
More information about the Serious Case Panel will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what circumstances the Independent Serious Case Panel is instigated.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel meets quarterly.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who sits on the Independent Serious Case Panel.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Membership comprises of Civil Servants and independent members.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what processes the Independent Serious Case Panel uses when investigating cases.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel takes themes and systemic issues that come out of case reviews, and makes recommendations for improvements across the relevant areas of the department.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the remit is of the Independent Serious Case Panel.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Serious Case Panel takes themes and systemic issues that come out of case reviews, and makes recommendations for improvements across the relevant areas of the department.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average number of days was between a final safeguarding visit to a vulnerable benefits claimant and that claimant's payments being stopped in each year from 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP Visiting undertakes safeguarding visits for customers who are deemed to be vulnerable in relation to benefit claims.
DWP cannot provide figures exclusively for payments stopped in relation to safeguarding visits as the Department does not hold this information centrally and to do so would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit claimants assessed as vulnerable had their payments stopped after two failed safeguarding visits from her Department in each year from 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP Visiting undertakes safeguarding visits for customers who are deemed to be vulnerable in relation to benefit claims.
DWP cannot provide figures exclusively for payments stopped in relation to safeguarding visits as the Department does not hold this information centrally and to do so would incur disproportionate costs.