Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 4.58 of the Office for Budget Responsibility publication entitled Economic and Fiscal Outlook, published in March 2024, whether he has made an estimate of future trends in the level of fraud in Universal Credit claims.
Answered by Paul Maynard
DWP produces forecasts of overpayments in the benefit system as part of its forecasts for benefit expenditure. These are reviewed and agreed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which uses them as part of its fiscal forecasting and to evaluate policy costings.
As per our commitment published in the Treasury Minutes, CP 1029 – Treasury Minutes – Government Response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eightieth report from Session 2022-23 and the First to the Sixth reports from Session 2023-24 (parliament.uk), we will set out our forecast in the Annual Report and Accounts for financial year 23/24, expected to be published later this year.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to offer financial incentives for Jobcentre work coaches to get people into work.
Answered by Jo Churchill
DWP ran an initial incentives pilot for a 6-month period from March 2023 until August 2023. This was piloted alongside Additional Jobcentre Support (AJS) to support more claimants into work. A second phase of the incentives pilot commenced 1 January 2024 and is due to end 31 March 2024. The pilot is in line with existing Reward and Recognition policy and incentives are paid as reward vouchers.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility publication entitled Economic and Fiscal Outlook, published in March 2024, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the potential impact of the projected labour participation rate on the number of job vacancies over the next five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The DWP is not an economic forecaster. This sits with the OBR who have forecast total hours worked in the economy will increase over the next 5 years.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of tax credit claimants that have closed a claim rather than migrate to Universal Credit in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The requested information and can be found in Table 2 here: Completing the move to Universal Credit: Statistics related to the move of households claiming TaxCredits and DWP Benefits to Universal Credit: data to end of December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and in Annex A: Completing the move to Universal Credit: Learning from the Discovery Phase - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Universal Credit claimants have received a budgeting advance in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Table 1 below provides the number and proportion of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance in each of the last three years.
Year | Number of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance | Proportion of Universal Credit households who received a Budgeting Advance |
Dec 2020 - Nov 2021 | 1,045,000 | 18% |
Dec 2021 - Nov 2022 | 1,026,000 | 18% |
Dec 2022 - Nov 2023 | 1,092,000 | 18% |
Notes:
1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.
2. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
3. Data up to November 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraphs 7.16 and 7.17 of the Ministerial Code, on how many occasions Ministers in his Department have informed the Law Officers that they are the defendants in a libel action in (a) their personal capacity, (b) their official position and (c) both since 19 December 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard
We are unable to provide the information requested. As reflected in paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code, ‘The fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside Government without their authority’.
The Law Officers’ Convention, reflected in paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code, is a long-standing convention observed by successive governments. It exists to preserve the ability of ministers to seek the advice of the Law Officers and not to be disadvantaged by disclosing when they have done so, and what advice they received.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the increase in the maximum repayment period on new budgeting advance loans starts is scheduled for December 2024.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Universal Credit is an iterative system and all changes to the system are carefully planned and scheduled.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's spend on the youth offer was in the last financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department of Work and Pensions Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.
Previously, the Youth Offer was only available for those searching for work. As of the 25 September 2023, this been expanded to include to include additional young people on Universal Credit not currently searching for work, including young parents and carers.
The information regarding the Department’s total spend on the Youth Offer is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The information regarding the Department’s spend on grants to support the opening and operation of Youth Hubs in each financial year since they were launched is not held.
The indicative Youth Hub Work Coach costs for the previous three financial years are:
2020/2021 - £1.1m
2021/2022 - £5.4m
2022/2023 - £4.8m
NB:
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times (a) the Secretary of State and (b) each Minister in his Department has visited a (i) Government Hub and (ii) ministerial office outside of London in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.