Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will change the rules on universal credit joint applications to enable couples to verify their ID in person at separate times.
Answered by Lord Sharma
At present, there are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity for Universal Credit purposes: online using the gov.uk verify service; in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions, for those who do not have identity documents.
If an appointment is needed to verify a claimant’s ID in person, both members of a “couple claim” are not required to attend at the same time. The current process is that separate appointments will be arranged for each partner, at a time that is convenient for them.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the timeframe for fixing problems with GOV.UK Verify in respect of universal credit claims.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Design and delivery of the GOV.UK Verify platform is the responsibility of the Government Digital Service (GDS) and its partners. The Department for Work and Pensions, along with other government departments is a user of this service, and provides feedback to GDS about its operation, recognising that people wanting to claim Universal Credit, or check their State Pension, can choose to use it to confirm their identity. The Department has no access to this information and claimants have direct contact with identity providers (also called ‘certified companies’).
The Department will continue to consider options to provide the easiest and most secure digital services for our claimants.
There are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity for Universal Credit purposes: in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions, for those who do not have identity documents.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
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 the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on issuing guidance to landlords who wish to rent to tenants who receive universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has regular dialogue with other Secretary of States in the course of normal ministerial business, which includes discussion surrounding aspects of Universal Credit.
The Department maintains guidance on GOV.UK, relevant for private and social sector landlords, with information about Universal Credit. This helps landlords to understand what they can do to help their tenants prepare for: a) their move to Universal Credit and b) making payments of their housing costs (rent) direct to their landlord themselves. This can be accessed at:
The Government does not collect data on how many landlords are not able to rent to tenants who receive universal credit because of their landlord insurance policies.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many landlords are not able to rent to tenants who receive universal credit because of their landlord insurance policies.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has regular dialogue with other Secretary of States in the course of normal ministerial business, which includes discussion surrounding aspects of Universal Credit.
The Department maintains guidance on GOV.UK, relevant for private and social sector landlords, with information about Universal Credit. This helps landlords to understand what they can do to help their tenants prepare for: a) their move to Universal Credit and b) making payments of their housing costs (rent) direct to their landlord themselves. This can be accessed at:
The Government does not collect data on how many landlords are not able to rent to tenants who receive universal credit because of their landlord insurance policies.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to index the value of the UK state pension for British pensioners who live in Commonwealth countries.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid to recipients living outside the UK has been in place for over 70 years. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality. Entitlement to the UK State Pension is based on the national insurance contributions on a person’s national insurance record. The annual index-linked increases to UK State Pensions are paid to recipients overseas only where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in EEA countries or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement in place that provides for the up-rating of the UK State Pension. The Government has no plans to change the policy of all Governments, Labour, Coalition or Conservative since WW2.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the current waiting time is from the submission of a complaint to the office of the Independent Case Examiner to the allocation of the case to an Investigation Case Manager; and what steps she is taking to reduce that time.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
As at 15 March 2019, the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office was allocating cases to Investigation Case Managers that were accepted for investigation on the following dates:
The ICE Office resources are reviewed on an annual basis and the Office received funding for thirteen additional staff in the current financial year (2018/2019). Productivity within the ICE Office has increased during the current reporting year, having cleared 1,139 complaints between March 2018 and February 2019, compared to 868 in the same period the previous year.