Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when an equality impact assessment will be published on the proposal to close Cambuslang Jobcentre.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We will be undertaking an equality analysis as part of the detailed planning for service reconfiguration. This will include feedback from public consultation in those locations where this applies.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK received support through the Access to Work scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been sanctioned for not attending a jobseeker's allowance appointment within five minutes of the appointed time in Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This information is not available
Information on Jobseeker’s Allowance sanction decisions by referral reason and constituency is available here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency have had their benefit payments reduced after transferring from disability living allowance to personal independence payment in each year for which figures are available.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The statistics on the outcomes of Disability Living Allowance claimants who have been invited to and claimed Personal Independence Payment (PIP), including those who have seen a reduced award value, are in the table below:
Table 1 – Award outcomes following reassessment for PIP in Rutherglen and Hamilton West
| Award amount increased | Award amount the same | Award amount decreased |
Jan-Dec 2014 | - | - | - |
Jan-Dec 2015 | 200 | - | 100 |
Jan-Oct 2016 | 300 | 100 | 200 |
Notes:
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has met (a) Citizens Advice Scotland and (b) Money Matters to discuss the current review of his Department's estate.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Over the past few months, we have been negotiating new leases with our landlords and partners. This has been a very complex commercial process and has limited our ability for detailed discussions with local customer representative groups on specific site proposals.
We have committed to a public consultation for offices over three miles and 20 minutes away by public transport and would encourage customer representative groups to submit their views on these proposals via the online consultation.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, on what date further details will be released on the acquisition of a new back-of-house site in Glasgow.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is important to remember that the announcements made in relation to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017 are just proposals at this stage and not final decisions. As such, no specific dates in relation to the proposals have yet been agreed.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, how many (a) existing and (b) new employees of his Department will be based at the newly acquired back-of-house site in Glasgow.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is important to remember that the announcements made in relation to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017 are just proposals at this stage and not final decisions.
Until discussions with staff have been undertaken, we cannot provide details of how many new and existing people would make up that number.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, which of the jobcentres due to be closed or co-located elsewhere will be subject to public consultation.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We have committed to a public consultation for offices over three miles and 20 minutes away by public transport. There are 25 consultations covering 27 sites planned. Consultation started on 30 January 2017 and ends at 5pm on 28 February 2017.
The full list of sites we have announced has been published and is available from: http://qna.files.parliament.uk/ws-attachments/678953/original/DWP%20Estates%20Proposals.pdf
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 January 2017, HCWS439, on welfare delivery, whether each of his Department's sites due to be closed or co-located elsewhere have been consulted on those proposals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We have committed to a public consultation for offices over three miles and 20 minutes away by public transport. Consultation started on 30 January 2017 and ends at 5pm on 28 February 2017. We will also be undertaking internal consultations with staff in those sites affected.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is between a claimant requesting by telephone that a benefit claim form be sent to them by post and their receiving that form.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The vast majority of our benefit claims are now made on line or by telephone. The total ESA claims we receive on a clerical ESA 1 is usually around 5% and for JSA claims clerical cases are issued in less than 1% of cases as a general rule. In all cases when a clerical form is required it is dispatched on the same day if the request is received before 12.30pm. Later requests are dispatched the following working day.
The majority of DLA & IIDB claims are issued by post and are actioned within a 24 hour period of the request. IIDB Claim forms are also held by 3rd party groups such as CAB, Asbestos Support Groups and Solicitors. Customers can also download both IIDB & DLA forms from the Intranet.
The majority of PIP claims are expected to made by telephone unless the claimant is unable to or finds it very difficult to use the phone. In these cases a clerical PIP part 1 would be issued and once the claim is completed and submitted, the PIP part 2 form is system issued overnight.
Income Support New Claims are normally made by telephone, in extraordinary circumstances a contingency process can be invoked to ensure that customer demand is met. Since January 2017 the contingency approach has accounted for 10 % of the total number of new claims made during this period. When this process is used, a claim pack is sent to the customer on the same day as the customer requests it.
All claim forms, with the exception of the PIP part 2 and Income Support claim forms which are issued by 1st class post, are issued by 2nd class post. The Royal Mail delivery standards for 1st class are 93% next day from their receipt by Royal Mail and for second class are 98.5% within 2 days.