Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which advice agencies the Government is providing funding to in 2024-25; and what level of funding is being provided to those agencies.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The ARA DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) contains 22/23 which is the latest published. 23/24 has not been audited or laid yet.
Page 163 lists all public bodies under the umbrella of DWP.
Main estimates and DEL Budgets are here Main Supply Estimates 2023 to 24 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Main and Supplementary for DWP are here Work and Pensions Committee - Estimate memoranda - Committees - UK Parliament.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of households awarded transitional protection under the Move to Universal Credit programme have subsequently lost that protection because of a change of circumstances.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the average time from first contact with the NHS specialist mental health services to the commencement of regular talking therapy treatment for someone with a mental health condition receiving treatment through talking therapy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In England, for the reporting period of 2022/23, there were 1,215,329 referrals to the NHS Talking Therapies programme, where treatment was started within the same period. The average waiting time from a referral being received to first treatment was 19.8 days. For the reporting period of February 2024, there were 109,260 referrals that started treatment within the same period, with an average 17.1 day wait from referral to first treatment. A referral has accessed services when the patient has attended their first treatment appointment, or an Internet Enabled Therapy log has been recorded for them.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the (a) average and (b) maximum amount of waiting time when contacting the Carer's Allowance Unit by telephone.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Telephony is our customers’ primary channel to contact us. We continually assess the number of calls we are receiving and the associated waiting times, deploying resources accordingly to support service levels wherever this is possible.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of carer’s allowance of (a) £0.01 - £500, (b) £500.01 - £1,000, (c) £1,000.01 - £5,000, (d) £5,000.01 - £20,000 and (e) more than £20,000 were made in the (i) 2021-22, (ii) 2022-23 and (iii) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Debt Value Grouping | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
£0.01 - £500.00 | 26.4k | 20.3k | 28.0k |
£500.01 - £1000.00 | 12.2k | 11.4k | 11.9k |
£1000.01 - £5000.00 | 18.4k | 16.4k | 18.6k |
£5000.01 - £20,000.00 | 2.9k | 1.3k | 1.3k |
Over £20,000.00 | 0.1k | 0.1k | 0.0k |
Total | 60.1k | 49.5k | 59.9k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many debts of overpayments of Carer's Allowance his Department was seeking to recover in value brackets (a) £0.01 - £500, (b) £500.01 - £1,000, (c) £1,000.01 - £5,000, (d) £5,000.01 - £20,000 and (e) over £20,000 as of 6 April 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Debt Value Grouping | Volume of Carer’s Allowance Debts |
£0.01 - £500.00 | 61.9k |
£500.01 - £1000.00 | 29.7k |
£1000.01 - £5000.00 | 53.2k |
£5000.01 - £20,000.00 | 11.3k |
Over £20,000.00 | 0.3k |
Total | 156.3k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Data is taken as a snapshot as at 03/04/2024, the closest date we can obtain to 06/04/2024. |
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of Carer’s Allowance there have been in relation to the earnings conditions in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Financial Year | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Volume of Carer’s Allowance (CA) Debts | 36.1k | 30.7k | 34.5k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many school crossing guards have been involved in road traffic accidents while on duty in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is not held by the Department.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department holds information on the number and proportion of school crossing guards who wear body cameras while on duty.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is not held by the Department.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department provided between 1 September 2023 and 23 February 2024 to people who wished to apply for a lump sum payment under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 who had (a) been awarded Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit as they had unilateral but not bilateral Pleural Thickening, PD9 and (b) been awarded Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit for asbestos-related lung cancer based on their employment history but had not been diagnosed with asbestosis, PD8A.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Regulations which widened potential Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 scheme entitlement to include sufferers of unilateral diffuse pleural thickening and asbestos-related primary carcinoma of the lung (without asbestosis) came into force on 23 February 2024. Once the Department identified that these customers were not previously entitled to an award under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 scheme, the Department’s priority was to amend the relevant legislation as quickly as possible.
An initial letter was sent on 09 January 2024 notifying asbestos support groups of the situation, and the Department’s intention to amend the legislation, and a follow-up letter was sent to asbestos support groups on 26 February 2024, confirming that the new regulations had now come into force.
Eligible customers should receive award notifications as usual when their claim is processed.