Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average cost to her Department is to process a mandatory reconsideration for personal independence payment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The average DWP unit costs for Mandatory Reconsiderations for Personal Independence Payments for the latest full financial year 2017/18 are:
Full year average 2017/18 – Operating costs level unit costs | £ |
PIP Claims Mandatory Reconsiderations | 61.93 |
PIP Reassessments Mandatory Reconsiderations | 53.66 |
Costs are provided separately for Mandatory Reconsiderations relating to PIP Claims and PIP Reassessments as these are separate activities with costs gathered separately for each.
The average unit costs that have been provided are taken from the DWP’s Activity Based Models at an Operating Costs level which includes direct costs relating to staff undertaking the activities (staff, and local non-staff costs only). They do not include higher level support costs such as management and corporate overheads relating to PIP administration activities.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 potential correlation between the roll-out of universal credit and the trends in the level of survival prostitution; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We do not believe there is any correlation between the roll-out of Universal Credit and prostitution.
The priority of Jobcentre Plus staff is to make sure that claimants get the support they need and then help them to move into work when they are able.
A wide range of financial support is available to help claimants, with 100 per cent advances available on the same day if there is a need.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to to reduce the number of claimants' successful claims that go through the tribunal appeal process.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Our intention is to work with stakeholders to review the mandatory reconsideration process, including exploring what might help us to gather any further evidence earlier in the process so that we can revise decisions before they reach tribunal, where appropriate. It is a complex area and we want to get it right, so our first priority will be to listen so that we can identify what changes might have the greatest impact.
At the tribunals themselves, we know the claimant’s oral evidence is often decisive with new written evidence also having an impact. In order to further understand this, we have recruited 150 Presenting Officers, for ESA and PIP appeals, who, aside from helping tribunals reach the right decision, are feeding back their observations to decision makers and assessment providers. These valuable insights will help inform future decision making.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average cost to the public purse is of a successful appeal for personal independence payment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 9 January 2019 to Question 205829, Children; Maintenance, how many non-compliant parents were disqualified from holding or obtaining a UK passport in (a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Child Maintenance Service Compliance and Arrears strategy, which gave us enforcement powers enabling disqualification of non-compliant parents from holding or obtaining a UK passport, came into effect from 14th December 2018. Therefore there were no non-compliant parents disqualified during a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the rate of non-compliance from paying parents to receiving parents using the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Child Maintenance Service has wide ranging powers to enforce the collection of both ongoing child maintenance liability and also arrears. Our Compliance and Arrears strategy further strengthens our enforcement powers by enabling the deduction of child maintenance from a wider range of bank accounts, tackling ‘asset rich’ parents by assuming a notional income from certain assets, and enabling non-compliant parents to be disqualified from holding or obtaining a UK passport.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 September 2018 to Question HL9912 on universal credit, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the steps that the Government is taking to ensure the accuracy of the electronic verification of universal credit claimants who meet the eligibility criteria for free school meals.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department works closely with the Department for Education (DfE) to assist it deliver its Free School Meals policy.
DWP has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with DfE over the transfer of data from the Universal Credit system to the Passported Benefits Eligibility checking system. Data is received from the Universal Credit system, on a daily basis. This means that the data is at most 23 hours and 59 minutes old, depending on when the claimant / agent last updated the record.
If a claimant has an open Universal Credit full service claim their take home pay is compared against the earning threshold. As a safeguard for claimants who have fluctuating earnings, the take-home pay is checked going back up to 3 months. In these cases, the take-home pay is aggregated to give an amount for use in the eligibility calculation.
DfE have processes in place to inform and deal with delays to ensure no claimants lose out as a result of this.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 effect of delays in the payment of universal credit benefits on (a) food bank use and (b) child poverty levels in Preston.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Under the legacy system £2.4 billion of benefits did not get paid at all because claimants could not navigate the complexity of the system. Universal Credit puts this right, ensuring this money goes to 700,000 claimants who need it.
There are many and varied reasons why people use food banks and it is misleading to link this to any single cause. People on Universal Credit move into work faster and stay in work longer. Work offers families the best opportunity to move out of poverty and Universal Credit strengthens incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. There are 300,000 fewer children in absolute poverty compared with 2010 – a record low.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personnel from (a) Cumbria Constabulary, (b) Lancashire Constabulary and (c) Merseyside Constabulary her Department has (i) sign posted and (ii) recorded as made use of a local food bank in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In line with the guidance issued to Jobcentre Plus staff, they are not required to keep records of the number of benefit claimants signposted to food banks in their local area.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to record the number of universal credit claimants that are referred to food banks by job centres.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Jobcentre Plus does not make direct referrals to food banks, but offers a signposting service to customers who have expressed an interest in using a food bank. The Department has no plans to require Jobcentre staff to record the number of Universal Credit claimants that are signposted to food banks.