Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is her Department's policy that jobcentre staff should inform claimants of universal credit that they should make a claim for new-style employment and support allowance or jobseeker's allowance if they are likely to be eligible for those benefits.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants irrespective of which benefit they are in receipt of, or in the process of claiming.
Jobcentre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. All Work Coaches within Jobcentres receive specific training regarding identifying when new style Employment and Support Allowance and new style Jobseekers Allowance are appropriate, and have the knowledge and skills to support claimants throughout the process.
More widely, the Department provides benefit eligibility information to help people make decisions surrounding benefits to which they may be entitled, along with details about how to claim them. This is available through Jobcentre Plus offices and via the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason universal credit is paid pro-rata when a claimant becomes eligible part way through an assessment period for state pension credit but not when a claimant becomes eligible for the state pension without state pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This measure ensures that there is no gap in entitlement for people who rely on means-tested benefits, such as Pension Credit. It provides a smooth transition between working-age and pension-age income related welfare support.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Jobcentre staff receive training to identify when a new claimant would be entitled to (a) new-style employment and support allowance and (b) new-style jobseeker's allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants irrespective of which benefit they are in receipt of, or in the process of claiming.
Jobcentre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. All Work Coaches within Jobcentres receive specific training regarding identifying when new style Employment and Support Allowance and new style Jobseekers Allowance are appropriate, and have the knowledge and skills to support claimants throughout the process.
More widely, the Department provides benefit eligibility information to help people make decisions surrounding benefits to which they may be entitled, along with details about how to claim them. This is available through Jobcentre Plus offices and via the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether universal credit claimants who are eligible for (a) new style employment and support allowance and (b) new style jobseeker's allowance who would receive more money from one of those benefits than from universal credit are able to have their award backdated to when they made their claim.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Universal Credit replaces six benefits with one, to simplify the system and make work pay. As a result, people claiming Universal Credit move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings. Universal Credit also provides more help with childcare costs, a dedicated Work Coach and scraps the 16, 24 and 30 hour ‘cliff edges’.
Under the legacy system £2.4 billion of welfare benefits did not get paid at all because claimants could not navigate the complexity of the system. Universal Credit is putting this right, ensuring this money goes to 700,000 claimants who need it.
Claims may be backdated, by up to one calendar month, in limited circumstances for vulnerable claimants who may be delayed in claiming Universal Credit through no fault of their own. Claims may also be backdated in specific circumstances when a couple separates to ensure that there is no gap in entitlement between the couple claim and the new claim made by a single claimant.
For new style Employment and Support Allowance, a claimant has three months following the qualifying date to claim.
The Department provides benefit eligibility information to help people make decisions surrounding benefits to which they may be entitled, along with details about how to claim them. This is available through Jobcentre Plus offices and via the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Jobcentre staff receive training to identify when a new claimant would be entitled to new-style employment and support allowance or new-style jobseeker's allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the compatibility of her Department’s policy of universal credit being digital by default with her Department’s Debt Management office being contactable only by (a) fax and (b) post rather than by secure email.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Currently, most claimants who want to contact Debt Management call via one of the free phone numbers. However, we recognise the need for an online service to allow claimants to more easily manage any debts that they may have. Therefore, we are developing the Digital Debt Service as a replacement for our current Debt Manager system.
This new system will allow claimants to view details of any debts they have (including the current balance) and make repayments online.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of offices in her Department whom third party advice agencies may need to contact cannot be contacted by secure email.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP adheres to Email Security and Policy guidelines when exchanging information with third parties.
We have a list of Trusted Partners who are deemed to have the appropriate security in place to allow us to exchange information with. If an organisation does not meet the criteria to be on the trusted partner list, we have an option to use software to encrypt e-mail between us and the third party which will then allow us to exchange data securely. Currently we communicate with 1100 external recipients via this method from 450 organisations. If the external agency cannot support either of the above then we would not be able to exchange information securely via email and would need to agree an alternative method with them.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fax machines are in use in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has 1303 multifunction devices deployed across the estate which primarily act as printers. In addition, they also have the capability to send and receive fax messages.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will set out a timetable for ensuring that all fax machines in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies are replaced with secure email.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does not currently have a set timetable in place to reduce/remove the ability to send and receive fax messages.
However alternative, wider digital channels of communication will become available to customers & DWP colleagues that will naturally reduce the need to utilise faxes by viewing and sharing data information at source, under secure measures.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the changes in a claimant's circumstances that would result in natural migration from legacy benefits to universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Currently people only move to Universal Credit because they have had a significant change in their circumstances which would previously have led them to make a new claim to a legacy benefit.
Claimant circumstances within the legacy system are diverse and interact with a range of benefits in different ways. Eligibility for Universal Credit is dependent on individuals’ circumstances, the specific nature of the change and rules for access to legacy benefits.
Therefore, it is not possible to give a definitive list as each will depend on the individual circumstances of the claimants involved and the specific nature of the change.
However, some specific examples of changes which would cause a claimant to move on to Universal Credit are: