Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many active universal credit (work capability) decisions, which have been appealed to Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are now subject to an order of the tribunal asking her Department to respond within 21 days.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times a request for a Statement of Reasons pertaining to the allocation of universal credit (limited capability to work) has not been delivered within the statutory time limit of 14 days in each of the last three years for which data are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason (a) child maintenance payments are allocated first to (i) enforcement charges and (ii) debt and then to children and (b) there is no provision to retrieve payments which have been allocated incorrectly by the system or manually.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
(a)The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not prioritise the collection of enforcement charges over on-going maintenance and arrears. Only when all the money due to children, along with any associated collection fees, has been collected, will the CMS collect the remaining charges associated with the case, including enforcement charges. The only exception would be where an enforcement charge forms part of a liability order, which would be collected alongside the other debt associated with that order.
(b)The system does have the Manual Allocation capability, which enables a caseworker to allocate money received across any outstanding liability on a case
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Child Maintenance Service allocates an individual's payments first to their historical collection charges and then to their existing child maintenance liabilities.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On-going maintenance liability and current/existing collection charges will be satisfied before any historical collection charges.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2018 to Question 165149, on Social Security Benefits: Scotland, how many claimants have outstanding benefit overpayment debts that are to be devolved to Scotland which are attributable to (a) overpayment and (b) fraud debts.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Current data shows that there are 16,457 claimants with overpayments debts that are due to be devolved to Scottish Government. Of this total, 1,079 have overpayment debts classified as Fraud.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2018 to Question 156480, on Social Security Benefits: Scotland, how many claimants the total value of outstanding benefit overpayment in Scotland is attributable to.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Current data at 17 July 2018 shows that the total value of outstanding benefit overpayments to be devolved to the Scottish Government is £29.2m. This debt is attributable to 17,000 claimants.
The actual amounts devolved to the Scottish Government will be subject to the value at the point of transfer and accounting agreements between the two governments.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of outstanding benefit (a) over-payments and (b) fraud debts to be transferred to the Scottish government when social security powers are devolved to that government.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Current data shows that the total value of outstanding benefit overpayments to be devolved to the Scottish Government is £29.3m. Of this total, £5.4m has been classified as fraud. The actual amounts devolved to the Scottish Government will be subject to the value at the point of transfer and accounting agreements between the two governments.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants in Scotland have an outstanding benefit (a) overpayment or (b) fraud debt to be recovered by her Department.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Current data shows that in Scotland there are approximately 121,000 claimants with an outstanding benefit overpayment. Of this total, approximately 8,000 are classified as fraud related overpayments.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value is of outstanding benefit (a) overpayments and (b) fraud debts owed by claimants in Scotland that are due to be recovered by her Department.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Current data shows that the total value of outstanding benefit overpayments for claimants living in Scotland is £278m. Of this total, £41m is for debts classified as fraud.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
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 ensure that the personal independence payments application process is accessible to people with sight loss.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The initial part of a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claim is generally made over the telephone. We also have a variety of reasonable adjustments. Someone can telephone on behalf of the claimant but the claimant must be present when the call is made.
Where our customers advise us that they need assistance to access our services and information, we make reasonable adjustments to meet their individual needs. This means the Department communicates with customers in a variety of different formats such as Braille, audio, large print, through third party interpreters or by arranging for a member of staff to visit the customer in their home.
Forms are available as a reasonable adjustment in electronic formats compatible with assistive software such as JAWS, Dragon, NVDA, Read & Write, and Zoomtext.