Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the highest value overpayment has been for Carer’s Allowance in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 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.
Where overpayments do occur due to not being entitled to the benefit, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. 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 just 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below. To avoid potentially disclosing personal information, we have bucketed the values requested.
Highest Value Carer’s Allowance Overpayment | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Total | £60-70k | £30-40k | £40-50k |
The 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.
Note that the values represent the original overpayment amount when raised on Debt Manager. As the year relates to when the overpayment was raised as a debt for recovery, it does not necessarily relate to the period as to when benefit was overpaid. The overpayments above all span periods of many years.
Note that the data provided is for all categories of overpayment. It is not necessarily the case that these overpayments arose due to claimants breaching the earnings limit.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the 21 hour study rule from the eligibility criteria for Carer’s Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government recognises and appreciates the vital contribution made by informal carers. With respect to full-time education, the Government believes that this should be supported by the educational maintenance system. That is why, as a general principle, full-time students are precluded from entitlement to income-related and income-maintenance benefits, including Carer’s Allowance.
Educational institutions decide which young people receive bursaries or other support and determine the level of financial support they receive. They develop their own eligibility criteria for access to the discretionary bursary fund, including setting a household income threshold appropriate to their area, and must publish this information for their students. Arrangements may differ across the United Kingdom.
In England, for example, over £160 million of bursary funding has been allocated in the 2023/24 academic year to institutions to help disadvantaged 16- to 19-year-olds with the costs of taking part in education. This is nearly 12% higher than published allocations for last year. The Department for Education has also made available £20 million each year in England specifically to support students in defined vulnerable groups.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 April 2024 to Question 20473 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, what his expected timetable is to respond to the PHSO report.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing recipients of Attendance Allowance to report a change in circumstances digitally.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The modernisation of Retirement Services, which includes Attendance Allowance, forms a key part of DWP’s Service Modernisation Programme. A key objective of the programme is to understand how existing services - such as Attendance Allowance - should operate in the future and understand how and whether services, including reporting change of circumstances, can be accessed by citizens more quickly and easily online.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of waiting times to speak to the Disability Service Centre.
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.
However, due to recent higher volumes of calls than forecast, from the 24th of April and throughout May, we are deploying dedicated telephony specific resource to the Personal Independent Payment telephony lines which will give better support when dealing with sudden increases in traffic.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of applications to delay migration from tax credits to universal credit have been granted in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The following table provides information on the number of extension requests granted. The data relating to the proportion of people who requested an extension and then were granted an extension cannot be provided because it is not held centrally.
Tax Credit claimants | ||
| Migration Notices sent to individuals | of which, extension to Migration Notice period granted |
Month Migration Notice sent |
| |
Jan-23 | 520 | 10 |
Feb-23 | 960 | 10 |
Mar-23 | 1,000 | 10 |
Apr-23 | 4,950 | 60 |
May-23 | 12,880 | 170 |
Jun-23 | 23,180 | 250 |
Jul-23 | 26,970 | 220 |
Aug-23 | 44,500 | 380 |
Sep-23 | 39,410 | 100 |
Notes:
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10
‘..’ indicates nil or negligible
Migration notices are included only until the end of September to allow households to have reached their deadline, in line with published official statistics to December 2023
Source: Move to Universal Credit operation system
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing an opt-out option for members of pension schemes with safeguarded benefits who are required to take advice under section 48 of the Pension Schemes Act 2015.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The overarching objective of the advice requirement is to ensure that members understand the financial implications of transferring to a scheme with flexible benefits. The process enables a clear view of the choices available to the individual and the longer term risks attached to accessing flexible benefits.
The government has to consider the needs of all pension savers regardless of their individual circumstances and it believes that enabling members to make informed investment decisions will yield greater long term financial stability for the individual. It is not therefore policy to introduce an opt out option to this part of the transfer process.
In forming this view, DWP has engaged with pensions industry bodies, the regulators and consumer groups to review The Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) Regulations 2017. The review considered how the advice requirement is working in practice and if there are any unintended consequences. A report of the review was published in June 2023 and is available on gov.uk.
Whilst the report concluded that the existing measures remain appropriate and effective, the department will continue to work closely with HMT and FCA to consider changes to the regulations that will improve the transfer process whilst ensuring that members continue to receive an appropriate level of protection and support.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the potential impact of poor health outcomes on economic activity.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Long-term sickness is now the most common reason for economic inactivity among the working age population. To step up our focus on tackling rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, we announced a further wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work.
New investment includes:
o Expanding additional work coach support, an existing programme to provide disabled people and people with health conditions with increased one-to-one personalised support from their work coach to help them move towards, and into, work.
o Introducing Universal Support, a new supported employment programme for eligible inactive people (disabled people and people with health conditions and additional barriers to employment), matching participants with open market jobs and funding support and training.
o Piloting the WorkWell Partnerships Programme to provide integrated work and health support for disabled people and people with health conditions who want help to remain in, return to, or take up, work. The programme will be locally led, bringing together the NHS, local authorities and other partners, in collaboration with jobcentres.
o Launching two Occupational Health consultations – one focused on occupational health tax incentives and one on ways to boost UK occupational health coverage.
o Introducing employment advisors in Musculoskeletal Conditions (MSK) services in England, helping individuals with MSK conditions to return to, or remain in, employment.
These initiatives build on wider announcements at the 2023 Spring Budget, including the publication of the Health and Disability White Paper and greater investment in mental health and musculoskeletal condition services which are the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long term sickness.
The Government already has a range of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay, and succeed in, work. These include increasing Work Coach support in Jobcentres; Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres; the Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support; Access to Work grants; Disability Confident; the Support with Employee Health and Disability Service; and work to further join up employment and health systems, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to increase statutory sick pay this autumn.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government has already increased Statutory Sick Pay this year as part of the annual uprating exercise in April 2023. This was in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which has been the default inflation measure for the Government’s statutory annual review of benefits since 2011.
The Secretary of State is required by law to undertake a review of benefits and pensions annually. This review will commence shortly and the outcome will be announced in the Autumn in the usual way.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2022 to Question 101751 on Children: Maintenance, whether his Department (a) has launched and (b) plans to launch a review into using gross income to calculate child maintenance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s response to the Independent Review of CMS’s handling of domestic abuse cases announced our intentions to look again at the child maintenance calculation to ensure it is fit for purpose and fair for both parents in light of societal changes since it was last looked at. The review is ongoing, and any changes would require changes to primary legislation and will be brought forward in the usual way. Any changes will always be made according to the best interests of children.