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Written Question
Job Centres: Disability
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is available if a claimant cannot attend a Job Centre appointment due to a disability.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Where a claimant on a work-related benefit has a health condition, illness or a disability, Work Coaches have the discretion to tailor requirements to what is reasonable and achievable, taking into account the claimant’s needs, circumstances and capability. Where appropriate, Work Coaches have the discretion to adjust how often the claimant meets with them and how these meetings take place, including face to face appointments in the Jobcentre, telephone appointments, video conference, or digital appointments for Universal Credit claimants. In some circumstances a claimant’s work-related requirements maybe be lifted for a period if their ability to carry them out is disrupted due to their personal circumstances.

If a claimant is deemed to be vulnerable or needs additional support when making an application for benefit, the DWP Visiting Team can meet with them at their home or another location to support with their claim.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Forms
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is available for claimants unable to complete his Department's forms.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

We aim to provide a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs at any point throughout their journey and ensures appropriate support is made available quickly.

For customers who are unable to complete forms themselves a home visit from a visiting officer can be arranged, if they wish to retain autonomy and not use an appointee.

Customers claiming Universal Credit can also be supported by the universal support scheme.

An example of the support available is; Getting help with an application - Understanding Universal Credit

Further support for other service lines can be found on Welcome to GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

DWP continuously reviews and improves the service for people who claim or seek to claim benefits to ensure services are accessible and responsive to citizen needs.


Written Question
Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit
Thursday 25th January 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants died after their claims were denied for (a) Employment Support Allowance and (b) Universal Credit in 2023.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

This information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Eligibility criteria for Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance can be found here and here.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Equality
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has conducted an equality impact assessment of the use of machine learning in benefit fraud investigations.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has robust processes to ensure ethical use and impact of data is considered which includes Equality Impact Assessments for transformative initiatives that involve personal data, aligned with data-ethics frameworks, codes of practice, and working principles for analytical communities within the department that work with personal data.

We do not use algorithms to make decisions regarding fraudulent claims, these are always made by humans.

We will be providing further information in our 2023-24 Report and Accounts - committees.parliament.uk/publications/42012/documents/208912/default/


Written Question
Children: Maintenance
Friday 12th January 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps the Child Maintenance Service has taken to help recover arrears in child maintenance payments.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.

In the quarter ending September 2023, of 180,000 Paying Parents due to pay via the Collect and Pay service:

  • 49,000 (27%) had a deduction from earnings order or request in place
  • 64,000 (35%) were due to pay via deduction from benefits
  • 69,000 (38%) were due to pay via other methods of payment, predominantly default standing orders

Depending on a Paying Parent’s employment status we use Deduction from Earnings orders or deductions from bank accounts. We have collected in excess of £16m via deduction orders in 2023. We move cases swiftly to Legal Enforcement. Securing a Liability Order (LO) for 11k cases in the courts, cases are referred to Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs) who have collected almost £5m in 2023. Where house ownership is established, charging orders and orders for sale are instigated. CMS will quickly move to taking court action for the removal of driving licence, committal to prison or removal of passport. £4.5m collected from cases at this stage.

As a result of this intense effort to increase enforcement activity £36m collected from arrears.

The planned introduction of the Administrative Liability Order in 2024 will remove the need to apply to the courts and will reduce the current average time of 20 weeks to secure an LO to 6 weeks.

The published statistics below provides data to September 2023 Section 9 Enforcement and the National tables 7.1 and 7.2.

Child Maintenance Service statistics: data to September 2023 - GOV.UK(www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Pensions: Advisory Services
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Question 5041 on Pensions, with reference to the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (Transitional Provisions and Appropriate Independent Advice) 2015 Post Implementation Review, published on 4 April 2023, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the disproportionate response to low-risk pension transfers noted in the last paragraph of that Review.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Whilst conducting the statutory review of the requirement DWP determined the original intention, ensuring members are aware of the benefits they may be giving up by transferring their pension assets to schemes with flexible benefits still applies.

DWP continues to engage with His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to determine if there are alternative ways to deliver the protections that smooth the process.


Written Question
Food Banks: Families
Thursday 14th December 2023

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

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 implications for his policies of the report entitled Emergency food parcel distribution in the UK: April– September 2023 published by the Trussell Trust on 8 November 2023 which noted that 46% of all food parcels provided by the Trust’s food banks are for families with three or more children.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children. From April 2023, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1% and, subject to Parliamentary approval, working-age benefits will rise by 6.7% from April 2024, in line with inflation.

With over 900 thousand job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting parents to move into and progress in work. This approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. In 2021/22 children living in workless households were 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty, after housing costs, than those where all adults work.

To help people into work, our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options, including face-to-face time with work coaches and interview assistance. In addition, there is specific support targeted towards young people, people aged 50 plus and job seekers with disabilities or health issues.

To further support parents into work, on 28th June 2023, the maximum monthly amounts that a parent can be reimbursed for their childcare increased by 47%, from £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children to £950.92 and £1,630.15 respectively. Importantly, we can now also provide even more help with upfront childcare costs when parents move into work or increase their hours. In addition, on 1 April 2024, the Government will increase the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.

This government understands the pressures people, including parents, are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of £104bn over 2022-25 to help households and individuals.

In the financial year 2023/24, this has included Cost of Living payments totalling up to £900 for households on eligible means-tested benefits, a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment for people on eligible ‘extra cost’ disability benefits; and, for pensioner households, an additional £300 Cost of Living payment paid as a top up to the winter fuel payment.

The Household Support Fund is running throughout the financial year 2023/24. This enables Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the cost of essentials.

Further, from April 2024, to support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents for private renters. This will benefit 1.6m low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Wednesday 13th December 2023

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, by what metrics his Department assesses the effectiveness of the two-child limit in meeting its policy objectives.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such assessment has been made.


Written Question
Unemployed People
Wednesday 13th December 2023

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential barriers to work faced by people who are (a) affected by the two-child limit and (b) not in employment.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such assessment has been made.

However, we are aware that many claimants have barriers that prevent them from taking up employment. For this reason, our Work Coaches are available to give tailored support for claimants to help them to access skills and training opportunities, and career advice.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Tuesday 12th December 2023

Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of (a) households and (b) children in those households that will be affected by the two-child limit in each of the next five years.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not available. The Government publishes annual statistics related to the operation of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children. Statistics related to the period up to April 2023 were published in July 2023 and can be accessed at Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)