Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 improve the guidance on the Universal Credit (Earned Income) Amendment Regulations 2020 (2020/1138) on her Department's website.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department updated its online information to reflect changes to the reallocation of reported payments as detailed in Universal Credit (Earned Income) Amendment Regulations 2020 (2020/1138) on 16 November 2020. The information can be seen at https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-youre-paid and https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/universal-credit-and-work/
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 merits of benefit assessors receiving mental health first aid training.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The department has 1700 trained Mental Health First Aiders. They are there to provide peer to peer assistance to the department’s employees across the UK.
There is mental health training available to all staff in the department who have contact with customers, however, training paused in 2020, resources were diverted to train staff from Other Government Departments, new recruits and staff redeployed to process UC claims.
Our ambition is to restart this training in 2021/22. The mental health training is a blended approach of facilitated, e-learning and leader led training.
The additional mental health training is designed to help remove any bias or stigma around mental health, and to enable staff to respond appropriately to each customer’s issues.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training is provided to assessors of personal independence payment assessments on rare health conditions.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
All health professionals carrying out assessments on behalf of the department are clinically qualified and registered practitioners in their own field. Health professionals are required to have a broad training in disability analysis as well as awareness training in specific conditions ranging from common to rare.
At present there is no specific clinical training relating to cavernoma. However, training and resources for the symptoms related to cavernoma (e.g. seizures and headaches) is available to all health professionals. While preparing to undertake an assessment, health professionals have access to this range of resources as well as experienced clinicians to support them in assessing individuals with conditions that they may not be familiar with. Additionally, assessment providers engage with medical experts, charities and relevant stakeholders to strengthen their training programmes.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training is provided to assessors of personal independence payments assessments on cavernoma.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
All health professionals carrying out assessments on behalf of the department are clinically qualified and registered practitioners in their own field. Health professionals are required to have a broad training in disability analysis as well as awareness training in specific conditions ranging from common to rare.
At present there is no specific clinical training relating to cavernoma. However, training and resources for the symptoms related to cavernoma (e.g. seizures and headaches) is available to all health professionals. While preparing to undertake an assessment, health professionals have access to this range of resources as well as experienced clinicians to support them in assessing individuals with conditions that they may not be familiar with. Additionally, assessment providers engage with medical experts, charities and relevant stakeholders to strengthen their training programmes.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
What recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing carer’s allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Government recognises and appreciates the vital role played by unpaid carers. Carer’s Allowance was increased in April. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £67.25 a week, meaning nearly an additional £700 a year for carers.
In February 2020, there were around 690 carers in the Twickenham constituency that were receiving Carer’s Allowance and in 2019/20 we spent approximately £2.5 million on Carer’s Allowance there.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions officials of her Department have had with officials of the Department of Health and Social Care on potential additional barriers people with mental health conditions experience as a result of the covid-19 outbreak when applying for social security benefits; and what safeguards her Department has put in place to mitigate against those potential additional barriers.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Officials of both Departments hold regular discussions as a result of the ongoing covid-19 outbreak and its impact on people with health conditions.
My Department has provided mental health training for staff who have direct contact with claimants, including all Work Coaches, to equip them to identify mental wellbeing issues or vulnerabilities, and to take appropriate action to support individuals. Work Coaches will tailor support to the needs of the individual and work closely with local organisations that provide additional specialist support.
Background
Mental wellbeing training has been provided for all staff (around 30,000 colleagues trained to date) who have direct contact with customers (including via telephone).
Staff have also had specific training to help them to identify vulnerable people, and signpost or refer them to further support provided by local partners. Every jobcentre has a complex needs toolkit containing links to local organisations to facilitate this.
Since the start of the pandemic we’ve introduced online claim application processes for ESA and Pension Credit claimants (telephony options still exist). And we’ve also introduced new services for deaf claimants.
From 16 March to the end of April, we received over 1.8 million claims for Universal Credit, over 250,000 claims for Jobseeker’s Allowance, and over 20,000 claims for Employment and Support Allowance.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to reinstate a Child Maintenance Service telephone service for people to report their ex-partner who has stopped paying child maintenance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The priority of the Child Maintenance Service during this period has been to ensure the flow of child maintenance payments received are paid out to receiving parents.
Where payments have been missed, we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal. Missed payments will continue to accrue as arrears and over time, we will ensure that everyone pays or receives the right amount of child maintenance.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on the personal independence payment administrative exercise; and what the timeframe is for the completion of that exercise.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We are answering with reference to the administrative exercise following the MH and RJ judgments on Personal Independence Payment.
As of 5 January 2020, we had cleared around 720,000 cases under the MH decision and around 820,000 cases under the RJ decision. Most, but not all, cases are cleared against both decisions.
We have paused this exercise to support the Department’s coronavirus response. We understand the importance of continuing the exercise and this decision is currently under review. When the exercise resumes, we will announce the date of the next progress update at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pip-administrative-exercise-progress-on-cases-cleared.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to prevent delays to the mandatory reconsideration process during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
DWP is continuing to process Mandatory Reconsiderations during the current Covid-19 pandemic and is aiming to avoid delay where possible.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the average time it takes for the Child Maintenance Service to respond to reports that an ex-partner of a claimant has stopped paying child maintenance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Where payments have been missed we have asked parents to report the changes via the self-service portal. Missed payments will continue to accrue as arrears and, over time, we will ensure that everyone pays or receives the right amount of child maintenance.
No one will get away with giving false information and those abusing the system will find themselves subject to the full extent of our enforcement powers.