Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will open an alternative fund for people who are not eligible for 2023-2024 cost of living payments due to receiving no Universal Credit in one particular month due to fluctuating income.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help through the Cost of Living Payments and through a wider package of support.
We will be delivering the up to £900 cost of living payment for eligible means-tested benefit claimants in three separate payments over 2023/24, which reduces the chance of households with fluctuating incomes missing out altogether. The first payment of £301 will be made from spring 2023, the second payment of £300 from autumn 2023 and the third payment of £299 from spring 2024. Individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment in summer 2023.
Sanctions on UC only apply if claimants fail to meet their agreed requirements without good reason or refuse to take up or stay in employment without good reason. The majority of sanctions can be resolved quickly by claimants rebooking and attending their next appointment. We have a well-established system of hardship payments, available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs as a result of a sanction. People who are receiving a hardship payment would also qualify for a Cost of Living Payment.
For those who require additional support the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable a further extension to the Household Support Fund in England. In England, this will run from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, backed by £842m. Local Authorities use the Fund to help households with the cost of essentials, and they are expected to help households in the most need, particularly those who may not be eligible for the other support the government has recently made available. The guidance makes specific reference to people with fluctuating incomes. It can be found here: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of calls from benefit claimants to jobcentres were disconnected before being answered in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department operates a virtual telephony network, as such telephony data to Jobcentres is not available.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is that benefit claimants are on hold when contacting the Department to discuss their claim.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below presents the Departments Management Information for the period February 2022 to January 2023, detailing the average speed to answer (ASA) an inbound call, and the total number of calls answered by month.
Month Year | ASA (hrs/mins/Seconds) | Calls Answered |
FEB 22 | 0:07:35 | 3,200,789 |
MAR 22 | 0:07:43 | 3,538,351 |
APR 22 | 0:08:24 | 3,023,486 |
MAY 22 | 0:08:56 | 3,234,247 |
JUN 22 | 0:08:13 | 3,040,241 |
JUL 22 | 0:07:42 | 2,856,595 |
AUG 22 | 0:08:53 | 2,968,272 |
SEP 22 | 0:10:29 | 2,959,967 |
OCT 22 | 0:08:57 | 2,991,097 |
NOV 22 | 0:06:54 | 3,118,883 |
DEC 22 | 0:07:53 | 2,518,952 |
JAN 23 | 0:07:51 | 3,272,460 |
Please note - this information is derived from the Department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how access needs for people with mental health needs are met when making claims for Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Many claimants who make a claim to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) may have a mental health condition.
PIP claimants with a severe mental health or behavioural condition, learning disability, developmental disorder or cognitive impairment, who may have difficulty engaging with the claims process, and with no support network in place, can be provided with additional support during the claims process if they need it.
This support can include help filling in the claim form or the claimant questionnaire, and additional protections for failing to return the questionnaire, or for failing to attend a face-to-face assessment.
If the claimant requests it, we can involve a third-party representative and engage with them at every stage, including the health assessment.
GOV.UK also contains links to Easy Read guides to PIP (Easy read: Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and videos (Understanding PIP - YouTube) which help explain each of the elements of the PIP claims process for those who may find it difficult to understand.
We also ensure all staff in customer-facing roles undertake mandatory mental health awareness training to equip them with the knowledge and skills to be able to support claimants with mental health conditions.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2023 to Question 121021 on Social Security Benefits: Overpayments, how many claimants have contacted the Department's Debt Management team to discuss a temporary reduction in their rate of repayment in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We have recently introduced a broad measure of the proportion of customers who have a reduction in their repayment terms. This currently stands at 13%.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants subject to benefit overpayment recovery have been contacted by his Department to establish whether they are experiencing hardship as a result of the cost of living crisis since February 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Deductions are made under legislation and cover a broad range of contingencies, like the recovery of fines to prevent incarceration, the continuation of supply of electricity or gas, payment of rent arrears to prevent homelessness, child maintenance liabilities to their children, and provision for one-off items of expenditure through advances and the repayment of debts. Given this broad range of circumstances, there is no requirement to undertake an assessment of a benefit customer’s ability to make these payments. Instead, the amounts that can be deducted are capped in legislation; in effect, Parliament has made an affordability assessment through the exercise of this cap.
DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their deductions and encourages customers to contact DWP to discuss any concerns.
The department has a well-established process for working with individuals to support them to manage repayment of Government debt to DWP. Our agents will always look to negotiate affordable and sustainable repayment plans. For overpayment deductions specifically, where a person feels they cannot afford the proposed rate of deduction for an overpayment recovery, they are encouraged to contact the department’s Debt Management to discuss a temporary reduction in their rate of repayment or cessation of the deduction. This message is included in all Debt Management notifications to customers.
There is no minimum amount that a customer has to pay, and we have recently extended the time period for any reduced payment to remain in place.
Customers who do contact Debt Management are routinely referred to the Money Advisor Network, who work in partnership with DWP, to offer free independent and impartial money and debt advice. We also remain committed to His Majesty’s Treasury’s Breathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living this winter and is taking action to support people with their energy bills. The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We have also made Cost of Living Payments worth up to £650 (paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324) providing targeted support for around eight million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, six million eligible disabled people have received a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will have received a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Pension Credit have been successful since the start of the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work and Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish statistics on applications for Pension Credit in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
DWP has no plans to publish statistics on Pension Credit applications.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Pension Credit have been received since the start of the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
There have been 149,579 Pension Credit Claims received between April 2022 – October 2022.
Source: Customer Account Management System
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Pension Credit have been processed since the start of the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
There have been 118,598 Pension Credit Claims processed between April 2022 – October 2022.
Source: Customer Account Management System