Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2019 to Question 211712 on Universal Credit, when her Department plans to provide a substantive answer to that Question; and for what reason that answer has not yet been provided.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The response to Question 211712 was published on 19th March 2019.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has received advice from the Information Commissioner on whether implicit consent in universal credit would violate data protection laws.
Answered by Lord Sharma
DWP has been in correspondence with the Information Commissioner to clarify our approach to consent within Universal Credit. This does not amount to formal advice on the narrower point of whether implicit consent in Universal Credit would violate the Data Protection Act, but the Department continues to review its policy on consent and how it interacts with data protection laws.
The DWP policy to require explicit consent in most cases is to give an extra layer of security and protect claimants from people seeking to impersonate genuine advisers. We have agreed to explore options for improving the process of explicit consent in collaboration with the Social Security Advisory Committee to consider how current processes could be enhanced and publish a report on our joint conclusions.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee’s recommendations of October 2018 on the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration) Regulations 2018, when the Government plans to review explicit consent within Universal Credit in collaboration with that Committee; and if they will publish a report on that review.
Answered by Lord Sharma
We have agreed to explore options for improving the process of explicit consent in relation to Universal Credit in collaboration with the Social Security Advisory Committee. DWP officials will be meeting with them on 30th January to consider how current practices could be enhanced. We will then publish a report on our joint conclusions.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 5 November to Question 907432 on Housing Benefit, how much discretionary housing payment was (a) awarded to and (b) spent by Westminster City Council in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below shows the amount awarded to and spent by Westminster City Council in Discretionary Housing Payments in the last 3 financial years:
Year | Awarded | Spent |
2015/16 | £2,632,460 | £2,568,048 |
2016/17 | £2,669,172 | £2,557,092 |
2017/18 | £1,405,376 | £1,938,110 |
Figures on the amount of Discretionary Housing Payments awarded to and spent by Local Authorities are available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/discretionary-housing-payments-statistics
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November to Question 187017 on Personal Independence Payment: Cancer, how many people with (a) leukaemia, (b) myeloma, (c) Hodgkin's lymphoma and (d) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have (i) applied for personal independence payment and (ii) unsuccessfully appealed a decision not to award personal independence payment.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Since Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced up to June 2018, there have been:
(a) 5,780 decisions for people with a primary disabling condition of leukaemia. There were 90 appeals against disallowances, 30 of which were unsuccessful.
(b) 3,430 decision for people with a primary disabling condition of myeloma. There were 30 appeals against disallowances, fewer than five of which were unsuccessful.
(c) 2,680 decisions for people with a primary disabling condition of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There were 40 appeals against disallowances, 10 of which were unsuccessful.
(d) 4,240 decisions for people with a primary disabling condition of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There were 70 appeals against disallowance, 30 of which were unsuccessful.
The data at (a) to (d) has been rounded to the nearest 10. The number of decisions does not include people who applied for PIP but withdrew their application before their initial assessment.
Since PIP was introduced 3.5m decisions have been made up to June 2018, of these 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.
The table below puts these figures in the context of the total number of disallowances and appeals. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10. # denotes fewer than 5. Components of this answer and the answer to PQ187017 may not sum to totals due to rounding.
The number of decisions does not include people who applied for PIP but withdrew their application before their initial assessment.
PIP decisions, disallowances and appeals up to June 2018
| (a) leukaemia | (b) myeloma | (c) Hodgkin’s lymphoma | (d) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma |
Number of decisions | 5,780 | 3,430 | 2,680 | 4,240 |
Number of disallowances | 1,040 | 350 | 490 | 680 |
Number of appeals against disallowances | 90 | 30 | 40 | 70 |
Number of disallowances maintained at appeal | 30 | # | 10 | 30 |
Not all Tribunal appeals will relate to the outcome of the PIP assessment, but other aspects of the PIP process. The appeals may include decisions which are changed at mandatory reconsideration, and where the claimant continues to appeal for a higher PIP award, are then changed again at tribunal appeal.
Data is based on primary disabling condition as recorded on the PIP computer systems. Claimants may often have multiple disabling conditions upon which the decision is based but only the primary condition is shown in these statistics.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2018 to Question 187016 on personal Independence Payment: Cancer, if she will place in the Library the number of people with (a) leukaemia, (b) myeloma, (c) Hodgkin’s lymphoma and (d) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that are in receipt of personal independence payment.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The department has no plans to place these statistics in the Library as they are updated and published quarterly and are readily available on Stat Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk.
The next publication date is 11th December 2018.
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2018 to Question 907432 on Housing Benefit, how much discretionary housing payment was (a) awarded to and (b) spent by Kingston-upon-Hull City Council in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below shows the amount awarded to and spent by Kingston-upon-Hull City Council in Discretionary Housing Payments in the last 3 financial years:
Year | Awarded | Spent |
2015/16 | £681,189 | £682,190 |
2016/17 | £791,440 | £1,072,779 |
2017/18 | £1,026,126 | £1,253,507 |
Figures on the amount of Discretionary Housing Payments awarded to and spent by Local Authorities are available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/discretionary-housing-payments-statistics
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 5 November to Question 907432 on Housing Benefit, how much discretionary housing payment was (a) awarded to and (b) spent by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below shows the amount awarded to and spent by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in Discretionary Housing Payments in the last 3 financial years:
Year | Awarded | Spent |
2015/16 | £287,614 | £297,778 |
2016/17 | £356,141 | £330,201 |
2017/18 | £473,423 | £443,281 |
Figures on the amount of Discretionary Housing Payments awarded to and spent by Local Authorities are available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/discretionary-housing-payments-statistics
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 5 November 2018 to Question 907432 on Housing Benefit, how much discretionary housing payment was (a) awarded to and (b) spent by North East Lincolnshire Council in each of the last three years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The table below shows the amount awarded to and spent by North East Lincolnshire Council in Discretionary Housing Payments in the last 3 financial years:
Year | Awarded | Spent |
2015/16 | £271,668 | £119,060 |
2016/17 | £348,487 | £109,704 |
2017/18 | £466,303 | £203,397 |
Figures on the amount of Discretionary Housing Payments awarded to and spent by Local Authorities are available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/discretionary-housing-payments-statistics
Asked by: Nicholas Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with (a) leukaemia, (b) myeloma, (c) Hodgkin’s lymphoma and (d) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are in receipt of personal independence payment.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department publishes a range of detailed statistics for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
These statistics include monthly caseloads (claims in payment) for claimants of PIP broken down by disability including leukaemia, myeloma, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.