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Written Question
Carer's Allowance: Overpayments
Wednesday 1st May 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how frequently HM Revenue and Customs provides his Department with earnings alerts on potential overpayments of carer’s allowance.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)

HMRC provides DWP with 4 daily alerts to changes of earnings, based off a set of business logic/rules which covers Carers Allowance, Housing Benefit and Pension Credit. The earnings notified do not take account of allowable expenses which people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance may wish to deduct.


Written Question
Pensioners: Midlothian
Tuesday 30th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people of pensionable age there were in Midlothian constituency at the most recent date for which figures are available.

Answered by Paul Maynard

The department does not hold the information required to answer this request. Please see below a link to a publication from the National Records of Scotland that holds data pertaining to this request.

UK Parliamentary Constituency Population Estimates (2011 Data Zone based) | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: Midlothian
Tuesday 30th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many items of correspondence he has received on changes to the State Pension age for women born in the 1950s from people in Midlothian constituency.

Answered by Paul Maynard

The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.


Written Question
Pension Credit
Tuesday 30th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received Pension Credit in each constituency in the last five years.

Answered by Paul Maynard

Pension Credit caseload statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore.

Stat xplore user guide can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/User-Guide.html


Written Question
Universal Credit: Midlothian
Tuesday 30th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of complaints his Department has received from universal credit claimants in Midlothian constituency since 2013.

Answered by Paul Maynard

The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Jobseeker's Allowance: Midlothian
Monday 29th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under the age of 25 have claimed jobseeker's allowance for more than (a) one and (b) two years in each year since 2019 in Midlothian constituency.

Answered by Jo Churchill

Statistics for the number of people on jobseeker's allowance by age, duration of claim and parliamentary constituency, are published every three months on Stat-Xplore, and are currently available to August 2023.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Midlothian
Monday 29th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming universal credit in Midlothian constituency have contacted the universal credit helpline (a) by landline, (b) by mobile phone and (c) at a local jobcentre.

Answered by Jo Churchill

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Midlothian
Monday 29th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households received Universal Credit in Midlothian constituency in each of the last five years.

Answered by Jo Churchill

Statistics for the number of households on Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency, are published every three months on Stat-Xplore, and are currently available to November 2023.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Disability
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff have been trained in disability awareness in (a) his core Department and (b) Jobcentres in each of the last three years.

Answered by Paul Maynard

The Department is unable to provide the information you seek within the appropriate cost limit as you have asked for information that is contained across a wide range of learning journeys.

All staff new to DWP undergo mandatory learning followed by role specific learning, this encompasses vulnerabilities and complex needs training which is threaded throughout learning. Staff continue to build on this in the workplace through accessing policy guidance and point of need learning products.

Please refine your request, for example to mandatory learning to enable data to be provided.


Written Question
Carer's Allowance: Food Poverty
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of households in receipt of Carer’s Allowance living in food insecurity in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) Midlothian constituency.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)

Statistics on the number of individuals living in households that are food insecure by receipt of state support in the UK are published annually in the “Family Resources Survey” publication in “table 9_7” ofhousehold food security tables found here.

The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23. The

latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore here.

No such assessment can be made for Scotland and the Midlothian constituency due to sample sizes and availability of data.