Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many 16-year olds who were previously in receipt of disability living allowance have had their application for personal independence payments rejected in the last year.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Data on the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims cleared, by a range of breakdowns including age, the clearance type and whether the claim was a new claim or a Disability Living Allowance to PIP reassessment claim, is available using 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.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many 18 to 21 year olds claimed housing benefit in (a) the UK, (b) Wales and (c) Newport West constituency in each of the last seven financial years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Information on the caseload of 18-21 year olds claiming Housing Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance in the requested areas is available on DWP Stat-Xplore.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
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 ability of prospective claimants to complete the online application form for universal credit; and if he will estimate the number of eligible claimants who have failed to claim due to the complexity of that application form.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Universal Credit online application form is designed around user needs and over 90% of claims to Universal Credit have been made online. People without digital skills will be offered support to make and manage their Universal Credit (UC) claim online, and to acquire and to improve their digital skills. A telephone helpline is also available for claimants who cannot use the online service.
We have no evidence of any eligible claimants who have failed to claim due to the complexity of the Universal Credit application form.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the investigation conducted by the Office for Nuclear Regulation into the operability and availability of fire detection systems at the Atomic Weapons Establishment has been completed.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The investigation conducted by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) into the operability and availability of fire detection systems at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) was completed in August 2014.
The investigation was instigated after AWE reported two events to ONR during February 2014 related to fire alarm and detection system failures, one concerning a facility at the Aldermaston site and the other a facility at the Burghfield site. Investigations of these events by AWE uncovered a configuration issue with a system in a third facility.
ONR’s investigation identified concerns regarding the competency of the maintainers, the delivery and recording of the maintenance and the configuration of the fire alarm and detection systems with regard to their required safety function.
ONR subsequently wrote to AWE requesting an improvement programme to address these matters, and has since been monitoring AWE’s progress against a comprehensive improvement programme agreed between ONR and AWE. AWE advised ONR in October 2015 that the improvement programme had been completed. This was confirmed by ONR following an intervention in December 2015.