Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has provided any guidance to employers who have employees in receipt of universal credit on how to accurately report earnings to such reports are correct for any given assessment period.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The Government is working with employers to ensure that they use the most appropriate payment practices and comply with Real Time Information guidelines in order to minimise the incidence of erroneous or late reporting by employers, and HMRC have recently updated guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles.
We have produced guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of how different earnings patterns can affect their Universal Credit award. This can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cycles
Additionally, claimants can always discuss the implications of this with their case managers and work coaches and can be referred to Personal Budgeting Support to help them manage their budgeting.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any other Givernment Departments are informed when EEA nationals are unable to pass the Habitual Residency Test to facilitate (a) changes in immigration status and (b) other consequences.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Comprehensive guidance outlining eligibility for Universal Credit for EEA Nationals and the habitual residency test is available to all staff across the Jobcentre network. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) social security benefits depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim income related benefit. And this is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT). DWP does not automatically provide other Government departments with information regarding an individual’s benefit claim. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and immigration decisions are the responsibility of the Home Office.
The information requested about the proportion of EEA applicants refused Universal Credit, or asked to sit a habitual residency test is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of EEA National universal credit applicants have been asked to sit a habitual residency test in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Comprehensive guidance outlining eligibility for Universal Credit for EEA Nationals and the habitual residency test is available to all staff across the Jobcentre network. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) social security benefits depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim income related benefit. And this is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT). DWP does not automatically provide other Government departments with information regarding an individual’s benefit claim. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and immigration decisions are the responsibility of the Home Office.
The information requested about the proportion of EEA applicants refused Universal Credit, or asked to sit a habitual residency test is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of EEA national applicants have been refused universal credit in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Comprehensive guidance outlining eligibility for Universal Credit for EEA Nationals and the habitual residency test is available to all staff across the Jobcentre network. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) social security benefits depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim income related benefit. And this is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT). DWP does not automatically provide other Government departments with information regarding an individual’s benefit claim. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and immigration decisions are the responsibility of the Home Office.
The information requested about the proportion of EEA applicants refused Universal Credit, or asked to sit a habitual residency test is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department has issued to Jobcentre staff on when it is appropriate to ask that an EEA national sit a habitual residency test when applying for universal credit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Comprehensive guidance outlining eligibility for Universal Credit for EEA Nationals and the habitual residency test is available to all staff across the Jobcentre network. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) social security benefits depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim income related benefit. And this is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT). DWP does not automatically provide other Government departments with information regarding an individual’s benefit claim. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and immigration decisions are the responsibility of the Home Office.
The information requested about the proportion of EEA applicants refused Universal Credit, or asked to sit a habitual residency test is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department has given to Jobcentre staff on EEA Nationals’ entitlement to universal credit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Comprehensive guidance outlining eligibility for Universal Credit for EEA Nationals and the habitual residency test is available to all staff across the Jobcentre network. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) social security benefits depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim income related benefit. And this is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT). DWP does not automatically provide other Government departments with information regarding an individual’s benefit claim. The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and immigration decisions are the responsibility of the Home Office.
The information requested about the proportion of EEA applicants refused Universal Credit, or asked to sit a habitual residency test is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints have been received by the Child Maintenance Service as a result of delayed payments issued via deduction of earnings orders in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department does not have specific sub-categories of complaints relating to deduction of earnings orders (DEOs). The total number of complaints are published in table 17 of the Child Maintenance Service Statistics available on line at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-august-2013-to-june-2018-experimental.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) longest and (b) shortest time scales were for issuing payments to receiving parents through deduction of earnings orders made by the Child Maintenance Service in 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Deduction from Earning Orders/Requests allow the Child Maintenance Service to collect child maintenance directly from a Paying Parents employer. The money is paid directly from the parents wages to the Child Maintenance Service who then pass the money on to the Receiving Parent. The department does not record information on the time taken to issue payments to the receiving parents as a result of a deduction from earnings order.