Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners have been required to make a claim for universal credit rather than pension credit because their partner has not yet reached pension age.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2012, Parliament voted to modernise the welfare system to ensure that couples, where one person is of working age and the other person is over State Pension age, access support, where it is needed, through the working age benefit regime. This replaces the previous system whereby the household could access either Pension Credit and pension-age Housing Benefit, or working-age benefits.
Pension Credit is designed to provide long-term support for pensioner households who are no longer economically active. It is not designed to support working age claimants. This change will ensure that the same work incentives apply to the younger partner as apply to other people of the same age, and taxpayer support is directed where it is needed most.
Between 15 May 2019, when the mixed age couples policy was implemented, and mid
August 2019, there were 1,800 new claims to Universal Credit where one member of the couple was above State Pension age and the other below (a “mixed age couple”).
Notes:
1. This is the number of couples/new claims (rounded to nearest 100) and not the number of people.
2. The data is up to mid-August as this is the latest available data.
3. The data is from the DWP management information which has been collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2020 to Question 1733, on the Independent Case Examiner (ICE), if she will request that the ICE's annual report for 2019-20 includes data on the average number of weeks taken to complete a determination from the date of (a) the complaint and (b) commencement of the investigation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
As explained in response to Question 1733, the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) is an Office Holder, appointed under contract to review complaints about DWP and its contracted service providers, and identify wider system issues associated with service failures. Decisions on what information to include in their Annual Report rest with the Office holder, however, your suggestion has been shared with them, to inform future considerations.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the Independent Case Examiner’s Annual Report for 2018-19 only includes data on the number of weeks taken for a full investigation to be completed from the date of commencement and not from the date on which the complaint was made.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) is an Office Holder, appointed under contract to review complaints about DWP and its contracted service providers. In addition to adjudicating on escalated complaints and making case specific findings and recommendations for redress, the ICE looks to identify wider systemic issues associated with service failures: one of their contractual requirements is to report annually on their work to the Permanent Secretary. DWP provides an Office to support the ICE discharge their contractual obligations, but they have no role in the management of that Office or its resources. Their Annual Report therefore has its focus on findings associated with case examinations and outcomes, rather than the wider administration of the ICE Office.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken was by the Independent Case Examiner to (a) begin and (b) complete an investigation into a complaint against her Department in the first six months of 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
In the first six months of 2019 (January to June 2019) it took the Independent Case Examiner’s Office an average of: 59 weeks to commence an investigation (from the point at which the complaint was accepted for examination); and 23 weeks to complete an investigation (from the point at which it was allocated to an investigation case manager).
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints regarding quality of service were received by the Independent Case Examiner in 2018-19; and how many of those complaints related to delays in commencing or completing an investigation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
During the 2018/19 reporting year the Independent Case Examiner’s Office received 418 complaints about the service it provided; of which 289 concerned delays in commencing or completing an investigation (of those 164 took the form of a standard letter, from those complaining about communications associated with changes to women’s State Pension age).
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sanctions on universal credit claimants were successfully appealed at independent tribunals in 2018-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Statistics on the volume and outcomes of Universal Credit sanction appeal decisions for Live Service claimants are published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
The numbers for full service claimants are not readily available and we anticipate this would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much unpaid child maintenance has been written off since the implementation of Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The number of cases and the amount of unpaid child maintenance that have been written off from cases on Child Support Agency systems are published in Tables 8.1 and 8.2 of the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary Statistics:
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases of unpaid child maintenance have been written off since the implementation of Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The number of cases and the amount of unpaid child maintenance that have been written off from cases on Child Support Agency systems are published in Tables 8.1 and 8.2 of the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary Statistics:
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many errors there were in the processing of universal credit applications in (a) the UK, (b) London and (c) Bethnal Green and Bow in 2018-19.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department is committed to ensuring we are paying the right people the right amount of Universal Credit. We published a ‘Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2018 to 2019 estimates’ report in May 2019 and this includes information and data across benefit types, including Universal Credit. It can be accessed online using the link below.
Nationally, our latest published data shows that consistently around 85 per cent of new Universal Credit claimants are being paid in full and on time.
In the vast majority of cases, where full payment is not made on time, it is due to unresolved issues such as: claimants not accepting their Claimant Commitment or passing identity checks, or having outstanding verification issues, such as housing costs and self-employed earnings. Verification is a necessary part of any benefits system, and taxpayers expect these measures to be in place.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 266836 on Shared Housing: Utilities, if she will place in the Library the Valuation Office Agency’s guidance for Rent Officers in making deductions for services and facilities from the local rents used to determine the 30th percentile of the Shared Accommodation Rate.
Answered by Will Quince
There is no current plan to place the guidance in the House of Commons library as The Rent Officer Handbook is already available online via www.gov.uk.
Specific guidance for Rent officers in relation to these deductions is accessible under the heading ‘Ineligible services’ in the following location:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rent-officer-handbook-lettings-research/lettings-research-recording.
The full Rent Officer Handbook can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuation-office-agency-rent-officer-handbook.