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 representations she has received from food bank providers on levels of demand for emergency food assistance in the last six months.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department engaged with food bank providers throughout the Covid pandemic and will continue to do so.
The Department quickly introduced welfare changes worth over £9 billion and worked closely with other departments on the cross-government Task Force on Food and Other Essential Supplies for Vulnerable People, led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
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 her plans are for the future of face-to-face assessments for welfare payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The health and safety of our claimants and staff is our key priority. We suspended all face-to-face assessments for sickness and disability benefits in March. This temporary suspension, brought in to protect people from unnecessary risk of coronavirus at the outset of the pandemic, remains in place, and is being kept under review in line with the latest public health guidance.
We continue to do telephone-based assessments, and as usual also undertake paper-based assessments where possible. Any re-introduction of face-to-face assessments would involve additional Covid-related safety measures, and guidance for claimants and assessment providers to ensure compliance with the relevant public health guidance.
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 recent estimate she has made of the number of families with children affected by the benefit cap.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The available information on the number of households, receiving Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, who were affected by the Benefit Cap, by Family Type, is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
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 steps her Department is taking to investigate and rectify underpayment made in error of the state pension to retired women.
Answered by Guy Opperman
We are aware of a number of cases where individuals have been underpaid Category BL basic State Pension. We are checking for further cases, and if any are found awards will also be reviewed and any arrears paid in accordance with the law.
As soon as any underpayments are identified the individuals affected are reimbursed and their records corrected. Any individual who believes they are being underpaid State Pension should contact the Department on the Freephone number 0800 731 0469. Further details on how to do this through the Pension Service are available on the gov.uk website.
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 estimate she has made of the number of families who will be newly subject to the benefit cap after the end of the current grace period.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Information relating to households who will be newly affected by the Benefit Cap at the end of their current grace period is not readily available, and to provide it 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, if she will publish her Department's assessment of the effect of the £20 a week uplift to universal credit during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has insufficient data at this time to estimate the effect of increasing the four standard allowances in Universal Credit by £20 a week in 2020/21.
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, whether the £20 a week uplift to universal credit introduced during the covid-19 outbreak will be made permanent.
Answered by Will Quince
The standard allowance in Universal Credit has been increased by £87.67 a month (equivalent to £20 per week) on top of the planned annual uprating. All Universal Credit households will see an increase in their payment and this additional increase means claimants will be up to £1040 better off over the next 12 months.
This uplift is part of a wider package of measures which represent an investment of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system. These measures, along with the other job and business support programmes announced by the Chancellor, represent one of the most comprehensive packages of support by an advanced economy in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
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 people in London have submitted claims for universal credit by local authority area since 23 March 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
Information on new Universal Credit claims is not available by local authority. However, data surrounding starts to UC by postcode area is published online and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
This includes data on the number of new Universal Credit claims in the postcode areas of London up to 9th April 2020.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
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 15 May 2020 to Question 43913 on the Independent Case Examiner, how many new Independent Case Examiners were recruited between 1 February 2020 and 31 March 2020 to help reduce the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Funding has been made available in the 2020/21 financial year to allow the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office to help reduce the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation. Its headcount will increase from 89 to 112. The recruitment of additional Investigation Case Managers commenced in February 2020, but was paused following the introduction of the Coronavirus lockdown measures. That pause has now been lifted and the Office is currently concluding the recruitment exercise.