Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are waiting to be assessed for pension credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The total outstanding Pension Credit claims as at the end of week commencing 30th September 2024 is 77,703. This includes 8,245 advanced claims where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age.
The Department is significantly increasing the resource on Pension Credit to ensure it processes claims as quickly as possible, with over 500 additional staff to support the increase in applications generated from the successful Pension Credit take-up campaign.
If a claim is made by 21 December, Pension Credit can be backdated for three months if the entitlement conditions have been met throughout that period, and if the claimant was eligible they would also receive a Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are waiting for over the 50 working day target for their disability living allowance claim to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not have a target timeframe, but we aim to process Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims for children within 40 working days, not 50. As published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024, which covers April 2023 to March 2024, of the 186,200 claims DLA claims for children processed over that period, 6,500 (3.5%) met the planned processing timescales.
DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiverse conditions, with gathering evidence from educational institutions and the NHS taking longer. We are maximising our resources wherever possible and have ongoing recruitment efforts to mitigate these challenges.
For further details, please refer to the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) available on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the rate of disability living allowance claims processed dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2023-24.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims for Disability Living Allowance (Children) since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiverse conditions, with gathering evidence from educational institutions and the NHS taking longer. We are maximising our resources wherever possible and have ongoing recruitment efforts to mitigate these challenges.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit applications made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 are waiting to be processed.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Data on how many pension credit applications have been made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 was recently published on gov.uk, Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Because of how we capture our operational data, information on how many claims we received over that period which are still outstanding is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs. However, we are actively seeking to develop the data sets to provide that level of information.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the average number of pension credit applications processed within 50 working days dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The department supports customers to claim Pension Credit through a range of take up campaigns. In June 2019, the BBC announced its intention to limit free TV licenses to people 75+ and in receipt of Pension Credit from June 2020. The subsequent mass mailing to existing free licence holders contributed to a significant spike in calls to the Pension Service, and in 2022-23, the department continued to provide vital financial support to pensioners on a low income through Pension Credit.
DWP launched a comprehensive communications campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and encourage pensioners to apply for it. The campaign included advertising in national and regional newspapers and on broadcast radio and television as well as promotion of Pension Credit via internet search engines and on social media. This, together with success of the Help for Household campaign, led to more than double the level in Pension Credit applications compared to the previous year.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 July 2024 on Public Spending: Inheritance, Official Report, column 1033, how many people have applied for pension credit since that date.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We have recently published Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which provides the number of Pension Credit claims received by the department.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the average waiting time between a pension credit application and a decision by the Department.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The most recent information on processing times for Pension Credit was published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts on 22nd July 2024 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024-html). This shows that in 2023/24 DWP cleared 192,000 Pension Credit claims within the planned 50 working day timescale, equating to 77.7%.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average wait for a pension credit application to be approved was in each year since 2015.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department does not hold information on the annual average waiting time for Pension Credit and cannot provide the figures requested.
The Department does publish our annual performance against a 50 working day clearance rate for Pension Credit in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Of 248,000 Pension Credit claims cleared in performance year 2023/24, 192,000 were cleared within the planned 50-day timescale, equating to 77.7%. 56,000, 22.3% were cleared outside of the of the 10-week planned timescale.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on the transition from housing benefit to Universal Credit; and what steps she is taking to reduce (a) hardship, (b) debt and (c) eviction risks for households using housing benefit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP started sending Migration Notices to Housing Benefit only customers from 17 July 2024 and is committed to ensuring that the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible for all individuals.
DWP has processes in place within Universal Credit to help reduce hardship, debt and risk of eviction. For example, people who receive Housing Benefit and then claim Universal Credit will receive a two-week run on of their housing payment while they transition to Universal Credit Housing Payment. Universal Credit customers who require support to adapt to Universal Credit can also have their housing costs paid directly to landlords through an Alternative Payment Arrangement.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Departmental Security Team records and investigates each reported loss or theft of ministerial red boxes from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.
No ministerial red boxes have been reported lost or stolen to the Department’s Security Team in each of the last 3 years.