Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will introduce online application portals for (a) Work Capability Assessment, (b) Attendance Allowance and (c) Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
a) The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) determines entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit (UC). Claimants are invited to participate in a WCA as part of a claim to ESA or a declaration of restricted ability to work in UC. Claimants can apply for New Style ESA/UC through existing New Style ESA and UC online application portals via gov.uk. Additionally, we are testing a digital Work Capability Questionnaire (UC50) in UC.
b) Online claims are currently being tested, with a very limited group of people, within Attendance Allowance with a view to this becoming more widely available in due course.
c) The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire PIP service, including introducing a digital PIP service with the option to apply online. We are currently operating a small-scale test of this new apply service, taking a small number of claims to begin with before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people who can use it. We have already introduced a digital version of the PIP2 health questionnaire, which is now offered to the majority of those making a claim.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the reasons were for the overturning on appeal of Universal Credit sanctions in each month of the last year.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested on the reasons for overturning Universal Credit appeals is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of current Universal Credit claimants completed the non-mandatory self-declared diversity fields in their application in the last 12 months.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The completion rate of all non-mandatory self-declared diversity fields for Universal Credit applications is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for those in the ‘all work-related requirements’ conditionality group, how many claimants currently have a 91 or 182 day sanction attached to their account.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) parcels and (b) letters are currently stored at Mail Handling Site A Wolverhampton and are unable to be processed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All mail is actioned by the Mail Opening Unit on delivery from Royal Mail on date of receipt. It is processed within 24 hours which includes opening, scanning and routing to the relevant teams in DWP. There are no backlogs of work requiring opening or scanning that would require storage. Once scanned DWP manages a head of work of cases which are not automatically routed and require manual intervention. These are managed digitally.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) parcels and (b) letters were processed by Mail Handling Site A Wolverhampton in each year since 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Total number of envelopes (scanned and hard copy) processed at the Mail Opening Unit is as follows:
In addition, internal courier delivery, documents amounting to:
January 2023 is the most recent month for which we have figures.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the estimated cost is to his Department of upgrading its systems to ensure that individuals with a nil payment in a qualifying month receive any cost of living payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Keeping the rules for this policy simple enabled the government to make over 30 million separate payments to support with the cost of living while maintaining core benefit delivery in 2022. This includes the clear rule that you must be entitled to at least 1p of a qualifying social security benefit with respect to the qualifying period to receive a Cost of Living Payment.
Including those on the benefits system, but not in payment of a qualifying benefit, would involve making payments to individuals who were ineligible during the qualifying period. The government’s published impact analysis released alongside the Social Security (Additional Payments) (No.2) Bill shows that 85% of those who received no Universal Credit award during the qualifying period for the first 2022 Cost of Living Payment of £326, had no award solely due to earnings. Of those with a no award due to earnings, most had no Universal Credit award for six assessment periods following the qualifying period solely due to earnings or left Universal Credit altogether. Paying those with financial resources available, which would make them ineligible for means-tested benefits, is not the intention of the Cost of Living Payments which are aimed at those on the lowest incomes.
You can find the impact analysis here: SocSec(AdditionalPayments)IA.pdf (parliament.uk)
Including those who received no payment of benefit would also involve making Cost of Living Payments to customers who had the payment of their benefit suspended during the qualifying period including those with suspected fraud or where there is a safeguarding risk related to a vulnerable claimant’s appointee.
The department has therefore made no such assessment of costs of upgrading its system to include individuals with a nil payment during a qualifying period.
The 2023/24 Cost of Living Payments are being delivered in three payments over the financial year to reduce the chance of someone missing out completely. To help households with the costs of essentials, including those who may not be eligible for the other support we are extending the Household Support Fund in England. The Devolved Administrations will receive Barnett funding to spend at their discretion with their local knowledge.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons his Department uses paper based application systems for (a) Work Capability Assessments, (b) Attendance Allowance and (c) Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Paper based applications have traditionally been the way that the DWP has taken applications for benefit claims. The department is modernising Health and Disability benefit services, including by providing new digital options for claimants to apply.
a) The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) determines entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit (UC). Claimants are invited to participate in a WCA as part of a claim to ESA or a declaration of restricted ability to work in UC. Claimants can apply for New Style ESA/UC through existing New Style ESA and UC online application portals via gov.uk. Additionally, we are testing a digital Work Capability Questionnaire (UC50) in UC.
b) Online claims are currently being tested, with a very limited group of people, within Attendance Allowance, with a view to this becoming more widely available in due course.
c) The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire PIP service, including introducing a digital PIP service with the option to apply online. We are currently operating a small-scale test of this new apply service, taking a small number of claims to begin with, before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people who can use it. We have already introduced a digital version of the PIP2 health questionnaire, which is now offered to the majority of those making a claim.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his Department's policy to introduce online application portals for (a) Work Capability Assessments, (b) Attendance Allowance and (c) Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Paper based applications have traditionally been the way that the DWP has taken applications for benefit claims. The department is modernising Health and Disability benefit services, including by providing new digital options for claimants to apply.
a) The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) determines entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit (UC). Claimants are invited to participate in a WCA as part of a claim to ESA or a declaration of restricted ability to work in UC. Claimants can apply for New Style ESA/UC through existing New Style ESA and UC online application portals via gov.uk. Additionally, we are testing a digital Work Capability Questionnaire (UC50) in UC.
b) Online claims are currently being tested, with a very limited group of people, within Attendance Allowance, with a view to this becoming more widely available in due course.
c) The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire PIP service, including introducing a digital PIP service with the option to apply online. We are currently operating a small-scale test of this new apply service, taking a small number of claims to begin with, before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people who can use it. We have already introduced a digital version of the PIP2 health questionnaire, which is now offered to the majority of those making a claim.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2023 to Question 152229 on Universal Credit, what steps his Department is taking to advertise Touchbase to Universal Credit claimants.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Touchbase is a weekly email newsletter from the Department for Work and Pensions which provides links to new and updated information on GOV.UK and other websites. It is the primary communication channel for DWP to a wide range of external stakeholders from diverse organisations across the UK who work with, support and advise our customers.
While Touchbase is not produced for Jobcentre Plus staff or Universal Credit claimants, DWP has a comprehensive internal communications programme which ensures that colleagues across the organisation are aware of the department’s priorities and the individual initiatives to deliver them.
The topics covered in Touchbase will routinely be part of this internal communications programme.