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Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Personal Independence Payment assessments were carried out (a) face-to-face, (b) remotely and (c) on paper in each month since 1 September 2022.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments carried out (a) face to face (b) remotely (this includes telephone and video) and (c) paper based can be found in the tables below.

For the months from September 2022 to May 2023 (the latest month figures are available) the number of assessments per channel are:

Month

Face-to-Face

Remote

Paper-Based

Sep-22

6,440

62,530

15,540

Oct-22

7,080

65,380

15,990

Nov-22

7,540

71,150

18,340

Dec-22

5,260

52,530

13,810

Jan-23

6,150

72,800

17,750

Feb-23

6,880

65,810

17,420

Mar-23

7,210

78,130

20,200

Apr-23

6,610

59,680

16,260

May-23

7,290

68,460

18,600

The channel proportion is:

Month

Face-to-Face

Remote

Paper-Based

Sep-22

7.6%

74.0%

18.4%

Oct-22

8.0%

73.9%

18.1%

Nov-22

7.8%

73.3%

18.9%

Dec-22

7.3%

73.4%

19.3%

Jan-23

6.4%

75.3%

18.4%

Feb-23

7.6%

73.0%

19.3%

Mar-23

6.8%

74.0%

19.1%

Apr-23

8.0%

72.3%

19.7%

May-23

7.7%

72.6%

19.7%

Please note:

  • All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10;
  • Percentages may not always total 100% due to rounding;
  • All of the above data is derived from management information produced by the assessment providers; and
  • The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Personal Independence Payment assessments were carried out (a) face-to-face, (b) remotely and (c) on paper in each month since 1 January 2022.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments carried out (a) face to face, (b) remotely, including telephone and video, and c) paper based, can be found in the tables below.

For the months from January to September 2022 (the latest month that figures are available for) the number of assessments per channel are:

Month

Remote

Paper-Based

Face-to-Face

Jan-22

61,300

12,170

90

Feb-22

58,070

13,170

3,150

Mar-22

63,230

15,050

6,390

Apr-22

53,580

12,950

5,100

May-22

63,740

13,710

5,700

Jun-22

58,680

13,790

5,530

Jul-22

59,430

14,380

5,350

Aug-22

62,860

14,910

5,950

Sep-22

62,530

15,540

6,440

With channel proportion as:

Month

Remote

Paper-Based

Face-to-Face

Jan-22

83.3%

16.5%

0.1%

Feb-22

78.1%

17.7%

4.2%

Mar-22

74.7%

17.8%

7.5%

Apr-22

74.8%

18.1%

7.1%

May-22

76.7%

16.5%

6.9%

Jun-22

75.2%

17.7%

7.1%

Jul-22

75.1%

18.2%

6.8%

Aug-22

75.1%

17.8%

7.1%

Sep-22

74.0%

18.4%

7.6%

Please Note:

  • All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10;
  • Percentages may not always total 100% due to rounding;
  • Proportions are based on actual values and may not add up due to rounding;
  • All of the above data is derived from management information produced by the assessment providers;
  • The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Written Question
Flexible Support Fund: North Devon
Thursday 28th April 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of the Flexible Support Fund has been claimed in North Devon in each of the last five years.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Flexible Support Fund: North Devon
Wednesday 27th April 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the purpose of claims made to the Flexible Support Fund in North Devon in the last 12 months.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided for the whole of North Devon at disproportionate cost as we do not record this information by Parliamentary constituency.

Of the three Jobcentres that serve the North Devon constituency, Barnstaple Jobcentre is the only office with its claimant base entirely within the North Devon constituency. For Barnstaple Jobcentre, Flexible Support Fund which is issued on top of benefits spend has been recorded in each of the following categories for the last 12 months, from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022:

  • Travel – Training
  • Travel - Work Related Interview
  • Travel - Job Interviews
  • Claimant Equipment for Work
  • Other Claimant Expenses to remove barriers
  • In Work Emergency Fund
  • Up Front Childcare
  • Travel – Sector Based Work Academies Programmes

Written Question
Flexible Support Fund: North Devon
Wednesday 27th April 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have accessed the Flexible Support Fund in North Devon in each of the last five years.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

We do not hold information about the number of individual claimants who have received support from Flexible Support fund and information is not recorded by Parliamentary constituency.


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme
Monday 4th April 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme placements have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people by (i) nation, (ii) region and (iii) sector as of 31 March 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As of the 31st March 2022, around 160,000 Kickstart jobs have been started by young people. The last Kickstart jobs were started by young people on this date and we expect the number of starts to increase further as employers report commencement of employment.

We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31st January, here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-01-31/114956. At that point, over 235,000 jobs had been advertised and over 305,000 had been approved. Kickstart has now closed to employer applications and as of March, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase further.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 31st March 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Also included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location.

The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways. This is generally because, over time, some previously approved jobs were removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.

Table 1: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by nation and region (figures rounded to nearest 100*)

Region / Nation Split

Total jobs made available

Total jobs started

(DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22)

(DATA EFFECTIVE 31/03/22)

Total, Great Britain

235,000

159,800

England

204,000

137,600

East Midlands

14,000

10,200

East of England

18,000

11,600

London

51,000

32,100

North East

11,000

7,900

North West

30,000

20,300

South East

26,000

17,100

South West

14,000

9,700

West Midlands

21,000

15,400

Yorkshire and The Humber

19,000

13,400

Scotland

19,000

14,000

Wales

12,000

7,800

Table 2: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by Sector (figures rounded to the nearest 10*)

Sector Split

Total jobs made available

Total jobs started

(DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22)

(DATA EFFECTIVE 31/03/22)

Administration

57,350

39,370

Animal Care

1,610

1,300

Beauty & Wellbeing

1,720

1,310

Business & Finance

8,500

5,830

Computing Technology & Digital

15,840

12,210

Construction & Trades

7,230

5,100

Creative & Media

20,990

16,480

Delivery & Storage

6,380

4,370

Emergency & Uniform Services

520

340

Engineering & Maintenance

7,080

4,800

Environment & Land

4,620

3,400

Government Services

1,000

690

Healthcare

6,140

3,350

Home Services

1,560

890

Hospitality & Food

26,380

13,780

Law & Legal

650

510

Managerial

960

650

Manufacturing

6,430

4,360

Retail & Sales

34,970

26,060

Science & Research

990

770

Social Care

4,740

2,580

Sports & Leisure

5,920

4,030

Teaching & Education

11,000

6,670

Transport

900

460

Travel & Tourism

1,110

570

* Due to rounding, sum of figures may not match declared total


Written Question
Universal Credit: Fraud
Monday 21st March 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce levels of fraud and error in universal credit.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We take any case of fraud and error extremely seriously and actively pursue fraudsters, using a wide range of powers to bring them to justice.

Last Autumn we announced a significant increase in our investment in Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt operations by 75%, up to £1.4bn over the next three years. We are using this to scale up our existing operations, enhance our approach to data and intelligence and set up a new targeted review of the Universal Credit (UC) caseload. This will generate billions of savings over the scorecard period.

We published figures in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 that showed the estimated rate of fraud and error in Universal Credit was 14.5%, up from 9.4% in 2019/20.

These estimates are based on in depth reviews of a random sample of around 3,000 Universal Credit cases (taken between February and November 2020) to establish the extent of Fraud and Error. The level of fraud and error found in this sample is then applied to the 2020-21 Universal Credit expenditure to give our overall estimate. During the early months of the pandemic we faced unprecedented levels of claims, with 2.4 million new UC claims between 1 March and 26 May 2020. We took a decision to implement easements to ensure we could prioritise payments to those who needed help during this difficult time. This meant that although the overall level of fraud and error in Universal Credit across the year was 14.5%, the subset of claims made after the pandemic started had a level of 25.6%. Claims prior to the pandemic remained at a level of 9.4%. This detailed analysis indicates that the total overpayment for fraud and error for claims from the start of the pandemic (in 2020/21) was £3.1 billion, of which £1.1billion being overpaid due to incorrect information about self-employed income.

It is regrettable that people may have sought to exploit the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic for gain by not reporting changes in circumstances or even making false claims. This is particularly true for bogus claims orchestrated by organised criminals.

During the pandemic, we were able to detect and shut down systematic attacks on the benefit system, including preventing £1.9bn from an attack from Organised Criminals in May 2020. We removed the easements as early as possible from June 2020 and introduced new processes, including a new Enhanced Checking Service created in April 2020, comprising a team of trained investigators who review claims and contact claimants in order to obtain further information or evidence where there is suspected fraud. In total we estimate that we have prevented nearly £3bn of additional fraud and error.

Our rigorous checks to prevent fraud are now back in place and the new targeted UC case reviews funded as part of the £1.4bn investment will be focused on relentlessly pursuing and finding incorrect claims and driving out the Fraud and Error. We are determined to combat all attempts at fraud and will not hesitate to pursue those who exploit the system when benefits are there to support those most in need.

Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2020 to 2021 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Monday 21st March 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

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 ensure that personal independence payment claims and reviews are processed in a timely manner.

Answered by Chloe Smith

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner.

We have seen increasing levels of demand for PIP and are constantly making improvements to our service to ensure claimants get a timely decision.

We introduced a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service. We are also increasing case manager and Assessment Provider health professional resource to deal with the increased demand.

We are sending new claims to Assessment Providers ahead of award reviews for existing claims, to ensure newly entitled claimants get the support they need.

Where possible, decisions on award reviews are made by DWP decision makers without a new referral to an Assessment Provider. Those who do require an assessment are put into a queue until our Assessment Providers have capacity to assess them, and their existing awards are extended where necessary until the review is completed. This ensures that they get the right decision, and that there is no risk of their award ending before they are assessed.


Written Question
Pension Credit
Friday 11th February 2022

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of pensions credit uptake among eligible people in each constituency in the past twelve months.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The latest Pension Credit take-up statistics are due for publication on 24 February. These will cover the financial year 2019/20. Due to the sample size used to estimate Pension Credit take-up statistics, figures cannot be broken down to a constituency level.

Since then, the Department has undertaken a range of actions to raise awareness of Pension Credit, encourage pensioners to check their eligibility, and to make a claim. This has included a Pension Credit media day of action in June, working with stakeholders such as the BBC and Age UK.

Our initial internal management information suggests new claims for Pension Credit in the past twelve months to December 2021 were around 136,000, representing an increase of around 30% compared to the 12 months to December 2019 when they were around 105,000. It also suggests that we have been receiving consistently high volumes of claims over recent months, at around 3,300 per week.

This management information has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but are provided here in the interests of transparency.

The impact of these claim volumes on numbers of successful awards and on Pension Credit take-up will take longer to establish given the usual cycle involved in producing those statistics.


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme
Friday 24th September 2021

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme placements have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people by (i) nation, (ii) region and (iii) sector.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As of the 22nd September, over 76,900 young people have started a Kickstart job. Over 196,300 roles have been made available for young people to apply to through the scheme and over 295,000 jobs have been approved for funding.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 22nd September and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

From 26/08/21 to 22/09/21 an average of over 3,600 young people started on the scheme each week.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.

Location

Jobs Made Available

Total Jobs Started

East Midlands

12,300

4,710

East of England

15,500

5,430

London

40,800

16,670

North East

7,800

3,610

North West

24,600

9,830

Scotland

14,800

6,710

South East

22,400

8,280

South West

14,400

5,080

Wales

10,900

3,740

West Midlands

17,600

6,940

Yorkshire and The Humber

15,200

5,970

*These numbers are rounded and so may not match provided totals. Jobs Made Available include 1,000 non-grant funded vacancies and Total Starts include around 900 starts to non-grant funded jobs

Sector

Jobs Made Available

Total Jobs Started

Administration

48,700

19,350

Animal Care

1,000

610

Beauty & Wellbeing

1,400

610

Business & Finance

7,000

2,840

Computing Technology & Digital

13,600

6,640

Construction & Trades

6,000

2,420

Creative & Media

15,400

7,710

Delivery & Storage

5,600

2,190

Emergency & Uniform Services

500

170

Engineering & Maintenance

6,400

2,390

Environment & Land

3,700

1,590

Government Services

700

190

Healthcare

5,400

1,640

Home Services

1,500

400

Hospitality & Food

21,900

6,060

Law & Legal

400

240

Managerial

1,100

390

Manufacturing

5,100

2,080

Retail & Sales

30,400

12,580

Science & Research

800

370

Social Care

4,800

1,220

Sports & Leisure

4,600

1,910

Teaching & Education

9,100

2,980

Transport

600

160

Travel & Tourism

600

230

*These numbers are rounded and so may not match provided totals. Jobs Made Available include 1,000 non-grant funded vacancies and Total Starts include around 900 starts to non-grant funded jobs