Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many investigations his Department's serious fraud team carried out into cases relating to the state pension in each financial year since 2020-21; and what the outcomes of these investigations were.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
State Pension is rarely the target for serious and organised criminals.
Since 2020/21, a total of four serious fraud investigations have taken place involving State Pension (one in 2020/21 and three in 2022/23). As none of these investigations have reached court yet, outcomes cannot be provided.
Investigations of this type are extremely complex. We cannot break down the average length of investigations, as this information is not recorded by our Economic Serious Organised Crime team (ESOC).
Estimates on the value of fraud and error in the benefit system can be found in our annual statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. The level of fraud in State Pension in 2022/23, was estimated to be 0.0%. Our estimates do not break down data by region.
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the total amount paid in fraudulent State Pension claims in Yorkshire and the Humber in the last financial year.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
State Pension is rarely the target for serious and organised criminals.
Since 2020/21, a total of four serious fraud investigations have taken place involving State Pension (one in 2020/21 and three in 2022/23). As none of these investigations have reached court yet, outcomes cannot be provided.
Investigations of this type are extremely complex. We cannot break down the average length of investigations, as this information is not recorded by our Economic Serious Organised Crime team (ESOC).
Estimates on the value of fraud and error in the benefit system can be found in our annual statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. The level of fraud in State Pension in 2022/23, was estimated to be 0.0%. Our estimates do not break down data by region.
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length was of investigations undertaken by his Department's serious fraud team into cases relating to the state pension in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
State Pension is rarely the target for serious and organised criminals.
Since 2020/21, a total of four serious fraud investigations have taken place involving State Pension (one in 2020/21 and three in 2022/23). As none of these investigations have reached court yet, outcomes cannot be provided.
Investigations of this type are extremely complex. We cannot break down the average length of investigations, as this information is not recorded by our Economic Serious Organised Crime team (ESOC).
Estimates on the value of fraud and error in the benefit system can be found in our annual statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. The level of fraud in State Pension in 2022/23, was estimated to be 0.0%. Our estimates do not break down data by region.
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his timescales are for introducing upfront payments for childcare costs for people on Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The changes to the Universal Credit childcare element will be introduced from Summer 2023.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the time taken by his Department to respond to complaints about Personal Independence Payments sent by Members.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
When the department receives a complaint from a Member of Parliament, the aim is to contact them within 15 working days to tell them of the outcome, or when they can expect a response, if it will take longer.
We will always aim to resolve the complaint as quickly as we can, however, on occasion that the complaint is complex, we will contact the Member of Parliament to let them know when they can expect a response.
The DWP has made significant improvements to the complaints service since 2021; we triage all complaints, giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues. We continually monitor complaints, including the volumes, and have introduced further improvements including developing a consistent approach to complaints through new quality standards. We are committed to learning from complaints, using insight to support further improvements and our service to customers.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the system of payment enforcement used by the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
Total child maintenance collected using Enforcement Actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to December 2022 compared with £33.6 in December 2021 and £30.8 in December 2020. This rise in collections is linked directly to increased collections through Deductions from Earnings Orders, lump sum and regular deductions taken directly from paying parents’ bank accounts, Liability Order and Bailiff actions and making full use of all available sanctions.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to December 2022).
As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity £49.1 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter ending December 2022 compared to £46.6. million in the quarter ending December 2021.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 5 ‘Money Due and Paid each quarter’ January 2015 to December 2022).
There has been a consistent downward trend in the proportion of unpaid maintenance as a proportion of maintenance arranged since 2017, falling from 12.5% in 2017 to 8% in December 2022.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables - table 6 ‘ how much maintenance CMS has arranged March 2015 to December 2022).
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart placements have (a) been advertised and (b) commenced by young people in Wakefield constituency in the last year.
Answered by Chloe Smith
As of 27 June 2022, 420 jobs had been advertised and 220 had been commenced by young people in the Wakefield constituency.
As of 27 June 2022 nationally, there have been over 163,200 Kickstart jobs started by young people. The last Kickstart jobs were started by young people on 31 March 2022, and we expect the number of starts to increase further as employers report commencement of employment.
Notes section:
We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31 January 2022, 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. The Kickstart Scheme has now closed to employer applications and, as of March 2022, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase further.
Attached are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency. The figures used are correct as of the 27 June 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
It is important to note that the information provided shows the location of the job not the home location of the young person who has started the job. In some cases, employers will report the address of their head office rather than the precise location of the job where the young person is working.
Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs, these are included in our national total but are not included in our geographic breakdown. 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.