Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the (a) average length of time taken between notification being received from HMRC of a change to a person's National Insurance record and that change being reflected in a revised state pension (i) forecast and (ii) award and (b) how many such notifications are outstanding.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
The vast majority of voluntary contributions paid result in records being updated within days, though more complex cases requiring specialist caseworkers can take longer to resolve.
The Government has extended the deadline to 5 April 2025 to give taxpayers more time to fill gaps in their National Insurance record and help increase the amount they receive in State Pension.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he last met with former Allied Steel and Wire employees to discuss their pensions campaign.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has not met with the former Allied Steel and Wire employees to discuss their pension campaign. However, the former Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, Guy Opperman, met with members of the Allied Steel and Wire pension scheme on 16 June 2021 to discuss their financial assistance payment.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of married women who reach state pension age prior to 6th April 2016, whether it is his Department's policy for a woman who draws a category A state pension prior to her husband reaching pension age and who is widowed after her husband reaches pension age and draws his pension should be automatically assessed at the point of being widowed for a backdated category BL pension in the case where her category A pension is lower than the Category BL rate; and whether a woman over pension age with no entitlement to a category A state pension, and who is widowed after her husband reaches pension age and draws his pension should automatically be assessed at the point of being widowed for a deferred Category BL pension, with her date of claim treated as the date when her late husband first drew his pension.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
For married women who reach State Pension age prior to 6th April 2016 the Department’s policy is as follows.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within their Department's estate.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Survey work is underway.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions a request for a meeting by an hon. Member was not agreed to by (a) a Minister and (b) their office on behalf of a Minister in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Ministers will regularly seek to engage with hon. Members, whilst balancing wider Ministerial and Parliamentary responsibilities.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on (a) demographic and (b) diversity data for users of the Mid-life MOT service.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Midlife MOT within Jobcentres was rolled out from the end of January 2023.
Data is not yet available.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people accessed the Mid-life MOT service in each month between April 2022 and May 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Midlife MOT within Jobcentres was rolled out from the end of January 2023.
Data is not yet available.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefits claims were suspended under the Risk Review Process in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021 and (e) 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department’s Risk Review Team (RRT) was created in 2020, as a direct response to threats identified by the department’s Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service (IRIS). A breakdown of cases suspended as a result of the RRT process is therefore only available from the financial year ending March 2021.
In the last three financial years the number of cases suspended as a result of the process are as follows:
We do not suspend claims lightly, and where we do, it will be clear to claimants what actions they need to take to resolve matters. Where a customer does contact us, and provides the information requested, we have processes in place to ensure people’s claims are put back into payment as soon as possible, and any arrears that are due are paid.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce (a) the time taken to process and (b) resolution times for outstanding Child Maintenance Service complaints; and what the average time is for resolving Child Maintenance Service complaints.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP aims to contact customers within 15 working days to clear their complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.
DWP now triage complaints giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues. We continue to investigate all complaints as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process, we write or call those customers, where there may be a delay in answering their complaint.
Since 2021, Child Maintenance Service complaints team have seen their response times to complainants steadily improve and are now responding to almost all complaints within the timescale.
The Department does not measure complaints as described in the question and to determine this request, we would need to examine each individual case, which the Department considers to be cost prohibitive to provide.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the average time taken to process Carers Allowance claims made since May 2020.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Average Actual Clearance Time (AACT) to process a claim for Carer’s Allowance, for each of the tax years from April 2021 to May 2023, is shown in the table below:
Tax Year | AACT |
21/22 | 38.9 days |
22/23 | 23.1 days |
23/24 * | 15.2 days |
* April & May 2023 data only
Source: Carer’s Allowance Computer System