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 individuals have successfully made a claim for Carers Allowance (a) once, (b) twice and (c) three or more times since 2013.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
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 data his Department holds on the proportion of workers who were not eligible for statutory sick pay in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information on the proportion of workers who were not eligible for Statutory Sick Pay over the last ten years is not readily available and to produce it would incur a disproportionate cost.
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 data his Department holds on the number of people who have claimed statutory sick pay for each year from 2015 to 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Statutory Sick Pay is administered and paid by employers, and information on recipients is not held by government. Therefore, we are not able to make a robust assessment on the number of people who have claimed SSP in each year from 2015 to 2023.
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 claimants have had third-party deductions taken directly from their benefits payments in each of the past 10 years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Third Party Deductions information is only available from 2018.
Table 1 provides the volume of households subject to at least one Third Party Deduction for each financial year from April 2018 to February 2023. The latest figures show that between April 2022 and February 2023 there were 912,200 households on Universal Credit that had at least one Third Party Deduction.
Table 1: Number of Universal Credit households in Great Britain with at least one Third Party Deduction for the time periods shown | |
Date | Number of households |
Apr-18 to Mar-19 | 179,500 |
Apr-19 to Mar-20 | 594,000 |
Apr-20 to Mar-21 | 823,100 |
Apr-21 to Mar-22 | 917,900 |
Apr-22 to Feb-23 | 912,200 |
Notes:
1. The number of households have been rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Household level figures have been provided. Please note that some households will have more than one Third Party Deduction within the time period provided. The volumes capture households that have at least one deduction in that time period.
3. Third Party Deductions contains debt types such as rent arrears, court fines and child maintenance (Last Resort Deductions and Enforcing Social Obligations Deductions).
4. Complete data for Third Party Debts is only available from 2018.
5. Data up to February 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
6. The data for 2018/19 only provides data for Universal Credit full-service claims. Data on Universal Credit live service for 2018/19 is not available. In May 2016 the Universal Credit full service for all claimant types began to rollout nationally and was completed by the end of 2018.
7. Comparison across the different financial years is problematic due to changes in the deductions policy for Universal Credit, which would have affected the number of households having a Third-Party Deduction.
8. Figures have been provided for Universal Credit households in Great Britain. Northern Ireland claims are administered by the Department for Communities.
9. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
10. The methodology used is different to those used to derive the Official Statistics Household series and therefore, figures may not be comparable.
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 calls have been handled by the Future Pensions Centre since 7 March 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Period of calls made to the |
|
Future Pension Centre |
|
Helpline |
|
(four weeks) | Calls Answered |
**last entry is only one week |
|
27/02/2023 - 26/03/2023 | 47,345 |
|
|
27/03/2023 - 23/04/2023 | 47,300 |
|
|
24/04/2023 - 21/05/2023 | 42,439 |
|
|
**22/05/2023 - 28/05/2023 | 12,943 |
The Management Information used has been taken from the same operational source data systems as our published administrative data. However, as this Management Information is not a recognised National or Official Statistic, it has not been subjected to the same level of Quality Assurance. As a result, these figures should be treat with caution.
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 he has made an estimate of the number of people who will be eligible to purchase extra state pension top-ups by 31 July 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The State Pension top up was a scheme introduced on 12 October 2015 and ran until 5 April 2017. The scheme allowed people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 to obtain extra State Pension income for life by making a voluntary lump sum National Insurance contribution (class 3A). Data was published State Pension top up: 12 Oct 2015 to 17 Sept 2017 (publishing.service.gov.uk) that shows that 13,200 people purchased State Pension top ups. The scheme ended on 5 April 2017, so no further people will be eligible to purchase State Pension top ups by 31 July 2023.Please note, this is a different scheme to VNICs.
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 he has made an estimate of the number of people who have purchased extra state pension top-ups since 12th October 2015.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The State Pension top up was a scheme introduced on 12 October 2015 and ran until 5 April 2017. The scheme allowed people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 to obtain extra State Pension income for life by making a voluntary lump sum National Insurance contribution (class 3A). Data was published State Pension top up: 12 Oct 2015 to 17 Sept 2017 (publishing.service.gov.uk) that shows that 13,200 people purchased State Pension top ups. The scheme ended on 5 April 2017, so no further people will be eligible to purchase State Pension top ups by 31 July 2023.Please note, this is a different scheme to VNICs.
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 his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of benefits that were fraudulently claimed in each of the last ten financial years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) reduce fraud within the benefits system.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) estimates on the value of both fraud and error in the benefit system, can be found in our annually published statistical report on the Monetary Value of Fraud and Error. Reports for each of the last ten financial years can be found at:
Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This year’s figures show that the work we have been undertaking to reduce Fraud and Error is having an impact, with the headline rate of overpayment having decreased by 0.4% from 4.0% to 3.6%.
Our Fraud Plan, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System, published on 19 May 2022, sets out our approach and explains how additional investment is allowing us to recruit 1,400 more staff into our counter-fraud teams and develop enhanced data analytics as a means of preventing and detecting fraud and error.
Additionally, we are creating a dedicated team to deliver Targeted Case Reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. This supports wider Government aims of strong oversight and control and efficiently managing the public purse. Over the next five years we expect to review millions of potentially high-risk claims, including suspicious cases which entered our system at the height of the pandemic.
More information on our Fraud Plan, which also explains our ambition to modernise and strengthen our legislative framework, can be found here:
Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 the average response time was for answering calls to the personal independence payment new claims phone line in each year since 2015.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Please find below Average Speed to Answer data for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) New Claims lines for each year since April 2015. This includes calls routed through the Service Lines PIP New Claims, PIP New Claims Reassessment and PIP New Claims Special Rules for the Terminally Ill.
Year | Business Group | Product Line | Average Speed to Answer (hh:mm:ss) |
2015/16 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:01:39 |
2016/17 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:04:33 |
2017/18 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:01:51 |
2018/19 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:02:26 |
2019/20 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:03:49 |
2020/21 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:05:33 |
2021/22 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:05:32 |
2022/23 | Disability | Personal Independence Payment | 00:02:33 |
Please note this information is derived from the department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As the DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by the DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.