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 his Department is taking to increase participation by disabled people in the Access to Work programme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Access to Work is a demand-led, discretionary grant that supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in sustainable, paid employment. In 2021/22 over 38,500 people with a disability or a health condition received a payment from Access to Work and this year Access to Work has already seen a significant rise in the number of applications.
Access to Work regularly engages with stakeholders, partners, and employer associations, to raise awareness of the scheme. To support local engagement Access to Work has delivered a series of upskilling sessions to Jobcentre Work Coaches and developed a toolkit to support employer engagement. In addition, the DWP regularly provides information about the support available via its social media channels.
To further raise awareness of Access to Work and support transitions into employment, my department has worked with stakeholders to develop an Adjustments Passport. The Adjustments Passport provides the holder with an up-to-date record of their workplace adjustments, it can support conversations with employers and help remove the need for an Access to Work assessment.
In May 2022, the Health Adjustments Passport was rolled out in Jobcentres to support disabled jobseekers. In the coming months a service leavers passport will be made available to support Armed Forces personnel with their transition into civilian employment; and from September 2023 the Adjustments Passport will be rolled out across universities.
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 waiting time was for a Personal Independence Payment assessment in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This information is readily available. It is published quarterly as part of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics on GOV.UK and can be found within the PIP: Clearance/Outstanding Times and Customer Journey statistics tables.
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 sewage leaks have been recorded within their Department's estate in the last twelve months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP can confirm that there have been no sewage leaks reported to the water authorities within the Department’s estate in the last twelve months.
There have been 25 minor sewage leaks across the estate in the period, generally relating to individual toilets and blocked pipes.
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 Deduction from Earnings Orders have been issued by the Child Maintenance Service to the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Business Services in each financial year from 2013-14 to 2022-23.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The Department publishes quarterly Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics, with the latest statistics available to the end of December 2022 here.
The quarterly number of Deduction Orders set up and in process can be found in Table 7.1: Enforcement Actions of the National Tables.
Quarterly statistics showing the method of payment for CMS Paying Parents are available on Stat-Xplore here.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found here.
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 tackle the number of Deduction of Earnings Orders issued by the Child Maintenance Service to the Ministry of Defence's Defence Business Services instead of Deduction of Earnings Requests.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) are applied as a method of payment where the Child Maintenance Service deducts maintenance directly from the Paying Parent’s wages. The DEO is primarily used to enforce payments but can be set up voluntarily. Deduction from Earnings Requests are similar to a Deduction from Earnings Order but used for Paying Parents who are serving members of the Armed Forces. The Child Maintenance Service can only request a deduction to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), unlike civilian employers they cannot order or enforce payment. MOD policy aims to comply with requests however if the Paying Parent is committed to operational duties MOD may suspend the collection of debt.
Child Maintenance Service takes action to ensure the correct method of payment is applied through identifying whether a Paying Parent is in the Armed Forces through its use of Real Team Information (RTI) Data taken from HMRC. This provides up to date information about Pay As You Earn income as the information submitted by employers online is displayed in RTI immediately. To ensure that the correct method of payment is used for a Paying Parent who is serving in the Armed Forces caseworkers are provided with step-by-step procedural instructions and training.
As at December 2022 Child Maintenance Service had 46,205 Deduction from Earnings Orders and 483 Deduction from Earnings Requests in operation.
(source – Published stats – stat-xplore – CMS Paying Parents = method of payments).
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 it is his policy to retain the work allowance for people with (a) caring responsibilities and (b) disabilities.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to change this policy.
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 plans to publish the results of the consultation on helping savers understand their pension choices.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
I want pension savers to have access to information and support that helps them to understand their retirement choices whatever their level of engagement is with their pension. That is why between June and July 2022 my department conducted a call for evidence to get an understanding of the support and information savers need when accessing their pensions in order to choose the option that meets their retirement goals and what is currently on offer.
I am grateful for those who provided responses. My officials are currently reviewing those responses, with a view to publishing a response in due course.
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 recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of disability benefit assessments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Assessment quality is a priority for the department. We work extensively with providers to make improvements to ensure a quality service is delivered. An Independent Audit function continually monitors performance and provides feedback to its providers, ensuring a high standard is always maintained.
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 requests for mandatory reconsideration were made on the basis of a Universal Credit run on payment not being made during the assessment period in which a Claimant reached the state pension age in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
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: 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 his Department has provided recent guidance to decision makers on the application of the Universal Credit (Persons who have attained state pension credit qualifying age) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I can confirm the Department has published guidance on this subject and details are available within the Advice for Decision Making (ADM) on Gov.uk.