Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications were made for short-term benefit advance and hardship payments in the last 12 months; and what proportion of such applications were successful.

Please see table below for Short Term Benefit Advance (STBA) applications and those which have been successful;

The figures in the above table cannot be added/subtracted together due to each stage of the process incurring a time lag.

Definitions

• STBA Applications Received - The number of applications received by the Department requesting an STBA
• STBA Primary Benefits Paid - The number of applications which have not been sent for decision due to the primary benefit being paid, negating the need for an STBA
• STBA Decisions Made - The number of STBA applications which have been sent for a decision (this has been included due to being part of the calculation for the success rate)
• STBA Awarded - Of those sent for a decision this is the number which have been awarded an STBA
• % STBA Awarded against Decisions Made - This is the success rate of STBAs sent for decision

For context we have also supplied the number of claims which have not been

submitted for decision due to primary benefit being paid and STBA decisions made.

The data provided is for Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefits, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support.

DWP intends to publish figures on the number of hardship applications and awards separately.

Source

STBA Applications Received & Primary Benefits Paid - Management Information System Programme (MISP). This collation is based on clerical counts submitted by the Centres and is Internal MI which has been agreed for use in publications of Parliamentary questions and Freedom of Information requests.

STBA Awarded - Benefit Expenditure Business Information system.