Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of carer’s allowance of (a) £0.01 - £500, (b) £500.01 - £1,000, (c) £1,000.01 - £5,000, (d) £5,000.01 - £20,000 and (e) more than £20,000 were made in the (i) 2021-22, (ii) 2022-23 and (iii) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Debt Value Grouping | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
£0.01 - £500.00 | 26.4k | 20.3k | 28.0k |
£500.01 - £1000.00 | 12.2k | 11.4k | 11.9k |
£1000.01 - £5000.00 | 18.4k | 16.4k | 18.6k |
£5000.01 - £20,000.00 | 2.9k | 1.3k | 1.3k |
Over £20,000.00 | 0.1k | 0.1k | 0.0k |
Total | 60.1k | 49.5k | 59.9k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many debts of overpayments of Carer's Allowance his Department was seeking to recover in value brackets (a) £0.01 - £500, (b) £500.01 - £1,000, (c) £1,000.01 - £5,000, (d) £5,000.01 - £20,000 and (e) over £20,000 as of 6 April 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Debt Value Grouping | Volume of Carer’s Allowance Debts |
£0.01 - £500.00 | 61.9k |
£500.01 - £1000.00 | 29.7k |
£1000.01 - £5000.00 | 53.2k |
£5000.01 - £20,000.00 | 11.3k |
Over £20,000.00 | 0.3k |
Total | 156.3k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Data is taken as a snapshot as at 03/04/2024, the closest date we can obtain to 06/04/2024. |
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of Carer’s Allowance there have been in relation to the earnings conditions in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Financial Year | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Volume of Carer’s Allowance (CA) Debts | 36.1k | 30.7k | 34.5k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 April 2024 to Question 20383 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, whether his Department received the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's provisional views on injustice and remedy experienced due to maladministration in communication about the 1995 Pensions Act in November 2023.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP received the PHSO’s provisional views for comment in November 2023.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, what the (a) grade and (b) job titles were of the staff who undertook the research exercise.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.
We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, how many cases were reviewed as part of the research.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.
We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, how his Department selected the cases to be reviewed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.
We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments consultation outcome entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published 5 September 2023, for what reason the results of the research exercise have not been published.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November 2023, we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria. The full response to the public consultation on these changes can be found here.
We do not know what “research exercise” the questions are referring to but have interpreted these questions to be about internal policy development undertaken before and during the consultation exercise on changes to the WCA. This work was undertaken by a variety of staff from a mix of grades and job titles, including Senior Civil Servants. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
We undertook considerable engagement during the consultation period and received over 1300 written responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding which changes to take forward. We took care to ensure the views of disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the views of the charities, groups and organisations representing and supporting them, were considered. We also engaged directly with external clinical experts and employers.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Personal Independence Payment planning and following a journey descriptors to include (a) access to toilets and (b) fear of falling over due to mobility issues.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was developed in collaboration with independent specialists in health, social care and disability, including disabled people, and through public consultation between 2010-2012 prior to its introduction in 2013. This comprehensive consultation process informed the development of the PIP assessment criteria, as set out in legislation. There are currently no plans to change the criteria.
Activity 11 was designed to assess barriers to mobility that individuals may face that are associated with mental, cognitive, intellectual or sensory ability, as opposed to physical ability. This includes whether people can leave home to make journeys and whether they are able to plan and successfully follow those journeys. With regard to access to toilets, any continence issues would be considered separately under activity 5, and mobility issues under activity 12. Fear of falling down due to mobility issues could be considered under activity 11 if it is sufficient to impact on a claimant’s ability to leave home, plan or follow journeys as per the PIP regulations.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people in receipt of a letter notifying them of a postponed PIP reassessment are counted as awaiting a PIP (a) assessment and (b) reassessment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are still some claimants in receipt of Adult DLA who are yet to be reassessed. These cases are classed as awaiting PIP ‘reassessment’. DLA payments will continue until they are invited to claim PIP, and we have not contacted anyone on DLA to inform them of any postponement.
There are claimants who have made a new claim to PIP but not yet received a decision. A proportion of these will be with the Assessment Provider and counted as awaiting ‘assessment’. No one in this category would receive a letter indicating their assessments is postponed, unless there are unusual circumstances, and the Provider needs to re-arrange a specific appointment for example.
There are claimants already in receipt of PIP whose award is due to end (or has ended). Some cases are yet to be reviewed and would be counted as awaiting ‘review’. Some cases have been referred to the Assessment Provider and would therefore be counted as awaiting ‘assessment’. Where appropriate, we write to claimants to let them know the process is ongoing and we are extending their award, but we do not inform claimants that their review or assessment is postponed.