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1133561

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Universal Credit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is a minimum level of income that a claimant of universal credit must retain after a 40 per cent reduction to repay an advance.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	267165
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>There is no set minimum level Universal Credit award for a claimant to retain. A claimant’s award will reflect their individual circumstances, topping up any earnings or other income that they may have, so their Universal Credit might just constitute a small proportion of their total income. Deductions from the award are calculated in relation to the Universal Credit standard allowance and the maximum rate of deductions cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance. From October 2019 this will be reduced to 30 per cent.</p><p /><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 266652 question first answered 24/06/2019 16:41:12 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1133566

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to review the Government's decision to calculate child maintenance liabilities as a proportion of gross rather than net parental income; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Darren Jones
uin	267247
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>The paying parent’s gross income is taken directly from HM Revenue and Customs for the latest tax year available. Using the paying parent’s gross income allows calculations to be made quickly and accurately.</p><p>There are no plans to change the way the Child Maintenance Service calculates child maintenance liabilities.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 26/06/2019 12:37:04 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1133583

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Universal Credit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect on universal credit claimants of the 53-week rent year in the 2019-20 financial year.
tabling member constituency	Knowsley
tabling member printed	Sir George Howarth
uin	267199
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. If the claimant always pays their rent on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will get the claimant back on track.</p><p>Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.</p><p>There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 26/06/2019 12:28:22 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	481 label Biography information for Sir George Howarth

1133632

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Television Licences: Older People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of providing free television licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in (a) Kensington constituency and (b) Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea local authority area in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19.
tabling member constituency	Kensington
tabling member printed	Emma Dent Coad
uin	267288
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.</p><p>The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.</p><p>This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.</p><p>On 10 June 2019, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy" target="_blank">announced</a> that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.</p><p>The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.</p><p /><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Expenditure (£m) (Nominal)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017-18</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>(a) Kensington constituency</strong></p></td><td><p>£0.69</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>(b) Royal Borough of Kensington &amp; Chelsea local authority area</strong></p></td><td><p>£1.00</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 26/06/2019 12:44:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4683 label Biography information for Emma Dent Coad

1133721

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2019 to Question 256341, what the timescale is for bringing forward legislation to facilitate Collective Defined Contribution schemes.
tabling member constituency	Canterbury
tabling member printed	Rosie Duffield
uin	267346
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>This Government is committed to legislation to facilitate collective defined contribution schemes. The Government has recently published responses to a series of consultations, and have engaged extensively with key stakeholders and the Pensions Regulator.</p><p>In these we have committed to strengthen the Pensions Regulator’s powers to both enforce pensions legislation and to punish those who have acted recklessly or failed to comply with their obligations. We have committed to facilitate industry to make pensions dashboards a reality. We are also compelling pension schemes to make consumers data available to them and to facilitate collective defined contribution schemes.</p><p>The Government will bring forward legislation to introduce these measures as soon as parliamentary time permits.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 267344 267345 question first answered 25/06/2019 16:22:18 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4616 label Biography information for Rosie Duffield

1133723

registered interest
date	20/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vulnerable claimants whose benefits claim was closed as a result of them not attending a Work Capability Assessment (a) received a home visit and (b) did not receive a home visit in 2018-19.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	267198
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>The Work and Health Decision Making Directorate makes decisions on benefit entitlement for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit (UC) customers who have failed to attend Work Capability Assessments.</p><p>Whilst we would be able to ascertain the total number of ESA claims closed for failing to attend a Work Capability Assessment without good cause, this would incur disproportionate costs. Further, the information would not provide details of how many of those customers were vulnerable or how many received a home visit. To obtain the details requested would require scrutiny of thousands of individual claims. Therefore, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.</p><p>In respect of Universal Credit claims, these are not closed as a result of the claimant failing to attend the Work Capability Assessment. Where a decision is made that the claimant failed to attend without good cause, the claimant’s health journey is ended and their work conditions are changed accordingly. Information about the number of claims referred for a home visit during the decision making process is not collated. To obtain this information would incur disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 26/06/2019 12:15:18 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1133141

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Children: Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is taking to retrieve money owed by absent parents.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	266704
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) replaced the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission in 2012 and brought significant reforms to the Child Maintenance system in Great Britain. Child Maintenance in Northern Ireland is a devolved issue, although they run a broadly similar scheme. Any questions should be directed to the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.</p><p> </p><p>We support separated parents to make their own family based arrangements wherever possible. This allows families to create flexible arrangements that work for their individual circumstances and, where parents are able to work together, this can be better for their children. Where this is not possible, the CMS offers an effective and efficient statutory scheme for those parents who really need it.</p><p> </p><p>Under the statutory scheme, where paying parents fail to pay on time and in full, we aim to take immediate action to recover the debt and re-establish compliance. Where compliance is not achieved we are committed to using our wide ranging enforcement powers proportionally, and in the best interests of children and separated families.</p><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 24/06/2019 16:42:19 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1133144

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the average time taken to reach an outcome for mandatory re-considerations of personal independence payment applications.
tabling member constituency	Aberdeen North
tabling member printed	Kirsty Blackman
uin	266707
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>Statistics on the average clearance time for Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) for Personal Independence Payment are found in Table 7C, ‘MR Clearance Time (median calendar days), Normal Rules, by month of clearance’ of the quarterly statistical publication ‘Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to April 2019’ published by the Department for Work and Pensions and available here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-april-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-april-2019</a></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 24/06/2019 12:58:57 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4357 label Biography information for Kirsty Blackman

1133157

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Universal Credit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2019 to Question 264329, of the 0.749 million claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts, how much debt has been repaid from each benefit in the Prescribed Social Security Benefits / Payments category.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	266717
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The table below details the amount recovered from Universal Credit to repay non-Universal Credit overpayments in 2018-19. To provide a full picture we have included recovery of all benefit related debt including such things as non UC Advances and Tax Credit recoveries even though these are not strictly prescribed payments.</p><p><br></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Amount Recovered</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Attendance Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Administrative Penalty</strong></p></td><td><p>£537,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Bereavement Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Carers Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,541,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Civil Penalties </strong></p></td><td><p>£1,090,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Disability Living Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£281,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Disability Working Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Employment &amp; Support Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£2,988,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Family Credit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Housing Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£11,198,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Incapacity Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£368,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Income Support</strong></p></td><td><p>£8,479,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Invalidity Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jobseeker's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,987,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Maternity Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£13,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Non-Contributory Retirement Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>New State Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Pension Credit</strong></p></td><td><p>£11,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Personal Independence Payment</strong></p></td><td><p>£64,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Retirement Pension: Contributory</strong></p></td><td><p>£2,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Sickness Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Severe Disablement Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£12,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Social Fund Loan</strong></p></td><td><p>£27,014,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Social Fund Overpayment</strong></p></td><td><p>£239,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Non - Universal Credit short term advances</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,546,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Tax Credit Overpayment</strong></p></td><td><p>£94,722,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widow's Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£70,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widowed Mother's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widows Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widowed Parent's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Christmas Bonus</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Other</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department works hard to prevent potential benefit overpayments from occurring. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances in real time.</p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.</em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 24/06/2019 15:47:54 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1133172

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Pension Credit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps she has taken to increase the uptake of pension credit.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Ladywood
tabling member printed	Shabana Mahmood
uin	266722
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to and the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits to potential customers; including information on <a href="https://gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://gov.uk/</a>, in leaflets and by telephone. DWP staff in Pension Centres and Jobcentres including visiting officers are able to provide help and advice about entitlement to benefits, as are staff in Local Authorities who administer Housing Benefit.</p><p> </p><p>Potential customers can use the Pension Credit <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator</a> to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive. People wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.</p><p> </p><p>One of the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholder working in the community and we have developed the Pension Credit toolkit, as an on-line tool for agencies and welfare rights organisations to use in order to encourage Pension Credit take-up. It can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit</a></p><p> </p><p>The toolkit contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up. The toolkit also provides links to information about disability and carers benefits.</p><p> </p><p>Most recently we have provided to relevant organisations a fact sheet about Pension Credit and the recent changes for mixed age couples to ensure that accurate information is available in the places where people are most likely to seek information.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 24/06/2019 16:29:49 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	3914 label Biography information for Shabana Mahmood