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1462419

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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: Cynon Valley
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many recipients of social security payments in Cynon Valley constituency are subject to deductions to payments; and for what reasons those people are subject to deductions.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	1361
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2022 answer text <p>We reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 30% to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance enabling them to retain more of the award. These changes were implemented from October 2019 to April 2021. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties.</p><p> </p><p>Protocols are in place to ensure deductions are manageable and customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment, or a temporary suspension, depending on financial circumstances. We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact Debt Management - all notifications advise how to get in touch. We seek to do as much as we are able to support claimants through the recovery of their overpayments.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant is struggling financially, they can ask for the amount of certain deductions to be reconsidered. Financial hardship decisions are made for any of the following:</p><ul><li>benefit debts,</li><li>Social Fund loan</li><li>rent arrears</li></ul><p> </p><p>Benefit debts and Social Fund loans can see deductions reduced and/or deferred. As the creditor, DWP will always try to ensure that Government debt is recovered effectively without causing undue hardship.</p><p> </p><p>For rent arrears, claimants can ask UC staff to exercise their discretion to fix rent arrears deductions at the lowest rate in legislation – 10% of Standard Allowance. This can be done using the Journal or by phone. However, UC staff would not agree to remove a rent arrears deduction entirely to ensure a claimant is protected from eviction.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For Universal Credit (UC), in November 2021, there were 3,100 UC households in Cynon Valley with a deduction, this accounts for 50% of UC households in Cynon Valley.</p><p> </p><p>The attached spreadsheet shows the number of UC households with deductions by deduction type.</p><p> </p><p>For benefits other than UC, deductions information at constituency level is not held.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 24/05/2022 16:38:08 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley attachment 1 file name Table 1.xlsx title Table 1
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter

1462420

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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	Welfare Tax Credits: Cynon Valley
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many recipients of legacy benefits in Cynon Valley constituency are holders of historical tax credit overpayments.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	1362
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 20/05/2022 11:57:42 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter

1462421

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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: Deductions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that individuals who face deductions from social security payments can afford them.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	1363
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>The Secretary of State has an obligation to protect public funds and to ensure that, wherever possible, benefit overpayments are recovered. However, we recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred benefit debt and our over-arching policy is that all repayment plans should be affordable and sustainable.</p><p> </p><p>Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions, which could lead to financial difficulty and our deductions follow a strict priority order, which ensure claimants avoid the consequences of not paying third party debts whilst also ensuring social obligations are met. Universal Credit is subject to a deduction cap of 25% of the standard allowance. We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact Debt Management so that we can consider temporarily lowering the rate.</p><p> </p><p>We remain committed to Her Majesty’s Treasury’s Beathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.</p><p> </p><p>Other than recovery by Civil Action in the courts, there are no time limits for recovery of a benefit debt. While the policy is to consider abandoning some debts based on the cost effectiveness of pursuing recovery, the legal right to recover does not expire in England and Wales, and DWP retains the right to recover the debt where it is cost effective to do so.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley grouped question UIN 1365 question first answered 20/05/2022 13:17:59 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter

1462422

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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: Deductions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of reducing the maximum rate of deductions from social security payments from 25 per cent.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	1364
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/05/2022 answer text <p>Deductions from benefit to address priority debts have existed for over 40 years. In the past three years, DWP have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit twice - from 40% to 30% in October 2019, and a further reduction to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance in April 2021. These changes have enabled hundreds of thousands of claimants to retain more of their award.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has to balance the amount that can be deducted with the protections that deductions offer claimants. Lowering the maximum deduction rate further would result in less essential deductions such as Child Maintenance being made. We believe that 25% of the Standard Allowance strikes the right balance of ensuring priority debts and social obligations are met whilst enabling claimants to retain more of their award to meet day-to-day needs.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 25/05/2022 16:05:16 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter

1462423

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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: Deductions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a maximum duration for payment of debt through deductions to social security before the debt is written off.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	1365
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>The Secretary of State has an obligation to protect public funds and to ensure that, wherever possible, benefit overpayments are recovered. However, we recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred benefit debt and our over-arching policy is that all repayment plans should be affordable and sustainable.</p><p> </p><p>Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions, which could lead to financial difficulty and our deductions follow a strict priority order, which ensure claimants avoid the consequences of not paying third party debts whilst also ensuring social obligations are met. Universal Credit is subject to a deduction cap of 25% of the standard allowance. We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact Debt Management so that we can consider temporarily lowering the rate.</p><p> </p><p>We remain committed to Her Majesty’s Treasury’s Beathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.</p><p> </p><p>Other than recovery by Civil Action in the courts, there are no time limits for recovery of a benefit debt. While the policy is to consider abandoning some debts based on the cost effectiveness of pursuing recovery, the legal right to recover does not expire in England and Wales, and DWP retains the right to recover the debt where it is cost effective to do so.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley grouped question UIN 1363 question first answered 20/05/2022 13:17:59 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter

1462514

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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	State Retirement Pensions: Widowed People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of men and women who are eligible to inherit a deceased partner's Additional State Pension but who have yet to make a claim to do so.
tabling member constituency	Bristol South
tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
uin	1205
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2022 answer text <p>No estimation has been made. Under current rules, State Pension recipients who become widowed do not need to make a separate claim to get any inherited additional State Pension they may be entitled to. Similarly, those widowed before State Pension age should receive any inherited additional State Pension they may be entitled to when they claim their State Pension.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 18/05/2022 13:07:29 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1462522

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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	Child Maintenance Service
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of reforming the Child Maintenance Service.
tabling member constituency	Enfield North
tabling member printed	Feryal Clark
uin	1379
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>The Child maintenance Service (CMS) is delivering a transformation programme to help improve outcomes for children.</p><p> </p><p>The CMS recently consulted on a range of proposals to improve fairness for both parents and get more money to children. The consultation response can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/child-maintenance-modernising-and-improving-our-service/outcome/government-response-child-maintenance-modernising-and-improving-our-service" target="_blank">Government response: Child Maintenance: modernising and improving our service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 20/05/2022 13:57:56 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4822 label Biography information for Feryal Clark

1462523

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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	Habitual Residence Test
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of cases reviewed by her Department's Risk Review Team have been issued with a negative habitual residence test decision in each of the last two years.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	1249
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2022 answer text <p>The Department’s Risk Review Team (RRT) was established in May 2020, as part of the Department’s response to direct fraud threats that emerged in the early days of the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>Since the team was established, processes have evolved; as a result detailed records on Habitual Residence Test (HRT) outcomes in cases reviewed by RRT are only available from 5<sup>th</sup> July 2021.</p><p> </p><p>I can confirm that, since that date, 608 of the 9676 claims reviewed by RRT in that period failed the HRT; this represents just over 6%.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 24/05/2022 13:56:43 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1462525

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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	Child Maintenance Service: Complaints
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints her Department has received in each year since 2010 regarding (a) customer service and (b) incorrect decisions from the Child Maintenance Service; and what the average response times to those complaints has been in each of those years.
tabling member constituency	Enfield North
tabling member printed	Feryal Clark
uin	1380
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>Complaints about customer service delivery are routinely published on a quarterly basis which can be viewed here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/complaints-about-the-department-for-work-and-pensions" target="_blank">DWP complaints data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk</a></p><p> </p><p>The Department logs a complaint under benefit type along with specific categories that focus on identifying broadly where service has failed. The category ‘You got it wrong’ would capture most complaints relating to incorrect decisions from the Child Maintenance Group. The Department does not measure complaints as described in the question and to determine this request, we would need to examine each individual case, which the Department considers to be a disproportionate cost to provide.</p><p> </p><p>The Department aims to contact customers within 15 working days to clear their complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 20/05/2022 13:49:25 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4822 label Biography information for Feryal Clark

1462526

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
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, how many universal credit claims have been suspended by her Department's Risk Review Team since January 2022.
tabling member constituency	Edmonton
tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
uin	1250
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2022 answer text <p>DWP does not suspend benefit payment lightly and our Risk Review Team only do so in cases where intelligence indicates a high risk of fraud.</p><p> </p><p>I can confirm that 1532 Universal Credit claims have being suspended as a result of Risk Review Team activity since January 2022.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 20/05/2022 13:28:37 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor