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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

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

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

1462186

registered interest
date	11/05/2022
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 and what proportion of recipients of universal credit nationally have had money deducted from their payments in order to repay debts in each month in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Cynon Valley
tabling member printed	Beth Winter
uin	988
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2022 answer text <p>Deductions from benefit can be taken for a number of reasons; such as repayment of benefit overpayments or to cover the cost of an advance; deductions are also made to ensure claimants avoid the consequences of not paying priority debts, for example: eviction; and ensuring social obligations are met, such as child maintenance payments or court fines.</p><p> </p><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>For benefit overpayments, 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 overpayment recovery 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> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 24/05/2022 15:56:49 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4809 label Biography information for Beth Winter