Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member printed question first answered question first ministerially corrected answering member label attachment file name title previous answer version answering member printed answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

947080

registered interest
date	23/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 19 July (HL9263), whether they will publish the outcome of their consideration of how to give assurance that the assessment process for Personal Independent Payments does not disproportionately affect BAME communities.
tabling member printed	Lord Boateng
uin	HL9770
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>We are currently considering the approach we will take to this work and will decide on the most suitable method of disseminating the outcomes as part of that activity.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:49:04 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	147 label Biography information for Lord Boateng

947081

registered interest
date	23/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 19 July (HL9263), on what evidence they determined that gender is relevant to the needs arising from long-term health conditions or disabilities while ethnicity is not; and whether they will place a copy of that evidence in the Library of the House.
tabling member printed	Lord Boateng
uin	HL9771
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Whilst designing Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the Department considered the relevance of what data should be collected and recorded to support the good management of a PIP claim. PIP is based on needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability so gender is not a factor in the decision making process in PIP.</p><p> </p><p>However, the collection of data on gender supports the good management of PIP claims as it supports our communications with claimants.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:49:29 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	147 label Biography information for Lord Boateng

947108

registered interest
date	23/07/2018
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	Local Housing Allowance: Care Leavers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to implement the recommendation in the Social Security Advisory Committee’s report Young People Living Independently, published in May, to extend the exemption for care leavers from the Shared Accommodation Rate of Local Housing Allowance until they reach age 25.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL9798
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>The Government has no plans at present to implement the recommendation in the Social Security Advisory Committee’s report “Young People Living Independently” to extend the exemption for care leavers from the Shared Accommodation Rate until age 25. We will, however, keep this under review as the current lack of data means we are unable to be clear about the size of the problem. We continue to work with the Department for Education to develop the evidence base and consider evidence from stakeholders on the impact that the shared accommodation has on care leavers.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2011 the Government has provided around £1 billion in Discretionary Housing Payment funding to local authorities to help support vulnerable people, including care leavers, mitigate rent shortfalls.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:50:06 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

947127

registered interest
date	23/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their plans to address payment errors and delays for people attempting to claim Universal Credit.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL9817
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Around 80 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time. In many cases, where full payment is not made on time by the end of the first assessment period, this is as a result of unresolved issues such as: some claimants have not signed their Claimant Commitment or passed identity checks, and the others have outstanding verification issues, such as for housing and self-employed earnings. Whilst their verification is on-going, many of these claimants receive a part payment for those elements of the claim that have been resolved. Within five weeks of the payment due date, 95 per cent of claims are paid in full.</p><p>DWP continues to monitor payment timeliness and we have made changes to improve payment timeliness. For example, we have built processes into the system to make it easier and quicker for people to verify information such as their housing costs.</p><p> </p><p>Advances are available to provide financial support until the first payment and these can now be repaid over a course of 12 months and can consist of up to 100 per cent of the indicative monthly award. We have also abolished waiting days and now provide 2 weeks of housing support to claimants moving to Universal Credit from Housing Benefit.</p><p> </p><p>If a claim has been delayed due to error, DWP can also consider awarding an ex-gratia payment, as set out in the guide of Financial Redress for Maladministration, available on gov.uk, and which is attached.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:50:40 question first ministerially corrected 31/07/2018 14:41:10 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe attachment 1 file name HL9817 Financial Redress for Maladministration FR.PDF title Financial Redress for Maladministration previous answer version 72633 answering member printed Baroness Buscombe answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

945622

registered interest
date	20/07/2018
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: Care Leavers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to collect information on self-identified care leavers in the Universal Credit system in a way that would allow aggregate statistics to be compiled, as is the case for those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL9751
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2018 answer text <p>Collection of data to monitor support for care leavers and other disadvantaged groups is a priority for the Department. Our system already enables staff to record relevant details about an individual’s needs, and we are beginning work to explore ways in which we collect and use this data to help us to monitor support for care leavers and other disadvantaged groups.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 25/07/2018 11:55:20 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

945623

registered interest
date	20/07/2018
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: Ethnic Groups
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they conduct ethnic monitoring of social security benefits, including Universal Credit; and if so, whether this system collects data on the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL9752
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Claimants, including Universal Credit claimants, are given the option to provide their ethnicity for monitoring purposes. We have published volumes of claimants broken down by ethnicity for some benefits. This is publically available and can be accessed using DWP’s Stat-Xplore function on the gov.uk website, or the Nomis service provided by the Office for National Statistics.</p><p> </p><p>The data is not broken down to Gypsy, Roma and Travellers. These individuals are captured in the larger ethnic group they identify with.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 13:48:38 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

944910

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the level of identity verification required to sign up to Universal Credit is adequate; what reviews, if any, they have undertaken to ensure that online applications do not require a higher standard of identity assurance than is applied elsewhere; and how they are trying to clear the current backlog of face-to-face interview appointments.
tabling member printed	Lord Freyberg
uin	HL9693
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>DWP takes the security of Universal Credit very seriously, this includes verifying who our claimants are; we continue to work to maintain the high standards of our identity verification processes. There are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity for Universal Credit purposes: online using the gov.uk verify service; in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions.</p><p><em> </em></p><p>In line with advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and best practice, we treat identity proofing as just one of many defences that combine to mitigate attempted fraud. In line with our “test and learn” approach to delivering Universal Credit, we continuously assess the levels of security and fraud risk to both Government and our users, as it is critical that we strike the right balance between making the service as smooth as possible for claimants and protecting the taxpayer against fraud. We reviewed the level of identity required to strike this balance prior to the introduction of gov.uk Verify as an option for users to prove their identity online into the service and found that it, in combination with the other defences against fraud built into the service, gave a sufficiently strong level of proof. As Universal Credit continues to roll out, we are again reviewing the level of identity and the options available to further improve claimants’ experience while protecting DWP against fraud as part of wider efficiency improvements.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:17:15 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2593 label Biography information for Lord Freyberg

944940

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what success they have had in identifying and tracking claimants of Universal Credit whom they deem vulnerable.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9723
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>Where notified by a Local Authority or a claimant, DWP staff currently updates the claimant profile with any temporary or long term complex needs and how that affects the claimant’s ability to use the service. This enables Universal Credit agents and work coaches to provide individuals with appropriate personalised support.</p><p>Underlying this approach is the principle that not all individuals with a disability, health condition or other set of personal circumstances will necessarily require support, while some will only need support for a period of time. Our work coaches deliver a personalised journey based on individual claimant needs.</p><p>The Department is looking to further improve our system to better identify vulnerable claimants with the use of a new ‘pinning’ function. This involves testing methods to extract data on information recorded in the claimant profile using text matching techniques. We have plans to introduce a function to ‘pin’ key profile notes so they are instantly visible to all staff helping a claimant. The Department is beginning wider work to examine how claimants tell us about their complex needs, how we record them and how we can extract data which can help us monitor and improve support.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:19:38 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944941

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how they (1) identify, and (2) measure the number of, people having difficulties with claiming Universal Credit.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9724
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>The Department is continually working to improve the claimant journey for Universal Credit. The Universal Credit Full Service Claimant Survey found that 98 per cent of claims are made online, and that nearly half of claimants had help from others or from their jobcentre adviser to do so, demonstrating that those who need it are accessing the support available to them.</p><p> </p><p>The survey also found that 31 per cent of claimants said they need more on-going support with using their Universal Credit digital account. To address this, we are investing up to £200 million into budgeting and digital support, to help claimants with the transition to Universal Credit. This is delivered by the Department and through partners such as local authorities and other third party organisations.</p><p> </p><p>All jobcentres across the country have free Wi-Fi, and there are more than 8,000 computers available to support customers who need help with making their claim digitally and applying for jobs online. Work coaches will also assist anyone who needs assistance. If people cannot get online we have also a freephone helpline available.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:17:53 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig

944942

registered interest
date	19/07/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they measure the number of claimants of Universal Credit who are experiencing financial hardship; and if so, how many such claimants there are.
tabling member printed	Lord Touhig
uin	HL9725
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/07/2018 answer text <p>For many people who do experience financial difficulties, these pre-date their claim to Universal Credit. For example, in their report published on 11 July 2018, the National Federation of Arms-Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) of Social Housing providers found that of those Universal Credit households in rent arrears, 76 per cent had arrears prior to moving onto Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>In the Universal Credit Claimant survey, published in June 2018, 4 in 10 claimants reported they were having difficulties keeping up with bills. In 2011/12 in the report “Work and the welfare system: a survey of benefits and tax credits recipients” from 2011/12, one in three main claimants said they run out of money before the end of the week/month always or most of the time, and a further third said this happens more often than not or sometimes. Both surveys are available on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>Unlike in the legacy system, we are investing around £200 million over the Universal Credit implementation period into Universal Support to help claimants with budget management and digital support. Our work coaches work closely with claimants, ensuring they can identify any vulnerabilities such as financial hardship at an early stage. They can then tailor support according to claimants’ individual needs and help to address these issues.</p><p> </p><p>We also have a system of advances and budgeting support to help people with the transition to Universal Credit. From 3 January 2018, we increased the repayment period of Universal Credit advances to 12 months, with claimants able to get up to 100 per cent of their estimated monthly entitlement upfront. These advances are available to claimants interest-free, and from July 2018, can be applied for online.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 31/07/2018 12:18:44 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	542 label Biography information for Lord Touhig