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1136048

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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	Local Housing Allowance
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 potential merits of increasing local housing allowance to the 30th percentile point for current market rents in each size category of dwelling.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle-under-Lyme
tabling member printed	Paul Farrelly
uin	271443
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>There are no current plans to extend or maintain the Benefit Freeze after March 2020. Specific decisions on how to uprate the Local Housing Allowance from April 2020 will form part of the discussions in support of fiscal events later this year.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 08/07/2019 16:40:08 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	1436 label Biography information for Paul Farrelly

1136896

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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, if she will publish the (a) forecast number of new claims for universal credit between April 2018 and March 2019, (b) date on which that forecast was made and (c) actual number of new claims made during that period.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	273365
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not available as the Department does not forecast new claims to Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>The actual number of claims made between April 2018 and March 2019 can be found under the ‘Claims to Universal Credit’ dataset available at: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a></p><p>Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/07/2019 14:01:25 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1136924

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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	Electronic Government: Proof of Identity
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 viability of the Verify scheme; and what role the private sector is planned to play in the future of that scheme.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Stephen Lloyd
uin	273377
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been working together on improvements to GOV.UK Verify for access to DWP digital services and the number of claimants who are successful when attempting to use GOV.UK Verify is steadily increasing.</p><p> </p><p>DWP will continue to consider options to provide the easiest and most secure digital services for claimants and as such we're considering a range of other identity verification options which are easy to use and cost-effective for the Department. The Verify solution is part of the suite of products offered in this area. The assessment of all DWP identity solutions is a continuous process to ensure that we are meeting customer needs in the most cost effective way.</p><p> </p><p>Discussions between Cabinet Office Government Digital Services, the owners of GOV.UK Verify are ongoing as to the role of the private sector post March 2020 and DWP, alongside all other Departments that use GOV.UK Verify, will be engaging in those conversations at the appropriate time.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/07/2019 13:46:43 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	3968 label Biography information for Stephen Lloyd

1136989

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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 steps her Department is taking to increase the take-up of pension credit among people without internet access.
tabling member constituency	Lincoln
tabling member printed	Karen Lee
uin	273486
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>Pension Credit is an important benefit specifically intended to help the poorest pensioners. There are over 1.6m pensioners already claiming Pension Credit worth over £5billion a year. However, the Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled.</p><p> </p><p>We also welcome and encourage initiatives to promote take up of Pension Credit by national and local organisations who may often be best placed to understand the local circumstances and needs in the community. For this reason 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>Organisations can use the Pension Credit calculator <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator</a> to help people check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, 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>, but also 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>In Lincoln there are just under 3,000 pensioners already claiming Pension Credit. The easiest way to make a claim is by telephone. People can telephone either the Pension Service helpline for general enquiries on 0800 731 0469 or those wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 273489 question first answered 12/07/2019 11:32:15 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4664 label Biography information for Karen Lee

1136990

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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: Lincoln
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount of unclaimed pension credit is per eligible claimant in the constituency of Lincoln in the most recent period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Lincoln
tabling member printed	Karen Lee
uin	273487
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested on the number of potentially eligible claimants of pension credit who have not claimed the benefit and the average amount of unclaimed pension credit per eligible claimant in the constituency of Lincoln is not available at constituency level.</p><p> </p><p>Official statistics on the take-up of income related benefits at Great Britain level, including pension credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up 2016 to 2017’ publication.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 273488 question first answered 12/07/2019 13:46:11 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4664 label Biography information for Karen Lee

1136992

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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: Lincoln
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 number of potentially eligible claimants of pension credit who have not claimed that benefit in the constituency of Lincoln in the most recent period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Lincoln
tabling member printed	Karen Lee
uin	273488
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested on the number of potentially eligible claimants of pension credit who have not claimed the benefit and the average amount of unclaimed pension credit per eligible claimant in the constituency of Lincoln is not available at constituency level.</p><p> </p><p>Official statistics on the take-up of income related benefits at Great Britain level, including pension credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up 2016 to 2017’ publication.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2016-to-2017</a></p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 273487 question first answered 12/07/2019 13:46:11 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4664 label Biography information for Karen Lee

1136993

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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: Lincoln
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 is taking to engage with local organisations in Lincoln to increase the take-up of pension credit in that city.
tabling member constituency	Lincoln
tabling member printed	Karen Lee
uin	273489
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>Pension Credit is an important benefit specifically intended to help the poorest pensioners. There are over 1.6m pensioners already claiming Pension Credit worth over £5billion a year. However, the Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled.</p><p> </p><p>We also welcome and encourage initiatives to promote take up of Pension Credit by national and local organisations who may often be best placed to understand the local circumstances and needs in the community. For this reason 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>Organisations can use the Pension Credit calculator <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator</a> to help people check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, 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>, but also 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>In Lincoln there are just under 3,000 pensioners already claiming Pension Credit. The easiest way to make a claim is by telephone. People can telephone either the Pension Service helpline for general enquiries on 0800 731 0469 or those wishing to claim Pension Credit can do so by calling 0800 99 1234.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 273486 question first answered 12/07/2019 11:32:15 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4664 label Biography information for Karen Lee

1137007

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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 he has made of the number of people who decided not to pursue an appeal for personal independence payments due to the length of the waiting time for an appeal.
tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
uin	273493
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/07/2019 answer text <p>There is no administrative data held that could determine the reasons why an individual, if dissatisfied with the decision received after their MR is completed, might not choose to pursue an appeal with HMCTS.</p><p> </p><p>There is already some data in the public domain that may be of interest. The Personal Independent Payment (PIP) Official Statistics holds information on the volumes of Mandatory Reconsiderations (MRs) registered (<em>Table 7A</em>) and cleared (<em>Table 7B</em>), and can be found 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><p> </p><p>The Ministry of Justice Tribunal Statistics Quarterly publication contains the number of PIP cases for which an appeal is lodged with Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) (<em>Table SSCS1</em>), and can be found here:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2019</a></p><p> </p><p>HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HCMTS) is taking positive steps to reduce the waiting time for appeals to be heard in the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) jurisdiction. In 2018, 232 medical members and 118 disability-qualified members were additionally appointed to the SSCS jurisdiction and an extra 129 fee-paid judges have recently been appointed. The SSCS jurisdiction will also benefit from 100 salaried judges and 170 fee-paid judges being recruited across tribunals more widely. In addition, HMCTS is developing a new digital system with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals and a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Case-management “triage” sessions are also being conducted, with the aim of reducing the number of cases that need to progress to an oral hearing.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/07/2019 15:18:58 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1137020

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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: Medical Examinations
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of disabled car parking spaces at each assessment centre for (a) personal independence payments and (b) employment and support allowance.
tabling member constituency	Stretford and Urmston
tabling member printed	Kate Green
uin	273387
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>Ensuring our assessment services are accessible to all claimants is a priority in line with the standards under the Equality Act 2010. Where claimants are not able to access particular assessment centre, our assessment providers provide alternative means of delivering the service. There is no requirement to provide on-site parking.</p><p> </p><p>All assessment providers delivering the Work Capability Assessment and Personal Independence Payment assessments are required to consider the needs of claimants such as proximity to public transport routes and access to suitable parking e.g. Blue Badge parking.</p><p> </p><p>Individuals can claim the cost of public and private transport from their current address plus parking fees. Taxi fares can also be claimed if customers cannot travel by public transport due to their health condition or disability. The assessment provider will try and meet any such reasonable requests.</p><p> </p><p>Individuals will be issued details about the assessment centre, if they are unable to attend or have any concerns they should contact the assessment provider.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 12/07/2019 12:04:45 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4120 label Biography information for Kate Green

1137024

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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	Employment: Arthritis
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 improve support in the workplace for sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
tabling member constituency	Chesterfield
tabling member printed	Toby Perkins
uin	273371
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/07/2019 answer text <p>We are committed to improving employment outcomes for disabled people and people with health conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. We have seen almost 950,000 more disabled people in work over the five years to the first quarter of 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Access to Work offers disabled workers practical advice and a discretionary grant of up to £59,200 per year for in-work support. Access to Work does not record arthritis as a primary medical condition category, as the scheme uses the same categories as the Labour Force Survey. However, last year Access to Work paid over £13 million to individuals who listed ‘arms or hands, 'legs or feet' and 'back or neck' as their primary medical conditions, and many of these will be people living with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. That represents over 10% of the total Access to Work spend and a 2% increase, in real terms, on the previous year.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, DWP is engaging with employers through the Disability Confident scheme - supporting them to feel more confident about both employing disabled people, including people with arthritis, and supporting disabled employees to realise their potential. Over 12,000 employers have signed up to the scheme so far.</p><p> </p><p>Looking forward, DWP is working in partnership with Department of Health and Social Care to publish a consultation on how employers can best support disabled people and people with long-term health conditions like arthritis, to stay and thrive in work. The proposals included in the consultation not only seek to benefit disabled people, but all employees who experience or are at risk of a long term sickness absence.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/07/2019 15:34:26 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	3952 label Biography information for Mr Toby Perkins