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1137628

registered interest
date	08/07/2019
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, with reference to the Personal Independence Payment Administrative Exercise data release, published by her Department on 4 July 2019, if she will commission an independent comparative assessment of the estimate of the number of claimants that would be affected in Equality Impact Assessment published in 2017 and the figures published by her Department on 4 July 2019.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	274639
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>We have no plans to commission an independent assessment. Our original estimates were based on the best available information at the time, and we were clear that they were very likely to change as the guidance implementing the judgement was produced and data was gathered from the administrative exercise to implement it.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 15/07/2019 16:19:01 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1137155

registered interest
date	05/07/2019
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 and Support Allowance: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the 29 April 2019 Health Select Committee news item, Committee publishes doctors’ views on Fit Notes and ESA appeals, what estimate her Department has made of the number of claimants who challenged their work capability assessment decisions but were refused employment support allowance while their appeal was pending due to her Department sending ambiguous ESA65B letters to claimants’ GPs.
tabling member constituency	Carshalton and Wallington
tabling member printed	Tom Brake
uin	273727
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not available.</p><p> </p><p>We have revised the ESA65B letter, which went live from 3rd June 2019. The letter gives clear clinical discretion to GPs to continue issuing fit notes in appropriate circumstances, such as when an appeal against a Department for Work and Pensions decision is being undertaken, where a claimant’s condition has worsened or if the claimant has developed a new health condition or disability.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/07/2019 12:55:12 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	151 label Biography information for Tom Brake

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

1136405

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	Disability
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 her Department has taken to increase public understanding of invisible disabilities.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle-under-Lyme
tabling member printed	Paul Farrelly
uin	272164
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>On Tuesday 25 June, the Government launched a new cross-government approach on disability which is guided by a vision that recognises the contributions that disabled people make and where disabled people can participate fully in society. To drive forward this approach, government will establish a new cross-departmental disability team in the Cabinet Office, and the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) will be incorporated into the team. This move recognises that disabled people, including those with hidden disabilities, face barriers across the life course and a wide range of aspects of their lives and coordinated cross-government action is therefore vital.</p><p>The British Standards Institution, and others involved in supporting the “Grace’s Sign” campaign, are currently exploring the potential for developing a symbol for hidden disabilities. The project is in an early scoping phase, but its intended aim is that the symbol would be recognised by the International Organization for Standardization. Achieving this involves a multi-stage process, which can take time, but if successful, greatly enhances the chances of its sustained future use in public signage. If successful, greater use and public acceptance of such a symbol would increase awareness of hidden disabilities, and help promote an understanding of the possible access and support needs of people with hidden disabilities.</p><p>Various Sector Champions appointed by the Minister for Disabled People are working within their sectors to support all disabled people, raise awareness of their needs and drive improvements in how these are met. Examples relating to hidden disabilities include: railway franchises thinking about supporting people with a wider range of disabilities, including through quiet areas at stations; a lanyard to identify those with hidden disabilities at airports, with staff trained to recognise this and offer help; and within the retail sector, many large stores holding quiet hours (no music and dimmed lighting) to improve the shopping experience for those with some hidden disabilities (such as autism or ADHD).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 08/07/2019 15:56:14 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
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 Lord Sharma
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1136912

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	Jobcentre Plus: Closures
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 (a) financial implications and (b) net effect on jobs of the closure of benefit processing centres in London.
tabling member constituency	Twickenham
tabling member printed	Sir Vince Cable
uin	273307
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government Estate Strategy sets out an ambition to rebalance the economy, creating regional growth and locating jobs outside of London. This, along with the considerable increases in rental costs in London, and the commercial challenges in retaining property of any size, means that the Department’s strategy is to gradually migrate processing work out of London. While there will be no impact to public facing Jobcentre services, it does mean that a number of central London processing sites will close by 2023.</p><p> </p><p>As we look to close these offices, we will redistribute the work to other processing hubs across the UK and, wherever possible, seek to redeploy London based staff to other areas of DWP or other Government Departments. We will not be in a position to assess the net impact on jobs until this activity has completed.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, despite these closures, the Department will continue to be a significant employer in London.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/07/2019 13:33:16 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	207 label Biography information for Sir Vince Cable

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

1136545

registered interest
date	03/07/2019
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	Lung Diseases: Occupational Health
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether occupational health nurses take the occupational history of their client into account when assessing people who are showing signs of lung disease.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	272926
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>As part of performing a competent occupational health assessment, the occupational history should be taken from the worker. Any relevant aspects of the occupational history should then be considered when formulating an opinion from an occupational health perspective in respect of that worker. As an example, the information considered when performing health surveillance of workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica can be found here: <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/healthsurveillance.htm" target="_blank">www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/healthsurveillance.htm</a>.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 12/07/2019 13:40:06 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1136406

registered interest
date	02/07/2019
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	Marriage Guidance: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding the Government has allocated under section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 to (a) the provision of marriage support services and (b) research into (i) the causes of and (ii) preventing marital breakdown in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Congleton
tabling member printed	Fiona Bruce
uin	272228
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Responsibility for delivering relationship support services moved to the Department for Work and Pensions in 2013. Although DWP does not make grants under s22 of the Family Law Act (1996), we have funded a range of services to support families to improve the quality of their relationships – including those who are married.</p><p>DWP is currently delivering the Reducing Parental Conflict programme, which is backed by up to £39m and aims to encourage local authorities and their partners across England to integrate services which address parental conflict into local provision for families. Around a third of this budget is being used to test eight face-to-face interventions, which evidence shows have the potential to be effective at reducing parental conflict.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 08/07/2019 12:47:27 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	3958 label Biography information for Fiona Bruce

1135807

registered interest
date	01/07/2019
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	Workplace Pensions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the publication of the master trust and GPP defaults report by Corporate Adviser magazine, whether her Department plans to reduce the protection on charges for members of occupational pension schemes used for automatic enrolment.
tabling member constituency	Wallasey
tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
uin	271354
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2019 answer text <p>The DWP have no such plans. The Corporate Adviser report (available on request from <a href="https://corporate-adviser.com/" target="_blank">https://corporate-adviser.com/</a>) showed that the vast majority of pension savers are in schemes are able to invest in a range of diversified assets at prices well below the automatic enrolment charge cap. Therefore I do not intend to reduce member protections.</p><p> </p><p>In my 2017 written statement HCWS249 (<a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-11-16/HCWS249/" target="_blank">https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-11-16/HCWS249/</a>) I committed to reviewing the level and scope of the charge cap in 2020, alongside the suitability of ‘combination charges’ (where a percentage charge on funds is combined with a charge on contribution or a flat annual fee), to see whether a change is needed to protect members.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 04/07/2019 14:12:02 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle