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1240122

registered interest
date	05/10/2020
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: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2020 to Question 33416 on Universal Credit: Coronavirus, what the average processing time was for a universal credit claim in (a) February, (b) March, (c) April, (d) May, (e) June, (f) July and (g) August 2020.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	98882
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>The latest available information on Universal Credit payment timeliness is published and can be found at: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a></p><p> </p><p>Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:</p><p><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> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/10/2020 12:48:56 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

1240223

registered interest
date	05/10/2020
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, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of automatically registering all eligible pensioners for pension credit.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	99017
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2020 answer text <p>It is a long-established policy of all governments, that provision of income-related benefits is contingent on a person making a valid claim. Like other means-tested benefits, Pension Credit eligibility and award amounts are determined by a person’s financial and personal circumstances and it is the responsibility of the person making a claim to provide the correct and accurate information required to establish entitlement.</p><p /><p>Pension Credit is intended to target help at the poorest pensioner households. It would not therefore be practical to automatically register everyone of State Pension age for Pension Credit when the majority of them will simply not qualify. There may also be pensioners, who might qualify for Pension Credit, who do not wish to claim it.</p><p> </p><p>In 2010 the Department ran an innovative pilot scheme to try to boost take-up of Pension Credit. The trial involved automatically paying Pension Credit to some 2,000 people who the Department had identified as possibly having entitlement to Pension Credit without them having to make an actual claim first. At the end of the trial the group were invited to go on and make a claim. The level of take-up was surprisingly low and disappointing, with less than 9% of those involved going on to take up their entitlement. It was therefore not considered a viable and cost effective mechanism to take forward. A copy of the evaluation of the pilot is available at <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214583/rrep796.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214583/rrep796.pdf</a>.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 08/10/2020 14:48:58 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1240226

registered interest
date	05/10/2020
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, how many and what proportion of eligible pensioners in each parliamentary constituency are (a) in receipt of and (b) have made claims for pension credit.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	99018
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2020 answer text <p>Information on the number of Pension Credit claimants in each parliamentary constituency as of February 2020 is published and available at <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk</a>.</p><p /><p>The information requested on the proportion of pensioners eligible to Pension Credit who are in receipt of the benefit is only available at the Great Britain level. The latest data for 2017/18 is available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-2017-to-2018</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP publishes annual take-up statistics for income-related benefits, including Pension Credit. These are estimates based on data collected through the Family Resource Survey as well as DWP administrative data. However, the sample sizes available from the survey data are not large enough to enable reliable take-up statistics to be produced at sub-national level e.g. for parliamentary constituencies.</p><p> </p><p>We do not hold the information requested on the number and proportion of claims made by eligible pensioners for pension credit in each parliamentary constituency.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 08/10/2020 14:52:04 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1240323

registered interest
date	05/10/2020
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	Foster Care: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing statutory sick pay to foster carers during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
uin	99146
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) provides a minimum level of income for employees when they are off work sick, or deemed incapable of work. It is paid in full by employers. To receive SSP from their employer, individuals must meet all SSP eligibility conditions, including being classed as an employee.</p><p> </p><p>SSP is just one part of the government’s safety net and the support to people in times of need during the pandemic. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick or self-isolating, for example where they are not eligible for SSP, and they require further financial support they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on individual circumstances. Working people on low incomes who are required to remain at home by NHS Test and Trace to help stop the spread of the virus and cannot work from home can also now receive £500.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Background</strong></p><ul><li>SSP is paid at a flat rate of £95.85 per week to eligible employees.</li><li>We have already strengthened our wider safety net by temporarily increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit by the equivalent of £20 per week, meaning that claimants will be up to £1,040 better off for the 20/21 tax year.</li></ul> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 07/10/2020 13:51:44 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

1240449

registered interest
date	05/10/2020
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: Coronavirus
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 clearance time frame was for her Department to process a new personal independence payment claim in the period from March 2020 to August 2020; and what that average time taken was in that same period in 2019; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Pontypridd
tabling member printed	Alex Davies-Jones
uin	99157
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2020 answer text <p>The latest available data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clearance times covers claims cleared up to the end of July 2020. Therefore, the average clearance times are calculated from March 2020 to July 2020, and March 2019 to July 2019 respectively for comparison.</p><p> </p><p>The median end to end clearance time for PIP New Claims in Great Britain for Normal Rules claimants was 21 weeks for claims cleared from March 2020 to July 2020, and was 15 weeks for claims cleared from March 2019 to July 2019.</p><p> </p><p>[In Wales, the median end to end clearance time for PIP New Claims for Normal Rules claimants was 14 weeks for claims cleared from March 2020 – July 2020 and was 16 weeks for claims cleared from March 2019 – July 2019.]</p><p> </p><p>Changes in the average end to end clearance time across from March 2020 to July 2020 reflect disruption due to COVID-19, including the development, testing and successful rollout of a new telephony assessment model to enable claims to be progressed robustly in the absence of face-to-face assessments to ensure we were not putting vulnerable people and our staff at risk.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Notes</strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Source: PIP ADS</strong></p><p> </p><ul><li>PIP data includes normal rules claimants only and is for new claims only.</li><li>Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number of weeks.</li></ul><ul><li>The status of claims as 'normal rules' and 'new claim/reassessment' is shown as at the point of clearance.</li><li>The figures quoted are the median clearance time of claims which are cleared in the given time period.</li><li>The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. The median is presented here instead of the mean because the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases (e.g. cases where the person has been hard to reach due to being in prison, hospital, failed to attend the assessment on numerous occasions etc.)</li><li>The 'Registration to DWP decision (end to end)' clearance time is measured as the median time between the date of registration of the claim and the date of the DWP decision to either award or disallow the claim. It does not include claims that were withdrawn by the claimant or claims that were disallowed by DWP pre-referral to the Assessment Providers (e.g. for failure to meet basic eligibility criteria or failure to return the Part 2 form within the time limit).</li><li>Great Britain only.</li></ul><ul><li>The median clearance times for March 2019 – July 2019 and March 2020 – July 2020 are unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.</li><li>From late March 2020 onwards, disruption due to COVID-19 affected volumes of clearances for all activities - Assessment Providers switched to paper based and telephony assessments rather than face to face assessments, and in the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic efforts were made to clear residual claims in the system from before emergency measures were put in place, giving rise to an initial spike in clearance volumes. During the quarter ending July 2020, the effects of the disruption due to COVID-19 have reduced in some areas though they continue in many parts of the process.</li></ul> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 08/10/2020 14:37:20 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4849 label Biography information for Alex Davies-Jones

1239912

registered interest
date	02/10/2020
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	Department for Work and Pensions: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with (a) the Welsh Government and (b) Welsh local authority leaders on her Department's staff being asked to (i) travel to work in county boroughs which are in local covid-19 lockdown and (ii) hold face-to-face assessments in county boroughs which are in local covid-19 lockdown.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	98686
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>Since the start of Covid-19 as key workers, DWP employees have played a crucial role in the national effort, in line with government guidelines.</p><p> </p><p>In accordance with Government social distancing guidance we have provided digital kit to our staff to enable more flexible working – in particular working from home. This has enabled us to ensure that Jobcentres are Covid secure for those customers who are best supported face to face, whilst still providing services over the phone and online.</p><p> </p><p>As we double the number of Work Coaches, we will continue to expand our multi-channel engagement with claimants, including booking appointments across our network to support people face-to-face where they need it.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 98688 98690 question first answered 07/10/2020 15:58:52 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1239914

registered interest
date	02/10/2020
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	Department for Work and Pensions: Staff
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 effect on her staff's wellbeing of being asked to return to the office during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	98687
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>The wellbeing of our employees is paramount. Since the start of the pandemic, we have adapted our wellbeing offer at pace to bring our colleagues targeted solutions to support their wellbeing. This has focused on colleagues working in the office as well as those required to work from home.</p><p> </p><p>As key workers, our staff have continued to attend our offices throughout the pandemic but we have also provided digital kit to our staff to enable more flexible working, in particular working from home. This has enabled us to ensure that our offices are COVID-19 secure and we can maintain social distancing.</p><p> </p><p>An individual Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) risk assessment is available for colleague to work through with their line manager to address their individual concerns.</p><p> </p><p>All BAME colleagues have also had the opportunity to participate in a small group talking session, facilitated by trauma managers/counsellors. This has provided BAME colleagues with the opportunity to talk through any concerns they may have had about returning to work, which may have been heightened by COVID-19, and to work with specialists to put strategies in place to combat.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 07/10/2020 16:00:50 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1239916

registered interest
date	02/10/2020
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	Department for Work and Pensions: Wales
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 any Health and Safety Impact Assessments her Department used when taking the decision to ask staff to travel into Jobcentre Plus offices which are located in Welsh County Boroughs in local lockdown.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	98688
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>Since the start of Covid-19 as key workers, DWP employees have played a crucial role in the national effort, in line with government guidelines.</p><p> </p><p>In accordance with Government social distancing guidance we have provided digital kit to our staff to enable more flexible working – in particular working from home. This has enabled us to ensure that Jobcentres are Covid secure for those customers who are best supported face to face, whilst still providing services over the phone and online.</p><p> </p><p>As we double the number of Work Coaches, we will continue to expand our multi-channel engagement with claimants, including booking appointments across our network to support people face-to-face where they need it.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 98686 98690 question first answered 07/10/2020 15:58:52 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1239917

registered interest
date	02/10/2020
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 comparative assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department carrying out face-to-face and virtual assessments during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	98689
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>No comparative assessment has been made of virtual and face-to-face Jobcentre appointments.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 07/10/2020 16:40:36 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1239918

registered interest
date	02/10/2020
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	Jobcentres: Wales
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 make it her policy (a) only to permit urgent face-to-face jobcentre appointments to take place in Welsh county boroughs which are in local covid-19 lockdown and (b) to require her staff to work from home where possible during the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	98690
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/10/2020 answer text <p>Since the start of Covid-19 as key workers, DWP employees have played a crucial role in the national effort, in line with government guidelines.</p><p> </p><p>In accordance with Government social distancing guidance we have provided digital kit to our staff to enable more flexible working – in particular working from home. This has enabled us to ensure that Jobcentres are Covid secure for those customers who are best supported face to face, whilst still providing services over the phone and online.</p><p> </p><p>As we double the number of Work Coaches, we will continue to expand our multi-channel engagement with claimants, including booking appointments across our network to support people face-to-face where they need it.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 98686 98688 question first answered 07/10/2020 15:58:52 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards