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386074

	registered interest
	date	29/06/2015
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, when they publish the statistics on the number of recipients of Employment and Support Allowance benefit who died between November 2011 and May 2014, whether they will be published in the same format as those published in 2012, and if not, why not.
	tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
	uin	HL873
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2015 answer text <p> </p><p>The format of any publication is a matter for the Head of Profession of Statistics who ensures the required standards are followed. The publication is still in development and the final format has yet to be determined.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL872 question first answered 13/07/2015 15:51:50 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

386073

	registered interest
	date	29/06/2015
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, when they publish the statistics on the number of recipients of Employment and Support Allowance benefit who died between November 2011 and May 2014 who had been found fit for work or told they could move towards getting work, whether these figures will be in a form that will allow comparisons with previous statistics.
	tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
	uin	HL872
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2015 answer text <p /> <p> </p><p>The format of any publication is a matter for the Head of Profession of Statistics who ensures the required standards are followed. The publication is still in development and the final format has yet to be determined.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL873 question first answered 13/07/2015 15:51:49 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

535896

	registered interest
	date	13/07/2016
	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, of the people previously claiming Disability Living Allowance at the higher component of (1) mobility, or (2) care, how many have been assessed for (a) the higher rate, or (b) the standard rate, of (i) the mobility component, or (ii) the daily living component, of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in each year since PIP was introduced.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Manzoor
	uin	HL1175
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/07/2016 answer text <p>The latest available data on personal independence payment (PIP) registrations, clearances and claims in payment for both new claims and reassessed claims (for those previously in receipt of disability living allowance (DLA)) is published on Gov.UK.</p><p> </p><p>In particular, breakdowns of reassessed claims in payment by type and rate of awards can be found from Stat-Xplore, which is a tool for exploring DWP’s statistics.</p><p> </p><p>The Department does not have verified data on the number of DLA claimants who have had their award changed as a result of the move to PIP. We intend to provide more detailed breakdowns of DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes in due course. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 18/07/2016 16:13:55 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4289 label Biography information for Baroness Manzoor

78262

	registered interest
	date	15/07/2014
	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	Work Programme: Travellers
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in their draft Child Poverty Strategy 2014–17, what they envisage by "specialist" support for Gypsy and Traveller parents via the Work Programme.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Whitaker
	uin	HL1157
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Government’s strategy for increasing ethnic minority employment and participation in the labour market is based around mainstreaming opportunity through locally delivered flexible provision.</p><p>The Work Programme is designed to give providers the flexibility to support each individual jobseeker, rather than treat people according to ethnic groups. Local autonomy and flexibility has replaced the one size fits all approach that has dogged previous employment schemes.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 28/07/2014 14:39:02 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	2510 label Biography information for Baroness Whitaker

79596

	registered interest
	date	24/07/2014
	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	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their recent <i>Evaluation of Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy: Interim Report</i>, what incentives they intend to make available to social landlords to encourage offers of alternative housing to be made to people affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy.
	tabling member printed	Lord German
	uin	HL1492
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Government has already taken steps to support mobility of tenants in the social rented sector.</p><p>Our social housing reforms have given social landlords, including councils, much more flexibility when allocating housing. Our statutory guidance on social housing allocations stresses the importance of giving under-occupying social tenants appropriate priority for a transfer. It also encourages authorities to re-consider the parameters of their allocation schemes which may prevent under-occupiers from being able to move.</p><p>The introduction of the national <em>HomeSwap</em> Direct scheme has made it easier for tenants wanting to move to find a suitable property. A guide was issued in February 2014 to support landlords seeking to facilitate mutual exchanges; highlighting various steps landlords can take to make mutual exchange a more attractive and viable proposition for tenants.Indeed, many social landlords are helping affected tenants by holding “mutual exchange fairs”, where tenants who want to downsize can meet those looking for larger properties.</p><p>The 2015-18 Affordable Housing Programme also encourages housing providers to build appropriately sized social homes to meet local need, 77% of successful bids have been for 1 and 2 bedroom homes, increasing the stock of housing available for those working to downsize.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 29/07/2014 11:10:40 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4163 label Biography information for Lord German

100567

	registered interest
	date	22/10/2014
	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	Welfare Assistance Schemes
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their decision not to contest the judicial review of the decision to cease funding for Local Welfare Assistance, whether they will reinstate that funding for 2015–16.
	tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
	uin	HL2304
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2014 answer text <p>From April 2015 it was intended funding for local welfare provision would be funded from the general grant to Local Government. The general grant took this into account.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has agreed to look again at how funding is provided for in 2015/16. Any decisions will be taken after we have reviewed how the current funds have been used and the on-going consultation and equality analysis on 2015/16 funding being co-ordinated by the Department for Communities and Local Government.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 29/10/2014 15:16:01 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

100930

	registered interest
	date	24/10/2014
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the steps they are taking to reduce the cost of benefit fraud, what they propose to do, and how much they plan to spend, to reduce underpayments to claimants due to mistakes by officials or claimants.
	tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
	uin	HL2398
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Department takes both under and overpayments seriously and has in place a number of initiatives to address the errors that cause them. These activities address fraud as well as error, and both under and overpayments. It is therefore not possible to separate out the cost of activities focused exclusively on underpayments as a result of error.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit will make the welfare system simpler by replacing six benefits and credits with a single monthly payment. This simplification is expected to lead to a reduction in fraud and error due to the fact that information about claimants will be held in one place and updated more frequently and easily.</p><p> </p><p>For claimants that have income taxed under PAYE, Universal Credit will be linked to HMRC’s Real Time Information system, which will provide an automatic monthly update of their income thus reducing the potential for both error and fraud.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has invested in compliance activity, so that case correctness is maintained and fraud and error entering the system are detected and resolved quickly. Across all delivery arms there is a focus on accuracy and quality, including a continuous quality checking regime to review claims and check processing accuracy.</p><p> </p><p>We constantly review claims by checking them against data coming into our systems, in order to highlight potential anomalies. We do this by using business rules which focus on potential error to identify both under and overpayments.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is taking steps to encourage claimants to ensure that the information provided to us is accurate and up-to-date. This includes a fraud and error communications campaign about driving behaviour change and emphasising that claimants must report any change of circumstances.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 07/11/2014 13:39:35 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham

78230

	registered interest
	date	15/07/2014
	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: Voluntary Work
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation study of neighbourhood approaches to loneliness, whether they will set out, and if necessary reconsider, the rules governing volunteering while on benefits.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
	uin	HL1125
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p>We recognise that volunteering in the local community can be invaluable in helping benefit claimants, including inactive people, gain new skills and experience that will help them back into work.</p><p> </p><p>In Jobseekers Allowance, claimants are able to volunteer so long as they meet the conditions of claiming, namely looking for and being available for work.</p><p> </p><p>Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants can do unlimited, voluntary work, it will not affect ESA.</p><p> </p><p>For Universal Credit claimants, advisers will be able to reduce a claimant’s expected hours of worksearch and work preparation activities by up to 50 per cent in order to accommodate voluntary work. However the claimant can continue to do as much voluntary work as they feel they are able to, as long as they continue to meet their other work-related requirements.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 28/07/2014 15:59:46 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

156482

	registered interest
	date	18/11/2014
	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
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the position of the government of the Republic of Ireland in respect of disregarding monies paid under its scheme to compensate sufferers of abuse in the Magdalene laundries and other institutions for the purposes of calculating benefits, why such payments are not disregarded, as a consequence of being made in response to a personal injury, in relation to benefits otherwise payable to such sufferers resident in the United Kingdom.
	tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
	uin	HL2924
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government has sympathy for the women who suffered by their admission to and work in the Magdalen institutions. However, payments made under the Republic of Ireland’s <em>ex gratia</em> scheme do not meet GB legal criteria to be treated as personal injury payments. The payments are not being made ‘in consequence of any personal injury’, but are made in consequence of being admitted to a laundry, regardless of the effects. The amount each woman will receive is dependent on the length of time spent in the laundries and not on the specific effect that it has had on their health. They are also being made as part of a broader process of restorative justice by the Republic of Ireland Government.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has no plans to amend GB income-related benefit legislation to include specific disregards along the lines of the schemes mentioned. There is already provision in the benefit system to disregard payments made in respect of personal injury to avoid the need to disregard specific payments on an <em>ad hoc</em> basis. To amend legislation as new compensation schemes are introduced would add complexity to the benefit system and its administration.</p><p> </p><p>There is already provision in legislation to disregard some elements of the <em>ex gratia </em>payments. For example, Pension Credit – the income-related benefit most likely to be claimed - has no capital cut off limit. Where compensation in excess of the €50,000 lump sum maximum <em>ex gratia</em> award is payable as weekly payments, these will be disregarded under current Pension Credit and pension age Housing Benefit legislation.</p><p> </p><p>We understand that as of 6 August 2014 there had been a total number of approximately 760 applications to the scheme, around 160 of which were from UK residents. However, neither information regarding the number of UK applicants who are also in receipt of Pension Credit or other benefits, nor the amount of any <em>ex gratia</em> payments made is available. We are therefore unable to estimate the potential cost of a disregard.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL2925 HL2926 question first answered 24/11/2014 14:37:32 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham

525448

	registered interest
	date	15/06/2016
	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	Public Sector: Billing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Office for National Statistics report on the levels of (1) persistent, and (2) overall, poverty rates in the United Kingdom, what new actions they intend to take to eradicate poverty and the causes of poverty in this Parliament.
	tabling member printed	Lord Bird
	uin	HL720
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2016 answer text <p>This Government’s welfare reforms are focused on supporting people to find and keep work whilst ensuring that we are protecting the most vulnerable. At the end of the Parliament we will be spending over £60bn – 3% of GDP – supporting people on low incomes.</p><p> </p><p>We know that work is the best route out of poverty. Evidence shows that almost three-quarters of poor workless families who found full employment escaped poverty; and that the highest poverty exit rate of 75% was for families that moved from part to full employment. The number of children living in workless households is down by 449,000 since 2010</p><p> </p><p>Our new life chances approach to poverty and disadvantage will include a set of indicators to measure progress in tackling the root causes of poverty such as worklessness, educational attainment and family stability.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL721 question first answered 29/06/2016 16:17:39 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird