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1138172

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the extent to which fraudulent claims for universal credit have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275665
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275666 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138177

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on how much has been spent on investigating fraudulent universal credit claims that have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275666
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275665 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1137770

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	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	Welfare Assistance Schemes
	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 local authorities that run local welfare assistance schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	275105
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.</p><p> </p><p>We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations from April 2013. This gave them maximum flexibility to deliver services as they see fit according to local needs.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ring-fence this notional allocation.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275106 275107 275109 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:57:44 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1137793

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	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	Welfare Assistance Schemes
	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 that benefited from local welfare assistance schemes in 2017-18.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	275106
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.</p><p> </p><p>We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations from April 2013. This gave them maximum flexibility to deliver services as they see fit according to local needs.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ring-fence this notional allocation.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275105 275107 275109 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:57:44 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1137840

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	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	Welfare Assistance Schemes
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will reintroduce a cash grant to local authorities for local welfare assistance schemes.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	275107
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.</p><p> </p><p>We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations from April 2013. This gave them maximum flexibility to deliver services as they see fit according to local needs.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ring-fence this notional allocation.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275105 275106 275109 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:57:44 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1137853

	registered interest
	date	09/07/2019
	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	Welfare Assistance Schemes
	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 local authorities that have reduced spending on local welfare assistance schemes by more than half since 2015-16.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	275109
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision.</p><p> </p><p>We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations from April 2013. This gave them maximum flexibility to deliver services as they see fit according to local needs.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ring-fence this notional allocation.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275105 275106 275107 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:57:44 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1136666

	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	Universal Credit: East Ayrshire
	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 oral contribution of 1 July 2019, Official Report, Column 903, what additional funding has been made available to East Ayrshire Council to mitigate the costs associated with the roll-out of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Kilmarnock and Loudoun
	tabling member printed	Alan Brown
	uin	272890
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>New Burdens funding has been provided to councils to cover additional costs associated with Universal Credit. In 2017/18 the Department paid £13m in New Burdens funding and paid £14m in New Burdens for 2018/19. Last year we worked with a number of Local Authorities to refresh these costs resulting in £18m in New Burdens being paid in 2019/20. 67 Local Authorities received a total of £4.7m in extra payments to recognise alleged additional costs caused in the early stages of roll out.</p><p> </p><p>The East Ayrshire Council has received £169k from the Department in New Burden funding.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to work with number of Local Authorities to further understand their service costs to inform future funding requirements.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 272891 question first answered 12/07/2019 13:52:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4470 label Biography information for Alan Brown

1136668

	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	Universal Credit: East Ayrshire
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her oral contribution on 1 July 1 2019, Official Report Vol 662, whether her investigation on the costs associated with the rollout of universal credit will consider the economic effects of that rollout on East Ayrshire Council.
	tabling member constituency	Kilmarnock and Loudoun
	tabling member printed	Alan Brown
	uin	272891
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>New Burdens funding has been provided to councils to cover additional costs associated with Universal Credit. In 2017/18 the Department paid £13m in New Burdens funding and paid £14m in New Burdens for 2018/19. Last year we worked with a number of Local Authorities to refresh these costs resulting in £18m in New Burdens being paid in 2019/20. 67 Local Authorities received a total of £4.7m in extra payments to recognise alleged additional costs caused in the early stages of roll out.</p><p> </p><p>The East Ayrshire Council has received £169k from the Department in New Burden funding.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to work with number of Local Authorities to further understand their service costs to inform future funding requirements.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 272890 question first answered 12/07/2019 13:52:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4470 label Biography information for Alan Brown

1135962

	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	Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an EU national granted settled status in the UK is classified as having a right to be habitually resident for the purposes of applying for (a) universal credit and (b) other benefits.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
	tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
	uin	271381
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2019 answer text <p>Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) benefits, such as Universal Credit, depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim. This is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT).</p><p> </p><p>EU nationals who have been granted settled status (indefinite leave to remain) by the Home Office will satisfy the legal right to reside element of the HRT. All claimants, regardless of nationality, must also demonstrate that they are factually habitually resident in the UK in order to be eligible to claim UC. In general, a period of 3 months residence is sufficient to meet this requirement.</p><p> </p><p>For certain non-contributory benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment, an individual must also satisfy the Past Presence Test (PPT), which requires them to have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the previous 156 weeks.</p><p> </p><p>Information on the nationality of those refused Universal Credit within the last 12 months is still being analysed, not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 271382 question first answered 04/07/2019 14:33:02 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

1135963

	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	Universal Credit: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many EU nationals have been refused universal credit in the last 12 months on the grounds that they have not demonstrated a right to be habitually resident.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
	tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
	uin	271382
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2019 answer text <p>Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) benefits, such as Universal Credit, depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim. This is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT).</p><p> </p><p>EU nationals who have been granted settled status (indefinite leave to remain) by the Home Office will satisfy the legal right to reside element of the HRT. All claimants, regardless of nationality, must also demonstrate that they are factually habitually resident in the UK in order to be eligible to claim UC. In general, a period of 3 months residence is sufficient to meet this requirement.</p><p> </p><p>For certain non-contributory benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment, an individual must also satisfy the Past Presence Test (PPT), which requires them to have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the previous 156 weeks.</p><p> </p><p>Information on the nationality of those refused Universal Credit within the last 12 months is still being analysed, not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 271381 question first answered 04/07/2019 14:33:02 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn