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1126618

	registered interest
	date	14/05/2019
	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, what changes have been made to the burden of proof required to prove eligibility for welfare support for (a) EU nationals and (b) non-EU nationals following the introduction of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	254247
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>No changes have been made to the burden of proof required to demonstrate eligibility for Universal Credit. In 2015, amendments to Universal Credit regulations brought the eligibility criteria to access Universal Credit more closely into line with EU regulations. The Department publishes Advice for Decision Makers on gov.uk, which is updated periodically.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 16:48:54 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 119071 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1126815

	registered interest
	date	15/05/2019
	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	Novartis: North East Lincolnshire
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people affected by the potential closure of the Novartis plant in North East Lincolnshire.
	tabling member constituency	Great Grimsby
	tabling member printed	Melanie Onn
	uin	254841
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>DWP offer a Rapid Response Service (RRS). This is a redundancy service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with the prospect of redundancy. It is coordinated nationally by the National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT) and is managed by Jobcentre Plus. Each Jobcentre Plus district deploy resources according to the situation and the requirements of the workforce. This service is available to be deployed in Grimsby and surrounding area should Novartis require support from Jobcentre Plus. The RRS is delivered in partnership with a range of national and local partners, including National Careers Service and local service providers.</p><p> </p><p>The range of support available from Jobcentre Plus and partners may include:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Information advice and guidance.</li><li>Connecting people to jobs in the labour market.</li><li>Help with job search including CV writing, interview skills, where to find jobs and<br> how to apply for them.</li><li>Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps (linked to the local labour<br> market).</li><li>Training to update skills, learn new ones and gain industry recognised<br> certification that will improve employability.</li><li>Help to overcome barriers to attending training or securing a job or <br> self-employment such as child care costs, necessary tools, work clothes, travel<br> costs etc.</li><li>On-site presentations to those affected.</li><li>Jobs Fairs and Job Clubs where appropriate.</li></ul> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 16:58:43 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 119072 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4464 label Biography information for Melanie Onn

1127116

	registered interest
	date	16/05/2019
	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, what estimate her Department has made of the effect of the 5-week wait for the first payment of universal credit on (a) a claimant’s level of (i) debt and (ii) rent arrears and (b) the finances of disabled claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral West
	tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
	uin	255340
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>No one has to wait 5 weeks for their first payment of Universal Credit. Advances are available from the first day of a valid claim, if required, to support claimants.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 15:59:56 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

1127119

	registered interest
	date	16/05/2019
	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, how many and what proportion of universal credit payments have been subject to a deduction as a result of a claimant’s historic debt to (a) her Department and (b) HM Treasury in the latest month for which data is available.
	tabling member constituency	Wirral West
	tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
	uin	255341
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>Internal Management information shows that in April 2019, 280,000 payments of Universal Credit (UC) had a deduction applied to repay a non UC debt owed to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and 340,000 payments of UC had a deduction applied to repay a Tax Credit debt (these figures have been rounded to the nearest 10,000). Some payments of UC may have had a deduction for both a non UC debt and a Tax Credit debt. These claimants would appear in both totals, therefore the figures cannot be summed.</p><p> </p><p>In line with the deductions policy in UC, for both types of debt, the deductions would not usually exceed the maximum amounts, which are set out legislation. Only in cases where last resort deductions are applied can these rates be exceeded. DWP ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants who have deductions from their benefit to repay overpayments. If a claimant is struggling they can contact DWP’s Debt Management to discuss lowering their repayment rate.</p><p> </p><p>It is also worth noting that it is not possible to provide this as a proportion at April 2019, as the latest UC caseload data is only available as of 14 February 19. However, for context, as of 14 February 19, 1.4m households received payments of UC.</p><p> </p><p>N.B. This data on deductions has been sourced from internal management information. It should therefore not be compared to any other similar data subsequently released by the DWP.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 15:53:23 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

1127134

	registered interest
	date	16/05/2019
	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, how much the Government has spent on promoting and advertising universal credit since it was introduced.
	tabling member constituency	Cardiff Central
	tabling member printed	Jo Stevens
	uin	255342
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department provides services to around 22 million people and, as with other government departments, it has a responsibility to communicate policy and essential information to customers and other key audiences.</p><p> </p><p>The ‘Opening Up Work’ campaign aims to increase understanding of how Universal Credit removes barriers to work and career progression, and to ensure people can access information to help people make a claim. The Department has dedicated funds to this campaign to make sure claimants know how to access the support that they need.</p><p> </p><p>Advertising spend to date from 2016-17 onwards on the Universal Credit Opening Up Work campaign is around £6.3 million.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 12:33:41 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4425 label Biography information for Jo Stevens

1124869

	registered interest
	date	07/05/2019
	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	Food Banks: Somerset
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports showing a 23 per cent increase in demand for food parcels between 2017 and 2019 at Somer Valley foodbank, Somerset; and what assessment they have made of the reasons for any such increase.
	tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
	uin	HL15544
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government does not collect official data on the use of food banks, therefore has not made such assessments.</p><p>We have worked with food insecurity experts, the Office for National Statistics and the Scottish Government to introduce a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey starting from April 2019. This means that we will in future be able to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups, to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 21/05/2019 14:32:30 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1126058

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	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	Television Licences: Older People
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost is to the public purse of the provision of free television licences to people over 75 years of age.
	tabling member constituency	Shipley
	tabling member printed	Philip Davies
	uin	253538
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The cost of providing free TV licences to people aged over 75 years was £655m to the public purse in 2017/18. Cost outturn for 2018/19 has not been published yet, but was forecast to be £468m. This is the first year of the part funding agreement that was set out in the summer budget 2015. The cost is forecast to reduce to £247m in 2019/20 and then nil from 2020/21 when responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.</p><p> </p><p>Note that all the figures quoted in this response are in nominal terms.</p><p> </p><p>DWP publish expenditure and caseload information here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2019</a>&gt;</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 21/05/2019 12:57:25 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

1126023

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	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: Wrexham
	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 wait is for mandatory reconsideration of (a) personal independence payment and (b) employment support allowance claims in each of the last three years in Wrexham constituency.
	tabling member constituency	Wrexham
	tabling member printed	Ian C. Lucas
	uin	253531
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The requested information can be found below:</p><p>A) Personal Independence Payment (PIP)</p><p>Statistics on Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearance times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims by parliamentary constituency are planned to be published on 11th June 2019 in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The figures requested will be included within the PIP Official Statistics publication.</p><p>It should be noted that the Department’s decision makers are, in relation to PIP, now proactively engaging with claimants at the MR stage to ensure that they have all material evidence before they make their decision. Early indications are that this is helping decision makers.</p><p>B) Employment Support Allowance (ESA)</p><p>The available information on the average waiting time for MRs of ESA work capability assessments is published and can be found in table 16 here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2019</a></p><p>It is the intention to produce further geographical breakdowns of these statistics in the future.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 21/05/2019 14:41:04 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	1470 label Biography information for Ian C. Lucas

1126096

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	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: Bristol South
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many UC50 forms were issued by her Department to residents of Bristol South constituency between the June 2018 and December 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol South
	tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
	uin	253638
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>This information is not readily available at constituency level and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 253640 question first answered 21/05/2019 15:39:58 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1126100

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	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: Bristol South
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many ESA50 forms were issued by her Department to residents of Bristol South constituency between June 2017 and December 2017.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol South
	tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
	uin	253639
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>The requested information is not readily available to constituency level and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson grouped question UIN 253641 question first answered 21/05/2019 15:30:14 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth