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1702103

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Underpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were underpaid the State Pension due to incorrectly updated National Insurance records in the 2022-23 financial year; and what the total amount is that these people are owed.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Dame Angela Eagle
	uin	22508
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>This response covers both missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) and UC National Insurance issues.</p><p> </p><p>The exercise to correct National Insurance records for those individuals impacted by errors in their HRP record is underway. The HRP corrections exercise started with HMRC dispatching letters in late 2023. Cases subsequently notified from HMRC started being processed in DWP in early 2024.</p><p> </p><p>In the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, the central estimate was around 187,000 cases who may have an underpayment of State Pension and for whom we expect to correct, with a total underpayment estimate of £1,043 million.</p><p> </p><p>We intend to publish an update on the exercise in this year’s Annual Report and Accounts.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has corrected the UC data issue for the cases impacted for the tax years up to and including the tax year 2022/2023. This data has been shared with HMRC. As HMRC updates NI records, these updates are sent to DWP. Any State Pension entitlement will be reassessed, and any underpayment addressed accordingly.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/04/2024 12:53:28 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1702104

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Underpayments
	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 value was of an underpayment of the State Pension due to incorrectly updated National Insurance records in the 2022-23 financial year.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Dame Angela Eagle
	uin	22509
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>This response covers both missing Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) and UC National Insurance issues.</p><p> </p><p>The exercise to correct National Insurance records for those individuals impacted by errors in their HRP record is underway. The HRP corrections exercise started with HMRC dispatching letters in late 2023. Cases subsequently notified from HMRC started being processed in DWP in early 2024.</p><p> </p><p>In the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, the central estimate value of an underpayment was £5,000 for alive cases above state pension age and £3,000 for deceased cases.</p><p> </p><p>We intend to publish an update on the exercise in this year’s Annual Report and Accounts.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has corrected the UC data issue for the cases impacted for the tax years up to and including the tax year 2022/2023. This data has been shared with HMRC. As HMRC updates NI records, these updates are sent to DWP. Any State Pension entitlement will be reassessed, and any underpayment addressed accordingly.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/04/2024 12:22:27 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1702105

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Databases
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in his Department are responsible for manually updating records relevant to eligibility for the State Pension.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Dame Angela Eagle
	uin	22510
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>This information is only available at disproportionate cost to The Department for Work &amp; Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/04/2024 12:25:55 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1702106

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	National Insurance Contributions: Databases
	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 paragraph 3.21 of the report by the National Audit Office entitled Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2022-23, published on 6 July 2023, how many and what proportion of the incorrect National Insurance records have (a) been and (b) not yet been updated.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Dame Angela Eagle
	uin	22511
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>To date we have processed over 23 million pieces of data to HMRC and less than 1% (0.88%) needs data validations. We expect this will be completed by Summer 2024.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 23/04/2024 16:26:32 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1702152

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
	tabling member constituency	Leicester South
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Ashworth
	uin	22575
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>We are committed to tackling fraud which is why in May 2022 the Department launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, alongside investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 2024/25. This plan includes proposed powers to require the transfer of data from third-parties, which has been introduced as part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (No.2). This legislation is forecast to save up to an additional £600m over the Treasury scorecard period. The Department has set out a target to deliver £1.3bn in savings from our dedicated counter-fraud and error resource in 2023/24 as set out in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/04/2024 14:58:48 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4244 label Biography information for Jonathan Ashworth

1702167

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Women
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to undertake a review into the potential merits of issuing compensation to all women impacted by changes to the State Pension age.
	tabling member constituency	Preston
	tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
	uin	22480
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/04/2024 11:41:43 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1702185

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	State Retirement Pensions: Age
	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 make an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the State Pension age to 60.
	tabling member constituency	Preston
	tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
	uin	22483
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government has no plans to make such an assessment.</p><p> </p><p>Changes to State Pension age were made over a series of Acts by successive governments from 1995 onwards, following public consultations and extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament.</p><p> </p><p>Further changes were introduced through the Pensions Acts 2011 and 2014 in order to protect public finances and maintain the sustainability of the State Pension over the long term. Under the 2011 Pensions Act the State Pension age for women and men rose to 66.</p><p> </p><p>The rise in State Pension age to 67 has been planned since 2014. Since then, the Government has undertaken two statutory State Pension age reviews, one in 2017 and one in 2023. These reviews both considered whether the existing rules about the timetable for State Pension age rising to 67 remained appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>Both reviews, including the Independent Reports that supported them, concluded that the rules concerning the increase in State Pension age from 66 to 67 should continue as planned.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/04/2024 11:43:50 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1702274

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	Carer's Allowance: Overpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received fines for overpayment of Carer's Allowance in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022, (d) 2023 and (e) as of 1 April 2024; and what was the total amount of these fines.
	tabling member constituency	Newport East
	tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
	uin	22534
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award.</p><p> </p><p>Overpayments occur when an individual receives a payment they are not entitled to. The fines imposed by DWP for overpayments vary depending on the circumstances of the overpayment.</p><p> </p><p>Administrative Penalties may be offered by the fraud investigator as an alternative to a prosecution in certain cases where there has been benefit fraud or attempted benefit fraud.</p><p> </p><p>The table below provides the volume and value of Administrative Penalties accepted due to an overpayment of Carer’s Allowance, by financial year.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Years</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Volume </strong><strong>of</strong> <strong>Administrative Penalties</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Value</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>64</p></td><td><p>£114.4k</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021/22</p></td><td><p>43</p></td><td><p>£80.2k</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022/23</p></td><td><p>43</p></td><td><p>£81.3k</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023/24</p></td><td><p>75</p></td><td><p>£140.8k</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p>For cases of claimant error, a £50 Civil Penalty may be imposed by DWP where an individual incurs an overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information and have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error.</p><p> </p><p>The table below provides the volume and value of Civil Penalties given due to an overpayment of Carer’s Allowance, by financial year.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Years</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Volume</strong><strong> of Civil Penalties</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Value</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>14.9k</p></td><td><p>£0.747m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021/22</p></td><td><p>26.3k</p></td><td><p>£1.309m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022/23</p></td><td><p>24.8k</p></td><td><p>£1.241m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023/24</p></td><td><p>30.1k</p></td><td><p>£1.506m</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Note that our latest figures show there are approximately 1.4 million people claiming Carer’s Allowance.</p><p> </p><p>The data provided for this response is for the volume of penalties, and it is important to note that individuals can receive more than one penalty.</p><p> </p><p>Data been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. Our analysis has not captured a small but unknown number of penalties that are logged as debts in their own right on the debt MI system. Our understanding is that this approach is rarely used for Carer’s Allowance.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>More information about DWP penalties policy can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/penalties-for-social-security-fraud-and-error/penalties-policy-in-respect-of-social-security-fraud-and-error" target="_blank">Penalties policy: in respect of social security fraud and error - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 23/04/2024 16:57:25 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

1701765

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	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: Visual Impairment
	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 the number of economically active individuals there were (a) in total and (b) with self-reported sight problems in England in 2022-23.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol South
	tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
	uin	22322
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The information requested can be found in the table below.</p><p><strong>Labour market status by main or secondary long-term health condition,</strong></p><p><strong> 16 to 64, England, 2022/23</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Labour market status</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Difficulty in seeing</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>35,038,400</p></td><td><p>487,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Economically active</p></td><td><p>27,551,700</p></td><td><p>238,800</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Source: Annual Population Survey (APS) – unpublished</p><p>Notes:</p><p>Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.</p><ul><li>Numbers are central estimates and subject to sampling variation. The precision of these estimates will be limited by sample size.</li><li>Annual Population Survey data has not been reweighted to incorporate the latest estimates of the size and composition of the UK population.</li><li>Figures for ‘Difficulty in seeing’ are unpublished but are a variation of those contained within: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2023" target="_blank">The employment of disabled people 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></li></ul> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 22/04/2024 14:17:40 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1701833

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	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: ICT
	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 policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, when his Department first assessed each of the red-rated legacy IT systems in his Department to be red-rated.
	tabling member constituency	Wolverhampton South East
	tabling member printed	Pat McFadden
	uin	22284
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>DWP has mature, industry standard mechanisms for assessing the risk of its core IT systems which has been implemented and running for decades. The first time DWP reported figures to the cross-government initiative led by CDDO was November 2022.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 22/04/2024 12:47:43 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	1587 label Biography information for Pat McFadden