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1251906

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2020
	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	Redundancy: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of the need to provide financial support for employees made redundant before 23 September 2020 who cannot be furloughed and are not entitled to any statutory redundancy payment.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	92004
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2020 answer text <p>Universal Credit is in place to support claimants in difficult circumstances. The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates as a temporary measure for the 20/21 tax year.</p><p>Our long-term ambition is to level up across the country and continue to tackle poverty through our reformed welfare system that works with the labour market to encourage people to move into and progress in work wherever possible.</p><p> </p><p>Our £30bn Plan for Jobs is the first step on the ladder to achieving this and will support economic recovery through new schemes including Kickstart and Job Entry Targeted Support.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/11/2020 16:31:07 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1345265

	registered interest
	date	08/07/2021
	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: 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 direct earnings attachments her Department has put in place in each year since the Welfare Reform Act 2012 enabled recovery of overpayments as a result of errors made by her Department rather than the claimant; and what estimate she has made of the amount that has been overpaid in error by her Department in each year since 2012.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	29889
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2021 answer text <p>It is not possible to produce a historical time series for this specific data request regarding Direct Earnings Attachments (DEA). However, I can confirm that there are 15,000 DWP debtors with an official error debt who currently have a DEA in place.</p><p> </p><p>This data is taken from operational data systems, and is not intended for publication. Therefore, the data itself is not quality assured to the standard of published Official Statistics and National Statistics.</p><p>It should be noted that, during a period when we have faced the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19, fraud and error in the benefits system remains low, with 95% of benefits, worth more than £200bn paid correctly in 2020/21. Official Error overpayments remained at 0.4% of benefit expenditure last year, with UC Official Error Overpayments falling from 1.3% to 0.9%.</p><p>DWP’s primary method of debt recovery is by deduction from any on-going benefit that mightbe in payment, with limits on the amount we can deduct from income related benefits being set out in legislation.</p><p> </p><p>Where recovery from ongoing benefit entitlement is not possible, DWP will seek to agree a voluntary repayment plan with the debtor, taking into account their personal circumstances and the amount they can reasonably afford to repay each month.</p><p>Where a person fails to agree a voluntary repayment plan, we can apply a Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) which allows deductions to be taken directly from a person’s earnings, bu this would only be after DWP had made all reasonable efforts to pursue recovery via a voluntary repayment plan.</p><p>Estimates of the amount that has been overpaid in error by DWP are published annually and can be found by following the links at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system" target="_blank">Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 16/07/2021 13:38:16 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1239452

	registered interest
	date	30/09/2020
	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, how many times the universal credit service has been unavailable since 23 March 2020; and for what reasons that service was unavailable on each of those occasions.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	97714
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2020 answer text <p>There have been over 3 million Universal Credit claims made since mid-March; six times the volume that the Department would typically receive. Despite that surge, the system is standing up to the challenge and demonstrating that resilience and scalability are integral parts its design, whilst maintaining high levels of payment timeliness.</p><p>There have been no unplanned outages of the Universal Credit online service since March 2020.</p><p /><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 97715 question first answered 08/10/2020 14:43:43 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1169091

	registered interest
	date	07/01/2020
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants have signed a waiver outlining any previous communication with a political representative regarding benefits before accessing appeals information since that policy was introduced.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	1039
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2020 answer text <p>At no point during a Universal Credit claim does the Department ask a person to sign a waiver. To safeguard the sensitive and personal data we hold about people’s Universal Credit claims, we ask representatives making enquiries on behalf of others to demonstrate that they have claimant consent. This is a simple process, which can be completed online or by telephone by the claimant, and has been in place since 2017.</p><p> </p><p>The Universal Credit system is structured around an online personal account which contains all the information relevant to the claim. This can include details about: bank accounts, savings, capital, medical history and family relationships, in addition to third parties including landlords and employers. Therefore, we need to ensure a high level of security and protection exists to combat unscrupulous individuals and organisations who try to access the information and seek to impersonate genuine representatives.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is continuing to work with Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) and third party organisations to understand how Universal Credit can support organisations who help our claimants. We are committed to having processes in place which effectively supports claimants to access our services, but which also protects information.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 15/01/2020 17:12:46 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1345235

	registered interest
	date	08/07/2021
	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: Overpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department recovered from overpayments that were as a result of her Department's and not the claimant's error in each month in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what the average amount of overpayment due to her Department's error was recovered from each such claimant.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	29888
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2021 answer text <p>In the last month for which figures are available DWP paid out almost £3.5bn in Universal Credit and it should be noted that fraud and error in the benefits system remains low, with 95% of benefits, worth more than £200bn. paid correctly in 2020/21. Official Error overpayments remained at 0.4% of benefit expenditure last year, with UC Official Error Overpayments falling from 1.3% to 0.9%.</p><p> </p><p>Deductions from UC are now capped at 25% (as of April 2021) having previously been 30%. Where requested deductions exceed the 25% maximum, or there is insufficient UC in payment for all deductions to be made, a priority order is applied, which determines the order in which items should be deducted. ‘Last resort’ deductions, such as rent or fuel costs, are at the top of the priority order, ensuring that claimant welfare is prioritised, followed by social obligation deductions, such as fines and child maintenance, and finally benefit debt, such as Social Fund loans and benefit overpayments.</p><p> </p><p>Anyone with overpayment deductions who does experience financial hardship is encouraged to contact the Department’s Debt Management unit. Where a person cannot afford the proposed rate of these deductions, a lower amount can be negotiated.</p><p> </p><p>Deductions in respect of UC Official Error debt for the last 6 months are shown below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Month</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Value of in month recovery where debt category is official error</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Average recovery per Customer in Month</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jan-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£12,470,549</p></td><td><p>£67.47</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Feb-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£14,464,840</p></td><td><p>£67.15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Mar-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£16,444,768</p></td><td><p>£70.11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Apr-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£16,524,866</p></td><td><p>£69.95</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>May-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£13,563,717</p></td><td><p>£65.02</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jun-21</strong></p></td><td><p>£14,584,640</p></td><td><p>£63.44</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>* The data shown in the above table is taken from operational data systems, and is not intended for publication. Therefore, the data itself is not quality assured to the standard of published Official Statistics and National Statistics.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 19/07/2021 15:38:13 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1109209

	registered interest
	date	02/04/2019
	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	Support for Mortgage Interest
	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 effectiveness of replacing the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme with a loans-based system from April 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	240106
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>Support for Mortgage Interest is designed to provide protection against the threat of repossession. The new loans system provides exactly the same level of support and provides exactly the same level of protection from repossession as the previous system. We continue to work closely with the lending industry to ensure the scheme delivers its intended aim. The conversion of SMI from a benefit to a loan is estimated to save around £140m in welfare spending.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is using evidence from a number of sources to assess the impact of the conversion to a loan on an on-going basis, including management information on claimant take up and feedback from stakeholder groups, including via our regular liaison with UK Finance, to assess whether there are unintended consequences for particular groups.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 08/04/2019 12:59:13 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1144424

	registered interest
	date	03/09/2019
	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: Pilot Schemes
	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 of 22 July 2019 on Universal Credit managed migration, Official Report, column 1149-1150, if she will publish the advice she received from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments on the use of a negative Statutory Instrument for a pilot of managed migration and payments to severely disabled people who lost out in transferring to Universal Credit.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	286363
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.</p><p /><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/09/2019 16:35:05 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1144425

	registered interest
	date	03/09/2019
	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: Pilot Schemes
	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 22 July 2019 on Unviersal Credit managed migration, Official Report, column 1149-1150, on what date her Department received advice from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments on the use of a negative Statutory Instrument for a pilot of managed migration and payments to severely disabled people who lost out in transferring to universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	286364
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.</p><p /><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/09/2019 16:35:46 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1151365

	registered interest
	date	22/10/2019
	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	Bereavement Support Payment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) 18-month limit for receiving bereavement support payment and (b) three-month limit for claiming bereavement support payment.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	3789
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2019 answer text <p>We intend to carry out an evaluation of Bereavement Support Payment once sufficient evidence is available for this comparatively new benefit, to enable us to evaluate the policy.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/10/2019 14:23:57 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury

1239453

	registered interest
	date	30/09/2020
	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, what assessment her Department has made of the capacity of the universal credit service to cope with demand for new online claims in the period since 23 March 2020; and what steps her Department is taking to minimise periods of unavailability of that service.
	tabling member constituency	Weaver Vale
	tabling member printed	Mike Amesbury
	uin	97715
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2020 answer text <p>There have been over 3 million Universal Credit claims made since mid-March; six times the volume that the Department would typically receive. Despite that surge, the system is standing up to the challenge and demonstrating that resilience and scalability are integral parts its design, whilst maintaining high levels of payment timeliness.</p><p>There have been no unplanned outages of the Universal Credit online service since March 2020.</p><p /><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 97714 question first answered 08/10/2020 14:43:43 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4667 label Biography information for Mike Amesbury