Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label previous answer version answering member constituency answering member printed answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1134069

	registered interest
	date	24/06/2019
	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, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2019 to Question 264333, how many and what proportion of individual claims for universal credit were not paid (a) on time and (b) in full in each for the last six months for which information is available.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	268397
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2019 answer text The Department intends to publish this data at household level in the near future as part of Official Statistics. answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 27/06/2019 16:40:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1136399

	registered interest
	date	02/07/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether welfare advisers have the discretion not to impose job seeking conditions on a claimant in their (a) customer agreement and (b) claimant commitment when that claimant is no longer entitled to employment and support allowance and is advised to claim universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	272130
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>When people move from ESA to UC due to a change of circumstances (e.g. house move) not connected to their WCA, they will move into the equivalent conditionality group. Work search requirements are not imposed on people who have been found to have Limited Capability for Work or Limited Capability for Work and Work Related activity.</p><p> </p><p>When people move from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit (UC) due to being found ‘fit for work’ at their work capability assessment (WCA) their UC conditionality will be decided based on their individual and household circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>There are a range of circumstances on UC where work-related requirements must be switched off temporarily because people are experiencing difficult personal circumstances and our work coaches do have the discretion to reduce or suspend job seeking conditions on their Claimant Commitment. Even for people who have been found fit for work, work coaches may still agree to tailor the number of hours, type, and location of work, to take account of the person’s health condition. Work coaches receive training on how to adjust conditionality to reflect a person’s individual circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>People who are full time carers or have caring responsibility for a child under 1 will not be asked to complete any work related requirements when they move to UC in recognition of their current situation.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 08/07/2019 17:00:22 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1132084

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2019
	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 universal credit claimants (a) received and (b) did not receive an advance payment in 2018-19.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	264328
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2019 answer text <p>Universal Credit new claim advances provide access to a payment for those in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first payment is due. Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months. From October 2021, this maximum repayment period will be extended from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Department ensures claimants are made aware of their maximum advance entitlement and informed that their Universal Credit award will be adjusted over the relevant recovery period to take into account the advance of benefit they received.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>There were 1,046,000 claims made to Universal Credit during January to December 2018 which went into payment. Of these claims, 598,000 (57%) received an advance by end of February 2019 and 449,000 (43%) did not receive an advance.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><ol><li>Figures relate to Universal Credit full service</li><li>Figures capture all advances types</li><li>Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000</li><li>Advances paid are provided for claims which went into payment in the 2018 calendar year to ensure enough time has elapsed to be certain these claims did actually progress to payment</li></ol> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 18/06/2019 14:57:13 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1133722

	registered interest
	date	20/06/2019
	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: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vulnerable claimants received a benefits sanction without (a) receiving a home visit and (b) notifying a third-party agency in 2018-19.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	267197
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/06/2019 answer text <p>To obtain the details requested would require scrutiny of thousands of individual benefit claims. Therefore, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 28/06/2019 12:37:14 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1134285

	registered interest
	date	24/06/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 Jun 2019 to Question 264329, of the 749,000 claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts, how much debt remains outstanding for each benefit in the Prescribed Social Security Benefits / Payments category.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	268400
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2019 answer text <p>The table below shows the outstanding debt balances for the 749k Debtors with recovery from UC for non-UC debts.*</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Benefit </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Current Debt Balance</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Attendance Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.022m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Administrative Penalty</p></td><td><p>£0.011m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bereavement Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.038m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bereavement Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.001m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bereavement Support Payment</p></td><td><p>£0.005m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Carer’s Allowance</p></td><td><p>£18.290m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Civil Penalties</p></td><td><p>£0.099m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Disability Living Allowance</p></td><td><p>£6.934m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Disability Working Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.004m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employment and Support Allowance</p></td><td><p>£39.226m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Family Credit</p></td><td><p>£0.097m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Housing Benefit</p></td><td><p>£94.378m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Incapacity Benefit</p></td><td><p>£6.371m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.027m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Income Support</p></td><td><p>£120.712m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Invalidity Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.080m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Job Seekers Allowance</p></td><td><p>£22.745m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Maternity Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.096m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Pension Credit</p></td><td><p>£0.568m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Personal Independence Payments</p></td><td><p>£1.262m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Reduced Earnings Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.006m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retirement Pension</p></td><td><p>£0.126m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sickness Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.002m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Severe Disablement Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.259m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Social Fund Loans</p></td><td><p>£73.925m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Social Fund Overpayments</p></td><td><p>£0.619m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Non UC Short Term Advances</p></td><td><p>£0.293m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Supplementary Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.113m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Tax Credit Overpayment</p></td><td><p>£635.113m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unemployment Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.020m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Widows Benefit</p></td><td><p>£0.045m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Widowed Mother Allowance</p></td><td><p>£0.418m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Widows Pension</p></td><td><p>£0.125m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Widowed Parent’s Allowance</p></td><td><p>£1.491m</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Department works hard to prevent potential benefit overpayments from occurring. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances in real time.</p><p>Where overpayments do occur, the Department ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants who are subject to deductions to repay these overpayments.</p><p>It is not intended that the recovery of an overpayment should cause any claimant undue financial hardship.</p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.</em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 27/06/2019 16:54:19 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1134292

	registered interest
	date	24/06/2019
	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 Tax Credits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 264329, of the 749,000 claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts, if she will provide a breakdown of the tax credit overpayments being repaid by the year in which those overpayments first originated.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	268404
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The table below shows the amount of Tax Credit debt broken down by year. *</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Reg. Financial Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Proportion</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>13.55%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>27.67%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>58.78%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Universal Credit is expected to lead to savings across welfare as we are able to adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real time. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances.</p><p>When recovering benefit overpayments, the Department ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants from any undue financial hardship.</p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. </em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 02/07/2019 13:17:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1135484

	registered interest
	date	28/06/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2019 to Question 268401, what information she holds on the reasons why those 156,000 claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts are not repaying their debts.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	270705
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The table below provides information on why the specified claimants were not repaying their debts.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Zero balance**</p></td><td><p>92,776</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Business as usual/head of work (Includes future instalment confirmation)</p></td><td><p>48,196</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Awaiting Financial Reconciliation</p></td><td><p>12,452</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>In progress – Awaiting further information (e.g. customer correspondence/contact)</p></td><td><p>4,214</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Managed by external contractor (Debt collection agency)</p></td><td><p>618</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Awaiting appeal outcome</p></td><td><p>534</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Waiting for customer to call back</p></td><td><p>306</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Other</p></td><td><p>477</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>** The zero balance category is made up of debts that have been fully repaid, but are yet to be removed from the Debt Manager system. It is important to note that no further recovery action will be taken in these cases</em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 15:06:25 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1131360

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	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: Overpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2019 to Question 257458, if she will publish for each of the estimated 30 applications made by claimants or their representatives to have their overpayments waived either in full or in part (a) the reason for the request, (b) whether the application was made by the claimant or the representative and (c) the relationship of the claimant to the representative.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	263064
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2019 answer text <p>The table below details the reasons that applications for the waiving of Universal Credit overpayments were made by claimants or their representatives. The figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest 10. Where the volume of cases is less than 5, we are unable to report the exact number to avoid possible disclosure of individual details.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Reason for Waiver application</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Volume of applications (includes both successful and unsuccessful)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Medical Grounds</p></td><td><p>20</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Financial Grounds</p></td><td><p>0 to less than 5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Medical and Financial Grounds</p></td><td><p>0 to less than 5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Official Error</p></td><td><p>0 to less than 5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Medical Grounds and Official Error</p></td><td><p>0 to less than 5</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>DWP may waive recovery of overpayments where it can be demonstrated that recovery would cause substantial hardship and there is strong evidence available that the recovery of an overpayment would be detrimental to the health and/or welfare of the debtor or their family. Official error in itself is not cause for an overpayment to be waived.</p><p> </p><p>It is not possible to provide details of whether an application was made by a claimant or their representative as this information is not stored.</p><p> </p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar figures subsequently released by the Department. </em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 18/06/2019 15:19:00 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 123346 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1133157

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2019
	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, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2019 to Question 264329, of the 0.749 million claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts, how much debt has been repaid from each benefit in the Prescribed Social Security Benefits / Payments category.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	266717
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The table below details the amount recovered from Universal Credit to repay non-Universal Credit overpayments in 2018-19. To provide a full picture we have included recovery of all benefit related debt including such things as non UC Advances and Tax Credit recoveries even though these are not strictly prescribed payments.</p><p><br></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Amount Recovered</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Attendance Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Administrative Penalty</strong></p></td><td><p>£537,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Bereavement Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Carers Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,541,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Civil Penalties </strong></p></td><td><p>£1,090,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Disability Living Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£281,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Disability Working Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Employment &amp; Support Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£2,988,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Family Credit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Housing Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£11,198,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Incapacity Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£368,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Income Support</strong></p></td><td><p>£8,479,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Invalidity Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jobseeker's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,987,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Maternity Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£13,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Non-Contributory Retirement Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>New State Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Pension Credit</strong></p></td><td><p>£11,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Personal Independence Payment</strong></p></td><td><p>£64,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Retirement Pension: Contributory</strong></p></td><td><p>£2,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Sickness Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Severe Disablement Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£12,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Social Fund Loan</strong></p></td><td><p>£27,014,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Social Fund Overpayment</strong></p></td><td><p>£239,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Non - Universal Credit short term advances</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,546,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Tax Credit Overpayment</strong></p></td><td><p>£94,722,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widow's Benefit</strong></p></td><td><p>£70,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widowed Mother's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>Less than £1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widows Pension</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Widowed Parent's Allowance</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Christmas Bonus</strong></p></td><td><p>£1,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Other</strong></p></td><td><p>£3,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department works hard to prevent potential benefit overpayments from occurring. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances in real time.</p><p><em>*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. All figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.</em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 24/06/2019 15:47:54 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1132166

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2019
	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, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2019 to Question 259875, how many and what proportion of claimants within the period covered received no payment by the date on which they should have been paid at the end of their first assessment period.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	264336
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2019 answer text <p>The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/06/2019 13:13:24 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead