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1010208

	registered interest
	date	19/11/2018
	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, how many people applied (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully for short term benefit advance or advance payments in the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	192730
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2018 answer text <p>Around 60% of eligible new claims to Universal Credit received an advance in October 2018. Subject to some fluctuation, this has been broadly consistent for every month for which the data has been requested.</p><p> </p><p>There were 98,250 Short Term Benefit Advances for Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support awarded to individual national insurance numbers in Great Britain between January and December 2017. On the number of applications, this information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 18/12/2018 17:31:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1050383

	registered interest
	date	29/01/2019
	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 22 October 2018 to Question 182114 on Universal Credit, what definition of genuine hardship is used by her Department to determine whether exceptional circumstances apply to a claim for an advance payment of (a) legacy benefits, (b) personal independence payment and (c) universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Garston and Halewood
	tabling member printed	Maria Eagle
	uin	213954
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/02/2019 answer text <p>Advances are available to those receiving Universal Credit, DWP legacy income related benefits (such as Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance), and Pension Credit.</p><p> </p><p>However, advances are not available for those receiving Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment (which are non means tested and for people with personal care and/or mobility needs because of a mental or physical disability).</p><p> </p><p>There is no prescriptive definition of hardship used in determining an advance award in Universal Credit, or a Short Term Benefit Advance for DWP legacy income related benefits: we tailor the support that we provide and consider each case on its own merits given the financial and other circumstances of the claimant and their immediate family.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 06/02/2019 16:25:02 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	483 label Biography information for Maria Eagle

1038521

	registered interest
	date	09/01/2019
	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, how many individuals have been affected by the erroneous payment of employment and support allowance and jobseekers allowance in December 2018 and January 2019; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Derby North
	tabling member printed	Chris Williamson
	uin	206812
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2019 answer text <p>Over the New Year period, some JSA and ESA claimants who expected to receive payments fortnightly, actually received two individual weekly payments, rather than a single fortnightly payment. All claimants received the correct amount of benefit and no payments were late (the first part of these ‘split’ payments were paid early).</p><p> </p><p>In total there were 798,211 ESA claimants and 51,977 JSA claimants who received these ‘split’ payments (England, Scotland and Wales). The NI figures were 47,751 ESA and 3,059 JSA.</p><p> </p><p>Operational colleagues were notified how best to support claimants and we also provided a link to key information on gov.uk.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 14/01/2019 16:44:33 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
	tabling member	3976 label Biography information for Chris Williamson

1039614

	registered interest
	date	11/01/2019
	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, how many people requested a mandatory reconsideration for (a) universal credit and (b) PIP in 2018; and how many of those mandatory reconsiderations resulted in changed outcomes.
	tabling member constituency	Chesterfield
	tabling member printed	Toby Perkins
	uin	207594
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2019 answer text <p>DWP collect data about Mandatory Reconsiderations for Universal Credit, and have published some of this specifically in relation to sanctions in Universal Credit Live Service, available on Stat-Xplore here:</p><p><a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html" target="_blank">https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html</a></p><p> </p><p>However, to carry out the necessary quality assurance in order to publish information across all decisions subject to a mandatory reconsideration on Universal Credit Live Service and Full Service would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p>Statistics on the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Mandatory Reconsiderations registered and clearances by type are published in Tables 7a and 7b of the quarterly statistical publication “Personal Independence Payment: April 2013 to October 2018”, available here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2018</a></p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 16/01/2019 17:32:37 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
	tabling member	3952 label Biography information for Mr Toby Perkins

1054778

	registered interest
	date	04/02/2019
	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, what steps she is taking to implement safeguards in situations where her Department makes backdated payments of benefits to vulnerable people with mental health issues or drug or alcohol dependencies.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
	tabling member printed	Darren Jones
	uin	216416
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2019 answer text <p>On legacy benefits when we identify a customer is vulnerable every endeavour is made to contact the claimant or their appointee, discuss and explain the high value payment we intend to issue and identify if they have any concerns over receiving such an amount of money. As part of this process both from the conversation and the earlier information we had available we would encourage using split or phased payments if we viewed a risk in making one large payment to the claimant. If we cannot make contact, we will refer to our visiting team to make attempts to visit them at home and have those conversations. On Universal Credit, vulnerability is dealt with on a case-by-case basis so that the necessary support can be given to claimants.</p><p> </p><p>Current payment regulations only permit us to restrict amounts of payments with a claimant’s consent. If we did not feel that claimant was able to manage their affairs, or make that decision for themselves, we would then consider if an appointee was appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is currently working to enhance safeguarding procedures across all benefit products to help staff to identify claimants who may need additional support because their circumstances make them vulnerable. A multi-disciplinary working group is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of the processes and procedures we have in place across DWP to identify and support vulnerable claimants who are entitled to backdated payments of benefits. This will include sharing best practice from legacy processes and exploring what more we can do to ensure vulnerable claimants in this situation are given access to the support they need, and developing a proposal for the implementation of these improvements. This will ensure that the Department will be able to fully support the eligible claimants on Universal Credit who will be entitled to a Severe Disability Premium transitional payment.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 07/02/2019 15:42:22 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
	tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1046014

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2019
	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 29 October 2018 to Question 184858, if she will place in the Library a copy of the brief for the quantitative longitudinal research by the National Centre for Social Research into the impact of the Benefit Cap and the qualitative case studies of local authorities.
	tabling member constituency	Westminster North
	tabling member printed	Ms Karen Buck
	uin	211075
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2019 answer text <p>The Department intends to publish this research in Spring 2019. The research publication will include all topic guides and questionnaires used in the research, and an overview of the original research brief.</p><p>The quantitative survey of claimants carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (Natcen), an independent research agency was delivered over two waves, to explore how claimant responses to the cap had changed over time. Wave one was conducted approximately seven months after implementation of the new cap, with 1,900 claimants interviewed. The sample included claimants affected by the cap under both legacy benefit and Universal Credit arrangements, across Great Britain. Wave two was conducted approximately six months later, with over 800 of those same claimants. The survey included questions on the following topics:</p><ul><li>Awareness of the cap and current cap status</li><li>Impacts of the cap on employment and employment related behaviour</li><li>Impacts of the cap on claimants housing and housing related behaviour</li><li>Awareness and use of Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs)</li><li>Barriers faced by claimants regarding employment and housing changes</li><li>Broader impacts of the cap (including upon health, relationships and finances)</li><li>Use of available advice and support services</li></ul><p>For the qualitative, case study strand Natcen invited people working at a range of Local Authorities, Jobcentre Plus and local advice and support organisations to take part in research interviews. Local organisations included family support charities, financial charities and credit unions, housing and homelessness support organisations, housing associations, information and advice providing services, women’s charities, food banks and legal charities. The focus of these interviews was on experiences of the introduction of the lower, tiered Benefit Cap and the impacts it had on the services they delivered, and upon claimants affected by the cap. Forty-two interviews were conducted across the six case study areas.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 28/01/2019 15:15:20 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	199 label Biography information for Ms Karen Buck

1050592

	registered interest
	date	29/01/2019
	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, whether any claimants featured in her Department's promotional materials have received payment for doing so in each of the last four years.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	213965
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2019 answer text None of the claimants sharing their stories in the Department’s promotional materials have received payment for doing so in each of the last four years.     answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 04/02/2019 14:08:19 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1050319

	registered interest
	date	29/01/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on reviewing the adequacy of funding for social security benefits.
	tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
	tabling member printed	Neil Gray
	uin	908885
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/01/2019 answer text <p>We are projected to spend almost £100bn on working age welfare in GB in 2019/20 – more than in any other year.</p> answering member constituency South West Norfolk answering member printed Elizabeth Truss question first answered 29/01/2019 15:55:44 answering member 4097 label Biography information for Elizabeth Truss
	tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray