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1126163

	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides for universal credit (a) claimants and (b) intended beneficiaries who are victims of economic abuse arising from provision of a single payment to one family.
	tabling member constituency	Lanark and Hamilton East
	tabling member printed	Angela Crawley
	uin	253650
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>DWP is committed to doing all we can do support victims of domestic and economic abuse, including giving split payments when requested, easements in benefit conditionality, and referrals to local support.</p><p> </p><p>When an individual suffering from economic abuse requests a split payment, the Department will make split payments available to them. Whilst we are not intending to introduce split payments by default, we respond positively to such requests.</p><p>Both members of a couple do not need to be present to arrange a split payment and consent is not required from the other partner to authorise a split payment. Claimants can request a split payment during a face to face meeting, a phone call, or online via their journal and do not have to provide evidence of abuse in order to be granted a split payment.</p><p>If a victim of abuse feels able to flee their relationship, we can implement same-day advances to support them.</p><p>The Department can take other actions to support those experiencing economic abuse, such as making a managed payment of rent direct to landlords. We also ensure that claimants who disclose abuse are signposted to specialist organisations for support. All work coaches undergo mandatory training regarding how to support vulnerable claimants, including recognising the signs of domestic abuse. We are also looking at what more we can do to ensure that the main carer more often receives the Universal Credit payment direct.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 21/05/2019 16:23:54 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4469 label Biography information for Angela Crawley

1126573

	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	Department for Work and Pensions: Sick Leave
	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 officials in her Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in her Department; and what the cost was to her Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.
	tabling member constituency	Carshalton and Wallington
	tabling member printed	Tom Brake
	uin	254082
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department recognises its legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of our employees; this includes identifying and reducing workplace stressors. Our approach is a holistic one that utilises the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards for work related stress and follows key principles to help identify and reduce work place stressors.</p><p> </p><p>2,473 employees took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months which represents 3% of our paid staff. As a percentage, such absences equated to 10.7% of all Working Days Lost due to sickness absence. However, as the Department continues to pay salaries during sickness absence there is no direct financial cost.</p><p> </p><p>Our approach to absence is fair but robust with the emphasis on health promotion and absence prevention. The Department has a range of support from mental health toolkits, stress reduction plans plus tailored support for people who do go off sick or need support through our Employee Assistance Programme which includes counselling.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has 965 Mental Health First Aiders, who provide acute, short-term and structured support to individuals, provide reassurance and signpost colleagues to both DWP and external sources of support as appropriate. Mental Health First Aiders are also provided with continuous professional development and support for their own mental wellbeing.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 22/05/2019 16:17:12 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	151 label Biography information for Tom Brake

1126593

	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: Housing
	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 15 April 2019 to Question 243315, how many universal credit claimants in the central London broad rental market area are in receipt of the shared accommodation rate of the housing element of that benefit.
	tabling member constituency	Westminster North
	tabling member printed	Ms Karen Buck
	uin	254093
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>This information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 22/05/2019 12:35:53 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	199 label Biography information for Ms Karen Buck

1126601

	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	Independent Case Examiner: Complaints
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the 158 complaints about the Independent Case Examiner in 2017-18 were on the length of time it took to investigate a complaint.
	tabling member constituency	Westminster North
	tabling member printed	Ms Karen Buck
	uin	254099
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>The Independent Case Examiner’s Office recorded 158 complaints about its service during the 2017/18 reporting year, of which 60 concerned delays in starting investigations and 6 concerned delays in concluding investigations.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 22/05/2019 16:04:17 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	199 label Biography information for Ms Karen Buck

1126837

	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	Working Links
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions officials in her Department have had with their counterparts in the Ministry of Justice on the Working Links: Ministerial direction correspondence published on 8 May 2019; and if she will introduce similar financial protections to her Department’s Working Links subcontractors.
	tabling member constituency	Easington
	tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
	uin	254799
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>DWP Commercial have had discussions recently with MOJ colleagues to clarify the MOJ Ministerial direction correspondence published on 8 May 2019.</p><p>The MOJ are making payments to a small number of Permitted Sub Contractors on the basis of a) the unique nature of their services (statutory services) and b) the structure of their current market in the context of the transformation announced yesterday.</p><p>The Department considered the impact on stakeholders and sub-contractors, based on the Administrator’s statement of affairs at the point of Working Links going into administration, and has worked with both the Administrator and Fedcap, who have taken over a number of Working Links contracts, to minimise the impact on those supply chain partners owed monies by Working Links at the point of administration.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 21/05/2019 16:43:14 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

1127583

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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	Children: Maintenance
	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 has taken to ensure child maintenance payments are made on time by employers.
	tabling member constituency	Rhondda
	tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
	uin	256284
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p>A welcome pack is issued to each new employer which is followed up with a telephone call to a specific person in payroll to check they understand the Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO) process and the employers obligation, to deduct payments on time from employee salary. Each month thereafter, a target schedule is sent to the employer’s payroll department.</p><p> </p><p>For existing employers a target schedule is also sent and a phone call will have taken place when we initially requested deductions to be taken.</p><p> </p><p>If employers don’t make the payment to CMS on time we will call that employer 5 working days after the missed payment to investigate late payment and re-iterate their obligations to CMS.</p><p> </p><p>Where employers repeatedly fail to send payments, we will work with them to understand what we need to do in order to reach compliance. At this point we also work alongside our Financial Investigations Unit, where we might consider a face to face visit to the employer is appropriate. This will take place with trained investigators, who will also remind employers of their legal obligation to deduct and pass on child maintenance payments.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/05/2019 15:55:19 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

1127584

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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	Children: Maintenance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is provided to parents who do not receive child maintenance payments on time.
	tabling member constituency	Rhondda
	tabling member printed	Chris Bryant
	uin	256285
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p>It is a key principle that unpaid child maintenance should be paid immediately. Where a non-resident parent fails to pay on time or in full, we aim to take immediate action to recover the unpaid maintenance and re-establish compliance.</p><p> </p><p>Where compliance is not achieved and the non-resident parent is employed we will attempt to deduct their maintenance (and/or any arrears) direct from their earnings via a deduction from earnings order. Employers are obliged by law to take this action for us.</p><p> </p><p>We have a range of other strong enforcement powers, including deducting child maintenance directly from bank accounts, using Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, disqualification from driving or commitment to prison as well as restrictions on applying for and holding a passport.</p><p> </p><p>As part of our new Compliance and Arrears Strategy we have further strengthened our collection and enforcement powers to enable us to deduct child maintenance from a wider range of bank accounts and enable us to apply to the court for an order to disqualify a parent with child maintenance arrears from holding or obtaining a UK passport.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/05/2019 15:39:00 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1446 label Biography information for Sir Chris Bryant

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