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 printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member printed question first answered answering member label attachment file name title
tabling member	label

Search

100009

	registered interest
	date	20/10/2014
	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	Unemployed People: Travel
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial assistance is given to help young people on benefits with the travel costs associated with attending job interviews.
	tabling member printed	Lord Roberts of Llandudno
	uin	HL2224
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2014 answer text <p /> <p>All Jobcentre Plus District Managers have access to the Flexible Support Fund, that they can use to supplement mainstream services and to tailor support to the needs of individuals and the local area. A proportion of this fund will be spent by their Work Services Teams on discretionary awards to individual claimants, which could include helping with travel costs to attend job interviews.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 23/10/2014 15:06:09 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	3691 label Biography information for Lord Roberts of Llandudno

100567

	registered interest
	date	22/10/2014
	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 Assistance Schemes
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their decision not to contest the judicial review of the decision to cease funding for Local Welfare Assistance, whether they will reinstate that funding for 2015–16.
	tabling member printed	Baroness King of Bow
	uin	HL2304
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2014 answer text <p>From April 2015 it was intended funding for local welfare provision would be funded from the general grant to Local Government. The general grant took this into account.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has agreed to look again at how funding is provided for in 2015/16. Any decisions will be taken after we have reviewed how the current funds have been used and the on-going consultation and equality analysis on 2015/16 funding being co-ordinated by the Department for Communities and Local Government.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 29/10/2014 15:16:01 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	143 label Biography information for Baroness King of Bow

100645

	registered interest
	date	23/10/2014
	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	Housing Benefit
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government why housing benefit overpayments increased to £1.4 billion in 2013–14 and how they are addressing the issue.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Manzoor
	uin	HL2376
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>Housing Benefit is a complex benefit administered by 380 Local Authorities. It has a high proportion of in-work claimants and this caseload is more likely to undergo changes in circumstances than out-of-work claimants. If claimants fail to report changes in circumstances correctly and in a timely manner then overpayments will occur.</p><p>The rate of fraud in Housing Benefit has been stable for many years at 1.4% since 2008-09. Official error has also remained relatively stable over the last six years, currently standing at 0.6% which is the same level as in 2008-09. Claimant error has increased from 2.7% in 2008-09 to 3.8% in 2013-14.</p><p>The rise in HB claimant error is primarily earnings related and a consequence of failure to report these changes. DWP is taking action to deal with this issue through better data sharing with Local Authorities, such as the introduction of real time information (RTI) on earnings, so that local authorities are alerted to changes quickly and do not have to rely on the claimant informing them of changes.</p><p>Longer term, Housing Benefit for working age claimants will be replaced by the housing cost element of Universal Credit and will be paid as a single monthly payment with the other elements. This will reduce the opportunity for Fraud and Error and prevent overpayments from occurring.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 04/11/2014 15:11:36 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4289 label Biography information for Baroness Manzoor

100930

	registered interest
	date	24/10/2014
	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	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the steps they are taking to reduce the cost of benefit fraud, what they propose to do, and how much they plan to spend, to reduce underpayments to claimants due to mistakes by officials or claimants.
	tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
	uin	HL2398
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Department takes both under and overpayments seriously and has in place a number of initiatives to address the errors that cause them. These activities address fraud as well as error, and both under and overpayments. It is therefore not possible to separate out the cost of activities focused exclusively on underpayments as a result of error.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit will make the welfare system simpler by replacing six benefits and credits with a single monthly payment. This simplification is expected to lead to a reduction in fraud and error due to the fact that information about claimants will be held in one place and updated more frequently and easily.</p><p> </p><p>For claimants that have income taxed under PAYE, Universal Credit will be linked to HMRC’s Real Time Information system, which will provide an automatic monthly update of their income thus reducing the potential for both error and fraud.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has invested in compliance activity, so that case correctness is maintained and fraud and error entering the system are detected and resolved quickly. Across all delivery arms there is a focus on accuracy and quality, including a continuous quality checking regime to review claims and check processing accuracy.</p><p> </p><p>We constantly review claims by checking them against data coming into our systems, in order to highlight potential anomalies. We do this by using business rules which focus on potential error to identify both under and overpayments.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is taking steps to encourage claimants to ensure that the information provided to us is accurate and up-to-date. This includes a fraud and error communications campaign about driving behaviour change and emphasising that claimants must report any change of circumstances.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 07/11/2014 13:39:35 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
	tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham

100946

	registered interest
	date	24/10/2014
	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	Industrial Health and Safety: Agriculture
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the latest figures they have of the number of fatal and serious accidents occurring in the farming industry.
	tabling member printed	Lord Kennedy of Southwark
	uin	HL2414
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2014 answer text <p>These figures are published on the Health and Safety Executive’s website: <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/agriculture/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/agriculture/index.htm</a>. They can also be found in the published report attached, “Health and safety in agriculture in Great Britain, 2014” on pages 6 and 7.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 04/11/2014 15:42:22 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud attachment 1 file name HSE Agri Stats.pdf title Health and Safety in agriculture in Great Britain
	tabling member	4153 label Biography information for Lord Kennedy of Southwark