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1002759

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	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	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 discussions she has had with representatives of staff working in job centres and service centres on difficulties experienced by such staff in (a) applying for and (b) receiving payment as claimants of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188874
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>My officials regularly meet with trade union representatives to discuss areas of concerns that staff may have.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 17:51:28 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1002760

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	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	Universal Credit: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what process is used by her Department to estimate the (a) average call duration and (b) amount of calls taken by case managers working on universal credit; and if she will publish the results of such estimates for each year for which information is available.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188875
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>Data can be extracted from the Universal Credit Full Service system to establish the average number of calls per day and the average duration.</p><p> </p><p>We have no plans to collect or publish this data routinely given the costs involved in maintaining it to official statistics standards.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 18:05:10 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1002761

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	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	Universal Credit: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of case managers working on universal credit who are seconded to the national telephony team for each shift; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188876
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>We currently have 400 colleagues assigned to Universal Credit national tier telephony. We retain the flexibility to adjust the number of colleagues working on some of the core functions within Universal Credit to accommodate fluctuations in demand and the number of colleagues deployed to National Tier telephony will vary month on month as required.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 18:02:05 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1002762

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	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	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 funding the Government has allocated for transitional payments for people moving onto universal credit; and by what process claimants will receive such payments.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188877
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/12/2018 answer text <p>We recently laid the draft Universal Credit (Managed Migration) Regulations 2018 in Parliament. These will introduce a transitional payment to those eligible claimants who were in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium whilst on an existing benefit and who have already moved to Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>As announced in the 2018 Autumn Budget, the income related elements of Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance, and Income Support will continue for two weeks after a claim for Universal Credit has been made from July 2020. Claimants will therefore receive one two week run-on payment when being migrated to Universal Credit. Both of these measures are subject to parliamentary approval. These payments are in addition to the 2 week run-on of Housing Benefit, which we introduced in April 2018.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has also committed to ensuring that claimants who are moved onto Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process see no decrease in their benefit entitlement, providing their circumstances remain the same.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will be spending over £3bn on transitional protection over the next 10 years to ensure that claimants who are migrated onto Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process do not experience a financial loss at the point of transition.</p><p> </p><p>Transitional protection will be calculated based on the claimant’s circumstances on the last day of their entitlement to existing benefits. To do this we will make a comparison between the total amount of all relevant existing benefits to which the claimant was entitled at this point and the total amount of Universal Credit to which the claimant would be entitled as calculated based on the same set of circumstances. If the entitlement to the existing benefits is the greater amount then the difference will be awarded as a Transitional Element. When awarded, this Transitional Element will be taken into account with any other applicable Elements to determine a claimant’s Universal Credit award in each Assessment Period.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 13/12/2018 14:37:05 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 84612 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1029335

	registered interest
	date	20/12/2018
	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	Department for Work and Pensions: Staff
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff were employed in her Department on (a) 20 December 2018 and (b) 23 June 2016.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	204533
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2019 answer text <p>The Department collects and publishes its workforce management information each month. These details can be found at the following link.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-workforce-management-information" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-workforce-management-information</a></p><p> </p><p>The Department’s headcount is collected and reported as at the last day of each month. On 30 June 2016 the Department’s headcount was 84,226 and on 30 November 2018 it was 82,827.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 10/01/2019 15:55:02 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1035341

	registered interest
	date	04/01/2019
	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	Department for Work and Pensions: Brexit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the additional staff required by her Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	205309
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2019 answer text <p>The Government continues undertaking planning for all EU exit scenarios, as is prudent. The Department continues to work closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union to ensure consistency of plans across government. Members of staff across the Department provide advice and analysis on EU Exit issues as required. Given the interactions between EU exit work and the Department’s other priorities, it would not be possible to give a figure for the information requested.</p><p> </p><p>The Department continually reviews workforce plans, priorities and changing needs, which includes identification and cessation of non-priority work where appropriate. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU exit implementation is carried out to high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of government.</p><p> </p><p>The Department publishes its workforce management information each month. These details can be found at the following link.</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-workforce-management-information#2010-to-march-2014-" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-workforce-management-information#2010-to-march-2014-</a></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 14/01/2019 17:59:17 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1079383

	registered interest
	date	28/02/2019
	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	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 assessment she has made of the adequacy of staffing levels in universal credit centres; and what proportion of fixed-term staff working in universal credit centres are on (a) permanent contracts and (b) zero-hour contracts.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	227130
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department regularly reviews both the numbers of people working in Universal Credit service centres and their performance to ensure we have the right number of people available to manage claimants Universal Credit claims. Services and staff training is assessed, both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.</p><p> </p><p>Our priority is to give all employees, including those delivering Universal Credit, the necessary resources, including manageable workloads, so that they can carry out their roles successfully.</p><p> </p><p>The size of a Case Manager’s caseload is dependent on a number of factors, including the complexity of the caseload and experience of the case manager.</p><p> </p><p>All staff on fixed-term contracts are employed on the basis of agreed full or part time hours. No staff are employed on zero-hour contracts.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 05/03/2019 17:53:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1171105

	registered interest
	date	15/01/2020
	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, if she will amend the universal credit (a) application form and (b) online journal to enable applicants to consent to their data being used to automatically register eligible children in their household for free school meals.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	3828
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2020 answer text <p>The Universal Credit system is structured around an online personal account which contains all the information relevant to the claim. This includes claimant’s bank account details, savings, capital, medical history, family relationships and address information. We need to ensure a high level of security and protection is maintained to combat unscrupulous individuals and organisations who try to access the information we hold and seek to impersonate genuine advisers. We take all reasonable steps to protect the position of claimants and their data.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants may currently be entitled to a number of other benefits because they are in receipt of Universal Credit. These are known as passported benefits and include free school meals and free prescriptions. The eligibility criteria for each passported benefit remain the responsibility of the departments and devolved administrations that own them. In Scotland and Wales, eligibility criteria for free school meals is a matter for the devolved administrations.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Education provides an electronic eligibility checking service to all local authorities in England, which is used to confirm eligibility for free school meals.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/01/2020 17:27:16 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1171106

	registered interest
	date	15/01/2020
	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 and what proportion of new claims for universal credit were paid in full and on time by (a) child element, (b) limited capability for work element, (c) childcare element and (d) housing element in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	3829
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/01/2020 answer text <p>Our latest data shows the proportion of new Universal Credit claims paid in full on time was 88.4%. In many cases where full payment is not made on time, it is due to unresolved issues such as: claimants not accepting their Claimant Commitment or passing identity checks, or having outstanding verification issues, such as housing costs and self-employed earnings.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The latest available information on payments made in full and on time to Universal Credit claimants is published and can be found at:</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://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html</a></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 20/01/2020 14:16:58 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1172106

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2020
	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, what estimate she has made of the number of children living in households where claimants have had deductions made to their monthly universal credit payments in the latest period for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	5463
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 28/01/2020 11:17:12 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens