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1491060

registered interest
date	20/07/2022
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	Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit: Care Leavers
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 make it her policy to pay care leavers the higher rate of (a) Jobseekers Allowance and (b) Universal Credit from their 18th birthday.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	40769
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/09/2022 answer text <p>Universal Credit provides those who are under 25 with lower rates than those age 25 and over. This reflects the fact that these claimants are more likely to live in someone else’s household and have lower living costs.</p><p> </p><p>However, it is acknowledged that some claimants under 25 do live independently, which is why Universal Credit includes separate elements to provide support to claimants for these additional costs. These additional amounts are provided in a similar way to all claimants.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>There are no plans to change this policy.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 05/09/2022 16:04:50 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1490117

registered interest
date	18/07/2022
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: Mortality Rates
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the number of people claiming social security benefits on the mortality rate in England.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	38637
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2022 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions has not made an assessment.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 25/07/2022 14:00:46 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1483459

registered interest
date	27/06/2022
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	Household Support Fund: Barnet
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on allocating the Household Support Fund to the London Borough of Barnet.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	25822
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/07/2022 answer text <p>Local Authorities have received their allocations from the current £421m Household Support Fund for April – September 2022, alongside the grant determination and guidance. The allocations for Local Authorities for this period can be found <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-guidance-for-local-councils/household-support-fund-grant-determination-2021-no-315787#annex-a-household-support-fund-grant-final-funding-allocations-per-county-councils-and-unitary-authorities-for-the-period-1-april-to-30-september-2022" target="_blank">here</a>. The allocation for Barnet is £2,455,182.90. Local Authorities have discretion on exactly how and when this funding is used within the scope set out in the grant determination and guidance, based on their assessment of local need.</p><p> </p><p>From October 2022, Government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England £421m will be used to further extend the Household Support Fund (October 2022 – March 2023). Guidance and individual local authority indicative allocations for this further extension to the Household Support Fund will be announced in due course.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 05/07/2022 16:02:35 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1463989

registered interest
date	18/05/2022
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	Household Support Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps her Department has taken to progress the allocation of the Household Support Fund to local authorities.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	4549
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/05/2022 answer text <p>Local Authorities have already received their allocations, alongside the grant determination and guidance, for the £421m Household Support Fund extension. The new allocations for Local Authorities are the same as for the previous 6 months of the scheme and can be found <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-guidance-for-local-councils/household-support-fund-grant-determination-2021-no-315787#annex-a-household-support-fund-grant-final-funding-allocations-per-county-councils-and-unitary-authorities-for-the-period-1-april-to-30-september-2022" target="_blank">here</a>. Local Authorities have discretion on exactly how and when this funding is used within the scope set out, based on their assessment of local need.</p><p> </p><p>This funding is available now for use by Local Authorities until 30 September 2022.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 26/05/2022 15:49:07 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1455062

registered interest
date	28/03/2022
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	Poverty: Children
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 publish a strategy to tackle child poverty in Hendon constituency.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	148151
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2022 answer text <p>With almost 1.32 million vacancies across the UK, our plan for tackling poverty is firmly focussed on supporting people to move into and progress in work. Our approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment – particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.</p><p> </p><p>This plan includes our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has been expanded by £500 million, and Way to Work, which is a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022. We have recruited around 13,500 additional work coaches who are all trained to develop a detailed knowledge of their local labour market and to offer claimants the tailored support they need to take advantage of new opportunities wherever they live in the UK.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some people require additional support and from April, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion. Under the first round of funding, the London Borough of Barnet Council was allocated £2,455,182.90 of funding, and they are provisionally allocated the same amount again for the extension of the fund.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 05/04/2022 16:08:10 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1452264

registered interest
date	17/03/2022
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: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much expenditure by her Department was identified as fraudulent in the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	141966
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2022 answer text <p>The Department publishes Fraud and Error estimates, as shown in the link, which include data on how much money was potentially lost to Fraud in each of the last 3 years. Fraud and Error in the benefit system is rare, but we know that organised criminals and opportunists sought to exploit the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic for gain. We took steps to stop this and estimate that we prevented nearly £3bn of additional fraud and error in 2020/21.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/985567/fraud-and-error-stats-release-2020-2021-estimates-tables-xls.xlsx&amp;wdOrigin=BROWSELINK" target="_blank">fraud-and-error-stats-release-2020-2021-estimates-tables-xls.xlsx (live.com)</a></p><p> </p><p>These same statistics also indicate how much money was repaid by way of benefit debt. The totals include debts incurred through Fraud, Claimant Error, and where appropriate, Official Error.</p><p> </p><p>The repayment figures are:</p><p> </p><p>20/21: £0.8bn (£0.5bn Housing Benefit and £0.3bn other DWP benefits)</p><p>19/20: £1.0bn (£0.6bn Housing Benefit and £0.4bn other DWP benefits)</p><p>18/19: £1.1bn (£0.7bn Housing Benefit and £0.4bn other DWP benefits)</p><p> </p><p>The slight fall in 20/21 was due in part to debt recovery being paused for three months from April 2020, so that Debt Management staff could support processing of the substantial rise in new Universal Credit claims, following the outbreak of coronavirus.</p><p> </p><p>Note that other benefits recovered by DWP, including Tax Credits and Advances, are not included in these totals.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley grouped question UIN 141967 question first answered 24/03/2022 17:10:48 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1452268

registered interest
date	17/03/2022
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: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much expenditure by her Department that was identified as fraudulent was repaid to her Department in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	141967
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2022 answer text <p>The Department publishes Fraud and Error estimates, as shown in the link, which include data on how much money was potentially lost to Fraud in each of the last 3 years. Fraud and Error in the benefit system is rare, but we know that organised criminals and opportunists sought to exploit the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic for gain. We took steps to stop this and estimate that we prevented nearly £3bn of additional fraud and error in 2020/21.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/985567/fraud-and-error-stats-release-2020-2021-estimates-tables-xls.xlsx&amp;wdOrigin=BROWSELINK" target="_blank">fraud-and-error-stats-release-2020-2021-estimates-tables-xls.xlsx (live.com)</a></p><p> </p><p>These same statistics also indicate how much money was repaid by way of benefit debt. The totals include debts incurred through Fraud, Claimant Error, and where appropriate, Official Error.</p><p> </p><p>The repayment figures are:</p><p> </p><p>20/21: £0.8bn (£0.5bn Housing Benefit and £0.3bn other DWP benefits)</p><p>19/20: £1.0bn (£0.6bn Housing Benefit and £0.4bn other DWP benefits)</p><p>18/19: £1.1bn (£0.7bn Housing Benefit and £0.4bn other DWP benefits)</p><p> </p><p>The slight fall in 20/21 was due in part to debt recovery being paused for three months from April 2020, so that Debt Management staff could support processing of the substantial rise in new Universal Credit claims, following the outbreak of coronavirus.</p><p> </p><p>Note that other benefits recovered by DWP, including Tax Credits and Advances, are not included in these totals.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley grouped question UIN 141966 question first answered 24/03/2022 17:10:48 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1416780

registered interest
date	26/01/2022
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: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on tackling benefit fraud in each of the last three financial years.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	112539
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2022 answer text <p>All Department for Work and Pensions staff have a role in tackling benefit fraud, which is why all staff undertake mandatory fraud training each year.</p><p> </p><p>The figures provided reflect the direct cost of investigation work plus the cost of investment in fraud detection systems, which, over the last 3 years, amounted to £198m (2018/19), £220m (2019/20) and £162m (2020/21). Note that 2020/21 costs reduced because people were redeployed to front line Operations to help with the COVID claim surge.</p><p> </p><p>Figures do not include indirect costs, such as accommodation or IT.</p><p> </p><p>Looking ahead, the Department has confirmed an additional three year £613 million investment from the October Comprehensive Spending Review settlement and the announcement in December 2021, which will support a targeted review of Universal Credit claims, the development of a new Debt Enforcement Function and further recruitment into the Counter Fraud and Compliance and Debt Directorate so that we can continue to respond quickly and effectively to threats. This includes funding for around 2,000 trained specialists to identify and stop scammers. We expect this to make a significant reduction in the fraud and error challenge we face.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 03/02/2022 18:00:51 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1384344

registered interest
date	02/12/2021
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: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) reduce fraud within the benefits system.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	86078
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>The Department takes benefit fraud very seriously. We have taken further steps to reduce and minimise fraud and error during the past 18 months at a time where the Department processed an additional 3 million new Universal Credit claims.</p><p>We are continuing to expand our Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service that coordinates the detection of, and response to, fraud risks from organised crime groups seeking to exploit the benefit system. This included preventing a large attack in May 2020, stopping substantial sums being paid out to scammers and led to a number of arrests.</p><p>This has been further expanded, following investment at the Spring Budget and Spending Review, to further develop pre-payment ‘risking’ techniques and maintain our new Enhanced Checking Service for high risk claims.</p><p>We have also revisited more than 900,000 high risk claims paid during the early period of COVID-19, which has generated over £400m in potential savings. Where fraud is established, we are committed to the use of appropriate penalties and to recovering monies from the perpetrators.</p><p>We also continue to work with other Government departments and law enforcement agencies nationally and across borders to ensure appropriate intelligence and resources are shared, enabling the totality of any criminality to be identified and investigated</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 10/12/2021 14:52:00 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1384349

registered interest
date	02/12/2021
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 her Department has made of the impact of the universal credit taper rate reduction on household budgets.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	86083
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/12/2021 answer text <p>The reduction in the taper rate, together with an increase in the work allowances, means 1.9m households will keep, on average, around an extra £1,000 a year. These changes represent an effective tax cut for low income working households in receipt of Universal Credit, worth £2.2 billion a year in 2022-23, and will allow working households to keep more of what they earn and strengthen incentives to move into, and progress, in work.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 10/12/2021 11:49:29 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord