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1172526

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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: Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department to provide additional funding to Citizens Advice Scotland to assist universal credit claimants to maintain their online claim.
tabling member constituency	Linlithgow and East Falkirk
tabling member printed	Martyn Day
uin	6722
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/01/2020 answer text <p>Comprehensive support is available to claimants to use our digital service, however we recognise there will be occasions when people are unable to maintain their claim online, so telephone support is available. In these instances, information normally available through a claimant’s online account will be communicated in an alternative format, which is best suited to an individual’s circumstances.</p><p>The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants, including the most vulnerable in society, in both making and maintaining their claim. Help to Claim delivered through Citizens Advice Scotland offers tailored, practical support to help people make a Universal Credit claim up to receiving their first full correct payment on time.</p><p>The Department is assessing the performance and outcomes of the support delivered by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland through the Help to Claim pilot. We will share the decision about the future of Help to Claim beyond March 2020 in due course.</p><p /><p /> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 31/01/2020 15:30:54 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4488 label Biography information for Martyn Day

1172530

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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	Food Poverty: Newcastle upon Tyne
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he plans to take to tackle food poverty in Newcastle upon Tyne constituency.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	6678
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>The government is committed to delivering a sustainable long-term solution to poverty in all its forms and in all parts of the UK by building a strong economy and ensuring that the benefit system works with the tax system and the labour market to support employment and higher pay.</p><p>The evidence shows that full time work substantially reduces the risk of being in poverty. Universal Credit is designed to help people move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings, provides more financial help with childcare costs and removes the 16-hour ‘cliff edge<strong>’</strong> for those who are working. To help families keep more of what they earn we have delivered another rise in the National Living Wage, increasing a full-time worker’s annual pay by over £2,750 since its introduction, and by nearly £3,700 with the recently announced rise from this April, with our tax changes making basic rate tax payers over £1,200 better off from April 2019, compared with 2010.</p><p>In order to develop a better understanding of the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk we have introduced a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey questionnaire from April 2019 onwards. This will enable us in the future to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 7197 question first answered 28/01/2020 17:41:58 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 3147 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

1172552

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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	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 bring forward legislative proposals for the introduction of statutory targets to (a) reduce and (b) end child poverty.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	6646
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2020 answer text <p>The Government is committed to action that delivers a sustainable long-term solution to child poverty, including reforming the benefits system so that it supports employment and higher pay. Universal Credit is designed to help people move into work faster, stay in work longer and spend more time looking to increase their earnings and, when fully rolled out, we expect Universal Credit will boost employment by 200,000, lifting people out of poverty and generating £8 billion in economic benefits every year.</p><p>The child poverty targets introduced in 2010 were replaced with two statutory measures of parental employment and children’s educational attainment, the two areas which can make the biggest difference to children’s long-term outcomes. We have no current plans to reintroduce a target-based approach that focuses on income alone.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 27/01/2020 17:56:53 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

1172605

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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: North West
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of claimants of legacy benefits who will naturally migrate to universal credit without transitional protection before the process of managed migration as a whole starts in (a) the North West, (b) Wirral and (c) Wallasey.
tabling member constituency	Wallasey
tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
uin	6609
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2020 answer text <p>Claimants who naturally migrate to Universal Credit will do so because they will have had a significant change in their circumstances which previously would have led to a new claim to another existing benefit. In these situations, it has always been the case that the assessment of their new benefit will be based on their new circumstances and under the rules of their new benefit without regard to their previous entitlement.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has delivered a number of improvements to support claimants during their first assessment period, such as removing waiting days and paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit a two-week run-on. We are also introducing a two-week run-on for eligible claimants of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance from July 2020.</p><p> </p><p>Data surrounding Universal Credit caseload growth at national, regional and constituency level is published at: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk </a></p><p> </p><p>Guidance for users is available 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> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 27/01/2020 17:59:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1172606

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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	Social Security Benefits: North West
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 trends in the level of administrative errors made processing applications during the roll-out of (a) universal credit and (b) personal independence payment in (i) the North West, (b) Wirral and (c) Wallasey.
tabling member constituency	Wallasey
tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
uin	6610
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>National statistics are published yearly which provide an estimate of the value of benefit overpayments that result from fraud, claimant error and official error (administrative errors). I have copied below a link to the latest publication.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/801594/fraud-and-error-stats-release-2018-2019-estimates.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/801594/fraud-and-error-stats-release-2018-2019-estimates.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>Each application made to UC or PIP is judged on its own merit, taking into account the information provided by the claimant, and robust Quality Assurance Processes are in place to minimise administrative errors. When a claimant disagrees with the decision made there is a well-established process in place for this to be looked at again, when more information may be provided by the claimant.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 28/01/2020 17:44:11 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 3144 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1172630

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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	Poverty: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children lived in (a) poverty and (b) extreme poverty in Greater Manchester in each of the last 10 years.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	6749
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>National Statistics on the number of children in low income households are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the number of children in low income households are not available at combined Local Authority level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the North West region can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a>, “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in tables 4.17ts (for relative low income, before and after housing costs) and 4.23ts (for absolute low income, before and after housing costs).</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 28/01/2020 17:45:10 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 3146 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1172631

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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	Poverty: Children
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 children in Manchester, Gorton constituency that are living in (a) poverty and (b) absolute poverty have (i) one household member in full-time employment, (ii) two household members in full-time employment, (iii) one household member in part-time employment, (iv) two household members in part-time employment and (v) no household members in employment in the most recent period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	6750
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>National Statistics on the percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the percentage of children in low income households is not available at constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the North West region can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a>, “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in tables 4.16ts and 4.17ts (for relative low income, before and after housing costs) and 4.22ts and 4.23ts (for absolute low income, before and after housing costs). The statistics are only available for all children and cannot be broken down into the categories requested because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 28/01/2020 17:38:08 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 3145 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1172687

registered interest
date	22/01/2020
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 bring forward legislative proposals to reform calculation of monthly equivalents for universal credit claimants with weekly rent liabilities by multiplying the weekly rent by the (a) number of rent weeks in the year, and dividing that figure by 12 or (b) average number of weeks in a year.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Darren Jones
uin	6774
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2020 answer text <p>Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. When rent is always paid on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will result in the correct amount of housing element being paid.</p><p> </p><p>Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.</p><p> </p><p>There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 03/02/2020 17:36:05 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1172196

registered interest
date	21/01/2020
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: Linlithgow and East Falkirk
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many offline universal credit applications were made by constituents of Linlithgow and East Falkirk between January and December 2019.
tabling member constituency	Linlithgow and East Falkirk
tabling member printed	Martyn Day
uin	6144
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/01/2020 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit is designed to be a ‘digital-first’ service, ensuring we make best use of technology to deliver a modern and effective working-age welfare system, allowing our staff to concentrate on those people who require additional support.</p><p> </p><p>Although the Department offers comprehensive support for claimants to use our digital service, there will be occasions when people are unable to make their claim online, so telephone applications can be accepted. In these instances, information normally available through a claimant’s online account will be communicated in an alternative format, which is best suited to an individual’s circumstances.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/01/2020 17:55:11 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4488 label Biography information for Martyn Day

1172197

registered interest
date	21/01/2020
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	Poverty: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children in Worsley and Eccles South constituency were categorised under section 4 (a) (1)(a), (b) (1)(b), (c) (1)(c) and (d) (1)(d) of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 in each of the last four calendar years.
tabling member constituency	Worsley and Eccles South
tabling member printed	Barbara Keeley
uin	6048
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2020 answer text <p>National Statistics on the percentage of children in low income households (relating to Section 4(a) 1(a) and 1(c) of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016) are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the percentage of children in low income households is not available at constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the North West region can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a>, “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in tables 4.16ts (for relative low income, before and after housing costs) and 4.22ts (for absolute low income, before and after housing costs)</p><p> </p><p>Data for the percentage of children in low income and material deprivation (relating to Section 4(a) 1(b) of the Act) is not available at constituency level in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics for the United Kingdom are available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718</a>, “children-trends-hbai-1994-95-2017-18-tables” in table 4.5tr.</p><p> </p><p>Experimental Statistics on the percentage of children in persistent low income (relating to Section 4(a) 1(d) of the Act) are published annually in the “Income Dynamics” publication. Statistics for the percentage of children in persistent low income households is not available at constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. Statistics for the North West region can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-dynamics-2016-to-2017" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-dynamics-2016-to-2017</a> in table 3.2p (on a before housing costs basis) and table 3.8p (on an after housing costs basis).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 27/01/2020 17:57:11 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	1588 label Biography information for Barbara Keeley