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1138133

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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, how many people have people on universal credit who have turned down a job offer in the last 12 months have cited lack of affordable childcare as the reason; and how many of those people received (a) a civil penalty and (b) a sanction.
tabling member constituency	High Peak
tabling member printed	Ruth George
uin	275817
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>On Universal Credit, claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70 per cent on the legacy system. Where the initial month’s childcare costs may prevent a claimant from starting work, Jobcentres can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants. This is a non-repayable award, which can be used to meet the upfront costs of childcare to help support a claimant into work.</p><p> </p><p>Civil Penalties may be imposed by both DWP and Local Authorities, where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error. Civil Penalties are not imposed in the event of a claimant refusing to accept a job offer.</p><p> </p><p>The information request about those receiving a sanction is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 15:15:03 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1138172

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the extent to which fraudulent claims for universal credit have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	275665
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275666 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1137617

registered interest
date	08/07/2019
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 estimate she has made of the proportion of claimants who received advance payments (a) below the value of, (b) the same value as and (c) above the value of their first universal credit payment in the most recent month for which data is available.
tabling member constituency	Wirral West
tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
uin	274559
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2019 answer text <p>Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months. From October 2021, this maximum repayment period will be extended from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Department ensures claimants are made aware of their maximum advance entitlement and informed that their Universal Credit award will be adjusted over the relevant recovery period to take into account the advance of benefit they received.</p><p> </p><p>The available data shows that in the 12-month period up to the end of April 2019.</p><p> </p><p>(a) Around 20% of claimants take an advance which is less than 50% of their actual award value</p><p>(b) Around 75% of claimants take an advance which is between 50-100% of their actual award value</p><p>(c) Around 5% of claimants take an advance which is over 100% of their actual award value.</p><p> </p><p><em>To note on C): in a small number of cases the information provided by the claimant at the point of their new claim initially indicates a higher award than is actually applicable when the first assessment period has been completed.</em></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 11/07/2019 15:28:35 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

1136896

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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, if she will publish the (a) forecast number of new claims for universal credit between April 2018 and March 2019, (b) date on which that forecast was made and (c) actual number of new claims made during that period.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	273365
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not available as the Department does not forecast new claims to Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>The actual number of claims made between April 2018 and March 2019 can be found under the ‘Claims to Universal Credit’ dataset available at: <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a></p><p>Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: <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 Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/07/2019 14:01:25 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1136924

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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	Electronic Government: Proof of Identity
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 viability of the Verify scheme; and what role the private sector is planned to play in the future of that scheme.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Stephen Lloyd
uin	273377
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been working together on improvements to GOV.UK Verify for access to DWP digital services and the number of claimants who are successful when attempting to use GOV.UK Verify is steadily increasing.</p><p> </p><p>DWP will continue to consider options to provide the easiest and most secure digital services for claimants and as such we're considering a range of other identity verification options which are easy to use and cost-effective for the Department. The Verify solution is part of the suite of products offered in this area. The assessment of all DWP identity solutions is a continuous process to ensure that we are meeting customer needs in the most cost effective way.</p><p> </p><p>Discussions between Cabinet Office Government Digital Services, the owners of GOV.UK Verify are ongoing as to the role of the private sector post March 2020 and DWP, alongside all other Departments that use GOV.UK Verify, will be engaging in those conversations at the appropriate time.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/07/2019 13:46:43 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	3968 label Biography information for Stephen Lloyd

1136964

registered interest
date	04/07/2019
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	William Hill: Closures
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 is taking to support staff of William Hill following the announcement that 700 branches will close; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Motherwell and Wishaw
tabling member printed	Marion Fellows
uin	273427
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>DWP stands ready to support any affected by the proposed closures, with our Rapid Response Service (RRS) offer. This is a redundancy service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with the prospect of redundancy. It is coordinated nationally by the National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT) and is managed by Jobcentre Plus.</p><p> </p><p>Each Jobcentre Plus district deploy resources according to the situation and the requirements of the workforce. This service is available to be deployed nationally should William Hill require support from Jobcentre Plus. The RRS is delivered in partnership with a range of national and local partners, including National Careers Service and local service providers.</p><p> </p><p>The range of support available from Jobcentre Plus and partners may include:</p><ul><li>Information advice and guidance.</li><li>Connecting people to jobs in the labour market.</li><li>Help with job search including CV writing, interview skills, where to find jobs and<br>how to apply for them.</li><li>Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps (linked to the local labour<br>market).</li><li>Training to update skills, learn new ones and gain industry recognised<br>certification that will improve employability.</li><li>Help to overcome barriers to attending training or securing a job or <br>self-employment such as child care costs, necessary tools, work clothes, travel<br>costs etc.</li><li>On-site presentations to those affected.</li><li>Jobs Fairs and Job Clubs where appropriate.</li></ul> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 09/07/2019 09:34:57 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4440 label Biography information for Marion Fellows

1136684

registered interest
date	03/07/2019
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, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June to Question 266642, for what reasons her Department holds information on the number of universal credit claimants with an existing advance who also receive a maximum budgetary advance and have offered to repay that advance over the maximum time period allowed but does not hold information on the proportion of those people who have repaid their budget advance within the pre-agreed time period.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	272736
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. The Department does collect information on advances paid and repayments for all advances through the Universal Credit award. However, each advance’s repayment progress would need to be tracked separately and a date in which repayment is completed would need to be calculated.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 08/07/2019 17:02:17 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1136685

registered interest
date	03/07/2019
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, pursuant to the Answer of 28 June to Question 266643, how many people received a universal credit payment between June 2015 and May 2019.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	272737
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Universal Credit payments are made at a household rather than individual level. The official Households on Universal Credit statistics series starts in August 2015 and the latest month that has been published so far is February 2019.</p><p> </p><p>2,600,000 households on Universal Credit received at least one payment between August 2015 and February 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><p>1) Figures have been rounded to nearest 100,000.</p><p>2) Figures relate to both Universal Credit full service and Universal Credit live service.</p><p>3) If a household has a Managed Payment to Landlord in place, then some or all of their Universal Credit payment may have been paid directly to the landlord.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p /> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 08/07/2019 16:50:05 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1136692

registered interest
date	03/07/2019
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, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2019 to Question 266646, what recourse is available to a member of a joint claim whose partner has falsely confirmed that their partner knows and agrees to a universal credit advance.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	272738
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Advances are in place to ensure those in genuine need are able to receive financial support. They are not additional money: they are simply an advance of entitlement.</p><p> </p><p>Either member of a couple can apply for an advance payment on behalf of the couple. Since both claimants have a joint and individual liability for the repayment of the advance, they are given written notice at the time of taking out the advance, via their Universal Credit (UC) journal, which includes the amount of the advance and of their liability to repay the advance. They will also be alerted to this UC Journal entry.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 08/07/2019 16:56:29 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1136694

registered interest
date	03/07/2019
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, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 266647 on Universal Credit, for what reason his Department does not hold data on the number of claimants of universal credit that were refused an advance during the that period.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	272739
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/07/2019 answer text <p>Information on advances refused is not held in a format that is readily accessible. To identify and collate the total number of applications refused for an advance would incur disproportionate cost to the Department.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 08/07/2019 17:00:11 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe