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

Search

1138693

registered interest
date	12/07/2019
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 recent steps he is taking to tackle universal credit fraud.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	276511
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department takes its obligation to prevent, detect and investigate fraud very seriously and will investigate all claims where fraud may have been committed. We have recently set up a dedicated team to investigate a specific type of emergent fraud, and we are also committed to the use of penalties such as prosecutions and tough financial penalties to discourage fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has also recently been working to further improve knowledge and awareness of Universal Credit (UC) fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that all staff are aware how to quickly refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances. UC provides a single, digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. UC also allows us to adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real time. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping to inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances. Once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 12:58:00 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1138694

registered interest
date	12/07/2019
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: 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 steps he is taking to ensure accurate verification of universal credit claimants who request an advance.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	276512
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has been working to improve knowledge and awareness of advances fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that staff are aware how to refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>We are developing our service iteratively and improving any areas in the service that may currently be presenting issues, to minimise the risk of fraud while ensuring that we can continue to provide financial support to those claimants who need it.</p><p>We cannot share advance detail of the specific security improvements we are making but this includes improving our process for verifying a claimant’s circumstances.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 12:46:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1138699

registered interest
date	12/07/2019
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 steps her Department is taking to support victims of universal credit scams.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	276513
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department takes benefit fraud very seriously and is committed to taking appropriate action when it is detected.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant has been the victim of fraud, and has not benefitted financially in any way, they will not be asked to repay the money. The Department considers all cases on their individual merits and decisions are made on the strength of the evidence provided.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has been working to improve knowledge and awareness of advances fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that staff are aware how to refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances, Universal Credit (UC) provides a single, digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. As such, once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 13:47:42 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1135825

registered interest
date	01/07/2019
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 people working in the gig economy that are in receipt of universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	271364
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2019 answer text <p>The term “gig economy” covers a wide range of roles and working practices and the information requested is not held.</p><p> </p><p>The Department provides tailored support to our claimants who are in self-employment through our work coaches to help them to increase their productivity and earnings.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit encourages all claimants with a work expectation to find and progress in work. To support those already in, or considering self-employment, we have extended the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) scheme from April 2019 onwards. The NEA provides support and mentoring for claimants who are looking to start or develop their business.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 04/07/2019 14:40:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1133198

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
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: Veterans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of military veterans claiming universal credit that have been sanctioned.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	266655
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The Department has not made an estimate of the number of military veterans claiming universal credit that have been sanctioned because this information is not held.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 24/06/2019 16:10:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1131674

registered interest
date	12/06/2019
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	Zero-hours Contracts: West Midlands
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in the West Midlands on zero-hour contracts.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	263688
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2019 answer text <p>Data from the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that in 2018 75,000 people in the West Midlands are employed on zero hours’ contracts – representing just 2.7% of people employed in the West Midlands.</p><p> </p><p>In the UK in 2018 the ONS estimate that 844,000 people were employed on zero hours’ contracts – 2.6% of all people employed.</p><p> </p><p>A record number of people (32.7 million) in the UK are employed. Since 2010 nearly 80% of the growth in employment has been in full-time work and over 75% has come from permanent employment’. Average wages have grown faster than inflation for 15 consecutive months.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/06/2019 15:05:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1123898

registered interest
date	30/04/2019
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 make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the Trussell Trust recommendation to change the five-week wait for universal credit payments to reduce the use of foodbanks.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	249202
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/05/2019 answer text <p>No UC claimant has to wait five weeks for their first payment. If required, advances of up to 100 per cent of their expected UC award are available to claimants from day one of their claim. Advances are paid back over a maximum of 12 months and in the Autumn Budget 2018, we announced that from October 2021, the payback period for these advances will be extended further, allowing claimants up to 16 months. This is just one of a number of measures the Department has put in place to support claimants such as paying those claimants moving from Housing Benefit onto Universal Credit a two week ‘transitional housing payment’. 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> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 07/05/2019 15:02:03 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1054719

registered interest
date	04/02/2019
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 recent estimate her Department has made of the total number and proportion of universal credit claimants that are now in employment as a result of the introduction of that benefit.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	216131
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/02/2019 answer text <p>The number of people on Universal Credit as at 13 December 2018 was around 1.6 million. Of these people around 580 thousand (around 37 per cent) were in employment. The detailed figures can be found in Table 3.1 of the latest Universal Credit statistics at:</p><p>(Table 3.1) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-29-april-2013-to-13-december-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-29-april-2013-to-13-december-2018</a>)</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit is all about getting people into work and, for those already in work, increasing their income through more work. Latest analysis published by DWP shows that Universal Credit is working and people are 4% more likely to have been in work at some point in the 6 months following their claim than under Jobseeker’s Allowance. In June 2018 DWP published plans for further analysis of the labour market impact of Universal Credit, which can be accessed at: . This can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-understanding-its-impact-on-the-labour-market" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-understanding-its-impact-on-the-labour-market</a></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 07/02/2019 17:17:56 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1028540

registered interest
date	19/12/2018
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	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 recent estimate she has made of the completion date for the roll-out of universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	203793
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/01/2019 answer text <p>The rollout of Universal Credit to all jobcentres was completed in December 2018.</p><p> </p><p>The next stage of the Universal Credit process will be managed migration, which will see claimants move from legacy benefits onto Universal Credit. We have said that we will begin managed migration on a small scale in 2019 to pilot our processes and ensure that they are working, adapting them and building on feedback before we begin to take on larger volumes of claimants. This managed migration process will be completed by the end of 2023.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 07/01/2019 13:22:10 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

932697

registered interest
date	29/06/2018
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	Social Security Benefits: Coventry
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate the Government has made of the number of families in Coventry directly affected by the two-child limit policy in the child element of (a) child tax credits and (b) universal credit since April 2017.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	158948
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2018 answer text <p>The information requested could only be made available at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>National data regarding the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children can be accessed at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2018</a></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 04/07/2018 16:43:49 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham