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672201

registered interest
date	12/01/2017
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 support and assistance the Government provides to families which experience reductions in their income as a result of the six-week waiting period for receipt of their first universal credit payment.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	59862
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/01/2017 answer text <p>Advances of Universal Credit are available if claimants need financial support before they receive their first payment. Advances can be up to 50% of the household’s monthly entitlement.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, there are various forms of Alternative Payment Arrangement available. These are designed to address various aspects of financial difficulty, including a direct payment of housing costs to the landlord, more frequent than monthly payments and split payments within a household in certain circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>At the initial meeting with a new claimant, the Department’s Work Coaches will assess the claimant’s financial situation and determine if there is a need for Personal Budgeting Support. If there is, the claimant can be referred to a range of free services including the Money Advice Service and locally provided support. The Work Coach can also consider whether the criteria for an Alternative Payment Arrangement are met.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 17/01/2017 16:08:43 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

606005

registered interest
date	19/10/2016
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: Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants in each constituency in Scotland have been in receipt of jobseeker's allowance for (a) one year, (b) two years and (c) five years.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	49435
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2016 answer text <p>The information available for the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants by Parliamentary Constituency and duration is published and can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp" target="_blank">https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp</a></p><p>Guidance for users is available at:</p><p><a href="https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp" target="_blank">https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 26/10/2016 11:05:24 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

576535

registered interest
date	05/09/2016
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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides on the minimum number of days between benefit payments for a person ending an employment and support allowance claim and beginning a jobseeker's allowance claim; and what the average time between such benefit payments was in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44952
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>The department does not specifically hold data in relation to claimants who transition from ESA to JSA and the time taken to award JSA following the closure of an ESA claim. As a department we strive to process all new claims made to JSA as quickly and efficiently as possible with a minimum expected level of 90% processed within 10 days. We are currently achieving 90.7% as of July 2016.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 16:04:55 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573919

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish data on the number of (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high level sanctions applied to universal credit claimants (i) before and (ii) after challenges.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44460
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/09/2016 answer text <p>The Department updated its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in February 2016. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently assessing the data for UC and will only release information once the necessary quality assurance work has taken place. These statistics will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit official statistics and the Departments release strategy can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics</a></p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 08/09/2016 12:28:26 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573921

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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	Jobcentre Plus: 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 disability employment advisers are employed by Jobcentre Plus.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44462
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/09/2016 answer text <p>The number of Disability Employment Advisers employed by the Department for Work and Pensions is 263 at July 2016.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 08/09/2016 11:47:07 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573924

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the decline in Short Term Benefit Advance applications in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK between February 2015 and March 2016.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44467
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Short Term Benefit Advances (STBAs) are payments on account of benefit. The majority of STBAs are awarded to people in the period before their benefit is first due to be paid, but STBAs can also be paid where a change of circumstances significantly increases the amount of benefit due. STBAs are predominately paid to people claiming Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance. They are not available to people claiming Universal Credit.</p><p>Between April 2015 and March 2016, there were 218,592 STBA applications in Great Britain as a whole, with monthly variations ranging from 17,188 in September 2015 to 21,529 in February 2016, but with no downward trend at the year end. In Scotland, there were 26,322 applications over the same period, with monthly variations ranging from 1,462 in November 2015 to 3,022 in April 2015, with a clear downward trend at the year end.</p><p>As the roll-out of Universal Credit to all new claimants progresses, we anticipate a corresponding decline in the number of STBA applications.</p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions continues to advertise the availability of STBAs through the gov.uk website, with information posters and leaflets in Jobcentres nationwide.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:45:34 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573927

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was to process hardship payments between the day the application was made and the day the claimant received the payment for sanctioned (a) jobseeker's allowance and (b) employment and support allowance claimants before reviews, reconsiderations or appeals for the period between 1 July and 31 December 2015.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/09/2016 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 08/09/2016 11:51:35 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573931

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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 the average and median waiting time is for users calling the universal credit helpline; and how many calls to that helpline were answered in (a) less than five, (b) between five and 10, (c) between 10 and 15, (d) between 15 and 20 and (e) more than thirty minutes between 1 January and 30 June 2016.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44470
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>The data below states the Average Speed of Answer for all UC calls for the period 1 January 2016 – 30 June 2016.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Universal Credit Average Speed of Answer</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Average Speed of Answer</strong></p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>January 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:09</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>February 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:03</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>March 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:01</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>April 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:44</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>May 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:24</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>June 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:41</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:22</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Data source: Operational Management Information System (OPMIS)</p><p>It would be a disproportionate cost to compute the median in each month, and the breakdown by waiting time intervals.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:06:10 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573932

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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: ICT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of the contract between his Department and SCC for providing server support for the universal credit portal.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44471
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>This information can be found on the Contract Finder website - please see the below link.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder</a></p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:55:58 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573933

registered interest
date	02/09/2016
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: ICT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that a server issue with the universal credit portal does not reoccur.
tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
uin	44472
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.</p><p>The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.</p><p>We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 44473 44510 question first answered 12/09/2016 10:54:57 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford