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1082534

	registered interest
	date	06/03/2019
	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, in the most recent month for which data is available, in what proportion of universal credit assessments for working claimants was income data taken from (a) RTI data provided by HMRC and (b) claimants' payslips.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	229075
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not held by the Department. Adjustments to payments owing to RTI and self-reported earnings cannot always be separated from other adjustments to a payment, such as a repayment of advances.</p><p> </p><p>From the information that is readily available for Universal Credit Full Service, in January 2019, over 1 million households had payments processed, and of these around 380,000 had an adjustment.</p><p> </p><p>Of the 380,000 payments processed that had an adjustment:</p><p> </p><ul><li>88% of the records had earnings information from HMRC’s Real-Time Earnings system.</li><li>2% of the records had Self-Reported Earnings - cases where there were no available real time information feeds. Some of this information would have come from payslips, however it is not possible to break this data down further.</li><li>less than 0.5% of the records had both Real-Time and Self-Reported Earnings information; and</li><li>9% of the records had earnings from other sources such as self employed earnings and other income, which cannot readily be separated.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><ul><li>Figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000.</li><li>Percentages are rounded to the nearest %.</li></ul> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 13/05/2019 17:11:54 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 106867 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1110994

	registered interest
	date	10/04/2019
	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	Department for Work and Pensions: Brexit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has deprioritised any Statutory Instruments in relation to the UK leaving the EU; and if she will publish the criteria her Department uses to deprioritise those Instruments.
	tabling member constituency	Walsall South
	tabling member printed	Valerie Vaz
	uin	243435
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2019 answer text <p>The Department has not deprioritised any statutory instruments as part of the UK preparations to leave the EU. The Department for Work and Pension continues to work closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union and other Government Departments and preparations have been undertaken by staff as part of their regular duties.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 16/04/2019 11:34:35 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 114099 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4076 label Biography information for Valerie Vaz

1082327

	registered interest
	date	05/03/2019
	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, in what circumstances deductions are made from a claimant's universal credit payment in order to contribute to her Department's administration costs; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	228540
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department does not take deductions from a claimant’s Universal Credit award with the sole intent of contributing to the Department’s administrative costs.</p><p> </p><p>For example, where payments of child maintenance are made via the Child Maintenance Service, rather than directly between clients, a 20% collection fee is incurred by the paying parent. This applies to deductions from benefit, including Universal Credit, in the same way as any other collection method.</p><p> </p><p>Similarly, in cases of benefit fraud an administrative penalty can be recovered as a deduction. These penalties are offered as an alternative to prosecution, are not imposed by the Department and can be declined by claimants.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 26/03/2019 16:24:24 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 106853 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1077186

	registered interest
	date	25/02/2019
	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, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2019 to Question 221994, whether it was the research contractor or the Department who made the decision to report without differentiating between live and full service; for what purpose live service was included as a separate sample to full service in the claimant survey at the beginning of the 2017-18 year; whether live service and full service have been reported separately internally for 2017-18; what the total cost was of the claimant survey research conducted for 2017-18; what plans he has to compare the full service findings of the 2018-19 claimant survey with the full service findings from the 2017-18 survey; and what questions within the survey questionnaire have not been reported within the annual report and data tables.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	225407
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department has made the decision not to differentiate between Live and Full service for a number of Universal Credit data sets, including the claimant survey. This is because both services operate within the same policy framework and live service is being phased out.</p><p> </p><p>For the 2017/18 survey year, the cost was £382,435.26 across all main benefits.</p><p> </p><p>We track trends in claimant satisfaction, although individual year results are not always comparable; where this is the case we point that out for users of the survey.</p><p> </p><p>The questions within the survey questionnaire that have not been reported within the annual report and data tables are listed in the table in the document attached:</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 25/03/2019 16:51:32 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma attachment 1 file name Claimant service and experience survey 225407.pdf title Claimant Service and Experience Survey previous answer version 105110 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1082329

	registered interest
	date	05/03/2019
	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, in what circumstances a universal credit claimant will be advised by a work coach to close his or her current application and make a new application; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	228541
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2019 answer text <p>Comprehensive guidance is available to all staff and is very clear when a claim should be closed. A claim may close for various reasons including an increase in income.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit is an in and out of work benefit to encourage claimants to move into employment and increase their earnings.</p><p> </p><p>Re-claims provides a simple route back onto Universal Credit for claimants who have a short break in entitlement, for example, entering temporary work. Re-claims will allow most claimants who return to Universal Credit within six assessment periods of their previous award ending, to retain their previous Universal Credit assessment period and payment dates, as long as they continue to meet the basic conditions of entitlement.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/03/2019 10:53:11 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 106854 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1027741

	registered interest
	date	18/12/2018
	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: Disability
	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 effect of imposing sanctions on disabled claimants of universal credit on (a) the subsequent time they spend in receipt of benefit and (b) the likelihood of those claimants subsequently entering and remaining in employment.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	203221
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of imposing sanctions on disabled Universal Credit claimants. In our response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee Report on Benefit Sanctions (Nineteenth Report of Session 2017-19), the Department committed to evaluating the effectiveness of reforms to welfare conditionality and sanctions. The Department will focus its evaluation on whether the sanctions regime within Universal Credit is effective at supporting claimants to search for work.</p><p> </p><p>Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. Latest data, published on 19 February 2019 in the Benefit Sanction Statistics, shows that in November 2018, 2.8% of people subject to conditionality on Universal Credit had a deduction taken from their benefit award as a result of a sanction.</p><p> </p><p>When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 20/03/2019 14:28:39 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 94108 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1037783

	registered interest
	date	08/01/2019
	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: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the number of hardship payment awards to sanctioned claimants of universal credit was in each conditionality category for (a) live and (b) full service claimants in each month since August 2015.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	206209
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2019 answer text <p>The information requested by each conditionality group is not readily available for Universal Credit Full and Live Service claimants and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p>Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.</p><p>However, the information that is readily available is displayed in the table below. This shows the number of Universal Credit Full Service sanction decisions which were followed by a Recoverable Hardship Payment during 2017 and 2018.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Sanction decision month</p></td><td><p>Number of UC Full Service sanction decisions which were followed by a Recoverable Hardship Payment<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>Number of people on Universal Credit<sup>2</sup></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-17</p></td><td><p>100</p></td><td><p>437,751</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-17</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>458,742</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mar-17</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>481,592</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Apr-17</p></td><td><p>100</p></td><td><p>504,748</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May-17</p></td><td><p>400</p></td><td><p>513,481</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-17</p></td><td><p>300</p></td><td><p>527,535</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-17</p></td><td><p>300</p></td><td><p>551,088</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-17</p></td><td><p>400</p></td><td><p>574,802</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-17</p></td><td><p>300</p></td><td><p>601,921</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-17</p></td><td><p>400</p></td><td><p>623,565</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-17</p></td><td><p>300</p></td><td><p>650,145</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-17</p></td><td><p>200</p></td><td><p>692,039</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-18</p></td><td><p>600</p></td><td><p>717,523</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-18</p></td><td><p>500</p></td><td><p>762,909</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mar-18</p></td><td><p>500</p></td><td><p>801,401</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Apr-18</p></td><td><p>700</p></td><td><p>856,280</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May-18</p></td><td><p>400</p></td><td><p>902,317</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-18</p></td><td><p>1100</p></td><td><p>961,643</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-18</p></td><td><p>2200</p></td><td><p>1,019,181</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-18</p></td><td><p>2400</p></td><td><p>1,093,073</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><ol><li>The information provided in the provided table is based on preliminary analysis of internal management information and may be subject to future revision. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Subsequently, figures in the table that are 0 are less than 50.</li><li>The number of people on Universal Credit is published on Stat-Xplore. (<a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml" target="_blank">stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk</a>)</li></ol><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 20/03/2019 14:09:07 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 94873 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1046104

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2019
	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, with referenced to her speech entitled Universal Credit: personal welfare delivered on 11 January 2019, how many recipients of universal credit where payments go to the woman’s bank account are in paid work.
	tabling member constituency	Oxford East
	tabling member printed	Anneliese Dodds
	uin	211355
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 211354 question first answered 20/03/2019 13:51:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 97892 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4657 label Biography information for Anneliese Dodds

1046103

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2019
	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, with reference to her speech entitled, Universal Credit: personal welfare, delivered on 11 January 2019, how many recipients of universal credit where the woman is the payee are recorded as lead carers in relation to their claimant commitment.
	tabling member constituency	Oxford East
	tabling member printed	Anneliese Dodds
	uin	211354
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 211355 question first answered 20/03/2019 13:51:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 97891 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4657 label Biography information for Anneliese Dodds

1046779

	registered interest
	date	23/01/2019
	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, whether the Government has received advice from the Information Commissioner on whether implicit consent in universal credit would violate data protection laws.
	tabling member constituency	Scunthorpe
	tabling member printed	Nic Dakin
	uin	211712
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2019 answer text <p>DWP has been in correspondence with the Information Commissioner to clarify our approach to consent within Universal Credit. This does not amount to formal advice on the narrower point of whether implicit consent in Universal Credit would violate the Data Protection Act, but the Department continues to review its policy on consent and how it interacts with data protection laws.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP policy to require explicit consent in most cases is to give an extra layer of security and protect claimants from people seeking to impersonate genuine advisers. We have agreed to explore options for improving the process of explicit consent in collaboration with the Social Security Advisory Committee to consider how current processes could be enhanced and publish a report on our joint conclusions.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 19/03/2019 12:46:06 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 97894 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4056 label Biography information for Nic Dakin