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1126815

	registered interest
	date	15/05/2019
	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	Novartis: North East Lincolnshire
	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 people affected by the potential closure of the Novartis plant in North East Lincolnshire.
	tabling member constituency	Great Grimsby
	tabling member printed	Melanie Onn
	uin	254841
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>DWP offer a Rapid Response Service (RRS). 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. Each Jobcentre Plus district deploy resources according to the situation and the requirements of the workforce. This service is available to be deployed in Grimsby and surrounding area should Novartis 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><p> </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 21/05/2019 16:58:43 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 119072 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4464 label Biography information for Melanie Onn

1126618

	registered interest
	date	14/05/2019
	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 changes have been made to the burden of proof required to prove eligibility for welfare support for (a) EU nationals and (b) non-EU nationals following the introduction of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	254247
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>No changes have been made to the burden of proof required to demonstrate eligibility for Universal Credit. In 2015, amendments to Universal Credit regulations brought the eligibility criteria to access Universal Credit more closely into line with EU regulations. The Department publishes Advice for Decision Makers on gov.uk, which is updated periodically.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/05/2019 16:48:54 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 119071 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1064763

	registered interest
	date	21/02/2019
	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, how much has been deducted from universal credit claimants' standard allowance in each month since April 2017.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	224493
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2019 answer text <p>Internal figures are provided in the table below from two DWP datasets.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. The aim of the deductions policy in Universal Credit is to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their gas, electricity and water cut off, by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of these essential services.</p><p> </p><p>The increase in Universal Credit caseload and activity to increase awareness of advances has had an effect on deductions. Increased awareness has resulted in around 60% of eligible new claims to Universal Credit receiving an advance in October 2018, providing further financial support until their first payment.</p><p> </p><p>Total amount deducted from Universal Credit payments between April 2017 and October 2018</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Month</p></td><td><p>Amount deducted [rounded to the nearest million]</p></td><td><p>Amount of Universal Credit paid [rounded to the nearest million]</p></td><td><p>Amount deducted as a percentage of Universal Credit paid</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Apr-17</p></td><td><p>£9,000,000</p></td><td><p>£140,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May-17</p></td><td><p>£10,000,000</p></td><td><p>£148,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-17</p></td><td><p>£10,000,000</p></td><td><p>£159,000,000</p></td><td><p>6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-17</p></td><td><p>£11,000,000</p></td><td><p>£166,000,000</p></td><td><p>6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-17</p></td><td><p>£11,000,000</p></td><td><p>£176,000,000</p></td><td><p>6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-17</p></td><td><p>£12,000,000</p></td><td><p>£186,000,000</p></td><td><p>6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-17</p></td><td><p>£13,000,000</p></td><td><p>£195,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-17</p></td><td><p>£13,000,000</p></td><td><p>£205,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-17</p></td><td><p>£15,000,000</p></td><td><p>£216,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-18</p></td><td><p>£17,000,000</p></td><td><p>£232,000,000</p></td><td><p>7%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-18</p></td><td><p>£19,000,000</p></td><td><p>£243,000,000</p></td><td><p>8%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mar-18</p></td><td><p>£22,000,000</p></td><td><p>£257,000,000</p></td><td><p>8%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Apr-18</p></td><td><p>£23,000,000</p></td><td><p>£266,000,000</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May-18</p></td><td><p>£25,000,000</p></td><td><p>£284,000,000</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-18</p></td><td><p>£27,000,000</p></td><td><p>£319,000,000</p></td><td><p>8%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-18</p></td><td><p>£29,000,000</p></td><td><p>£335,000,000</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-18</p></td><td><p>£32,000,000</p></td><td><p>£360,000,000</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-18</p></td><td><p>£35,000,000</p></td><td><p>£380,000,000</p></td><td><p>9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-18</p></td><td><p>£39,000,000</p></td><td><p>£410,000,000</p></td><td><p>10%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><p>Data sources: Universal Credit Live Service Reference Datasets and Full Service PDM data, UC Analysis Division</p><p> </p><p>1. Figures are provided for the total of UC Live Service and Full Service. The data is sourced from two different computer systems and the information available is slightly different on each system.</p><ul><li>Full Service deductions include advance repayments and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are deductions of benefit rather than deductions.</li><li>Live Service deductions do not include sanctions which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions, but may include Fraud Penalties as these could not be removed from the Live Service data.</li><li>The Full and Live Service datasets use slightly different definitions for the month. Full Service data uses the month the UC payment is due, whereas Live Service data uses the month the assessment period related to the payment ends. The 'Total' column sums the figures using these different definitions.</li></ul><p> </p><p>2. Increase in the total deduction amounts by month reflects the effect of Universal Credit (UC) roll out as more people move onto UC.</p><p> </p><p>3. Amount of Universal Credit paid reflects the amount of money paid to claimants and their landlords as part of their award. It does not include other payments such as advances and hardship payments.</p><p> </p><p>4. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/05/2019 16:55:20 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 104615 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1111209

	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	Flexible Support Fund
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the overall levels of payment were from the Flexible Support Fund (a) in each region, and (b) on (i) childcare, (ii) training, (iii) clothing for work and (iv) other categories of activity in each of the last 24 months.
	tabling member constituency	Oxford East
	tabling member printed	Anneliese Dodds
	uin	243572
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2019 answer text <p>The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the tables attached.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 14/05/2019 12:03:52 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma attachment 1 file name Flexible Support Fund Expenditure by Region.docx title Flexible Support Fund Expenditure by Region previous answer version 114103 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

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