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1138928

registered interest
date	15/07/2019
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	Personal Independence Payment
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 a claim for personal independence payment in the last 12 months for which information is available.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff Central
tabling member printed	Jo Stevens
uin	277206
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/07/2019 answer text <p>The median clearance time from registration to DWP decision for Personal Independence Payment claims cleared under normal rules from 1<sup>st</sup> May 2018 – 30<sup>th</sup> April 2019, the latest 12-month period for which data is available is 100 calendar days, which is approximately 14 weeks. The median clearance time for claims decided in April 2019 was 13 weeks, down by over two thirds since July 2014.</p><p> </p><p>Source: PIP ADS</p><p> </p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><ul><li>The status of claims as 'normal rules' is shown as at the DWP decision. It is possible for claims to transition between normal/special rules during the course of the claimant journey.</li><li>The 'Registration to DWP decision (end to end)' clearance time is measured as the average time between the date of registration of the claim and the date of the DWP decision to either award or disallow the claim. It does not include claims that were withdrawn by the claimant or claims that were disallowed by DWP pre-referral to the Assessment Providers (e.g. for failure to meet basic eligibility criteria or failure to return the Part 2 form within the time limit).</li><li>The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. The median is presented here instead of the mean because the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases (e.g. cases were the person has been hard to reach due to being in prison, hospital, failed to attend the assessment on numerous occasions etc.)</li><li>Great Britain only.</li><li>This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.</li><li>The median clearance time is rounded to the nearest whole day.</li></ul> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 18/07/2019 13:18:35 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	4425 label Biography information for Jo Stevens

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

1138406

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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: Disqualification
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 over the age of 60 in receipt of universal credit have been sanctioned in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Ipswich
tabling member printed	Sandy Martin
uin	276287
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>Statistics on Universal Credit sanctions by age are published and can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/</a></p><p> </p><p>Guidance for users is available at:</p><p> </p><p><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> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 16/07/2019 14:52:09 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4678 label Biography information for Sandy Martin

1138414

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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	Independent Case Examiner
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints to the Independent Complaints Commissioner are (a) allocated to a caseworker and (b) awaiting allocation to a caseworker as at 11 July 2019.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	276137
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>When the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) office accepts a complaint for investigation, it will initially attempt to broker a solution between the complainant and the relevant business area or supplier, without having to request evidence to inform an investigation – this is known as “resolution”. If it’s not possible to resolve the complaint, the evidence will be requested and the case will await allocation to an Investigation Case Manager (ICM). The majority of complaints that are referred to ICE are complex and require a full investigation.</p><p> </p><p>Complaint investigations are dealt with by dedicated teams and complaints are usually brought into investigation in strict date order. The time complaints wait to be allocated for investigation varies depending on the volume and complexity of cases on hand and the available investigative resource. Productivity within the ICE Office increased during the 2018-19 reporting year, with the Office clearing 1,246 complaints, compared to 955 during the 2017-18 reporting year.</p><p> </p><p>As at 11 July 2019, there were 488 complaints under investigation (allocated to an ICM), and 1,377 complaints were awaiting allocation to an ICM.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 16/07/2019 13:47:47 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1138415

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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	Independent Case Examiner
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 is between a case being accepted by the Independent Complaints Commissioner and being allocated to a caseworker in the most recent period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	276138
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>Complaint investigations are dealt with by dedicated teams and complaints are usually brought into investigation in strict date order. The time complaints wait to be allocated to an Investigation Case Manager (ICM) varies depending on the volume and complexity of cases on hand and the available investigative resource. Productivity within the ICE Office increased during the 2018-19 reporting year, with the Office clearing 1,246 complaints, compared to 955 during the 2017-18 reporting year.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>As at 11 July 2019, the average time taken for a complaint which requires investigation to be allocated to an ICM was 52 weeks.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 16/07/2019 14:01:36 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1138418

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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	Independent Case Examiner
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints for the Independent Complaints Commissioner were received in 2018; and how many of those complaints have been allocated to a caseworker.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	276139
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office received 5,307 complaints in 2018 of which 1,943 were accepted for examination. Of those complaints accepted, 567 have been allocated to Case Managers.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 16/07/2019 13:45:25 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1138422

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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	Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses
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 improve access to benefits for all people who have been diagnosed as terminally ill.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
uin	276141
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The Special Rules for Terminal Illness provide a guaranteed entitlement to benefit under a fast track process, without people being required to attend a face-to-face assessment.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>On 11 July the Secretary of State announced an in-depth evaluation of how the benefits system supports people nearing the end of their life, and those with the most severe conditions.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 16/07/2019 12:38:34 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1138457

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
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: Payments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests for spilt payments of universal credit have been (a) made and (b) accepted in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	High Peak
tabling member printed	Ruth George
uin	276271
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The requested information for part (a) is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In response to part (b), the number of Households on UC that make use of the Split Payment option is published and can be found at:</p><p><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:</p><p><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> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 16/07/2019 14:40:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George