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63124

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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 Living Fund
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what local authority support will be available to current Independent Living Fund users in 2015–16.
tabling member printed	Baroness Thomas of Winchester
uin	HL533
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>Local Authorities have a statutory duty to assess and fund the eligible care needs of all disabled people.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The funding that would have been allocated to the ILF in 2015/16 to support its users from July 2015 onwards will all be transferred to local authorities in England and to the devolved administrations in other parts of the UK.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 01/07/2014 13:10:26 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3785 label Biography information for Baroness Thomas of Winchester

63125

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Employment and Support Allowance: Appeals
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the policy of withdrawing Employment and Support Allowance payments during mandatory reconsideration of decisions being appealed from the Work Capability Assessment will be reviewed in the light of the delays in reconsideration; and what assessment they have made of whether the policy is causing claimants hardship.
tabling member printed	Baroness Thomas of Winchester
uin	HL534
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>In line with all other DWP-administered benefits Employment and Support Allowance is not payable whilst the mandatory reconsideration process is undertaken.</p><p> </p><p>During the mandatory reconsideration period other benefits may be payable, provided the claimant meets the conditions of entitlement.</p><p> </p><p>Our reforms to the appeals process mean that more claimants are now being contacted before decisions are made, giving them the opportunity to discuss their circumstances with the decision maker; and subsequently – through Mandatory Reconsideration – they are given another opportunity to provide additional evidence. This is helping to either prevent disputes arising or resolving them as early as possible, thereby mitigating gaps in benefit payments and avoiding the need for costly appeals.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 02/07/2014 15:08:16 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3785 label Biography information for Baroness Thomas of Winchester

63126

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Work Capability Assessment
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the new Work Capability Assessment contract or contracts will (1) require customer-facing staff to be suitably qualified to take decisions, and (2) lead to an improvement in the quality of assessments.
tabling member printed	Baroness Thomas of Winchester
uin	HL535
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The future contract for provision of Work Capability Assessments to the DWP will detail requirements in relation to recruitment, training and monitoring of healthcare professionals designed to assure the quality of assessments.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 01/07/2014 13:10:05 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3785 label Biography information for Baroness Thomas of Winchester

63135

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	European Union
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Freud on 18 June (WS 91), whether the proposals made by the Council of Ministers on 19 June will result in steps towards ever-closer union.
tabling member printed	Lord Stoddart of Swindon
uin	HL544
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Council of Ministers meeting on 19 June on Employment and Social Policy covered ongoing discussions on a number of dossiers which may feed into wider Council negotiations.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 30/06/2014 13:00:54 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	950 label Biography information for Lord Stoddart of Swindon

63137

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Government Departments: Correspondence
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Department for Work and Pensions has sent correspondence to elderly members of the public that does not contain in the letter a named person with their contact details; and if so, what is their justification for doing so.
tabling member printed	Lord Mawson
uin	HL546
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Department for Work and Pensions standard for correspondence to elderly members of the public includes a named person and contact details in the letter.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions standard for IT system generated letters is for the name of the Pension Centre or Office Manager to be shown at the end of the letter with a reply/contact address and telephone number.</p><p> </p><p>The templates for clerical letters include a space for the senders name and job role to be entered at the end of the letter.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 01/07/2014 14:49:59 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	3830 label Biography information for Lord Mawson

63338

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Separated People: Advisory Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department has spent on developing the Sorting Out Separation web app; how many people are actively using that app; what the cost is per user of the app; what assessment he has made of the value for money of the app; and what steps he plans to take to ensure that future online development in this area represents good value for money.
tabling member constituency	Exeter
tabling member printed	Mr Ben Bradshaw
uin	201856
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2014 answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p>The costs of the Sorting out Separation web app are £417,500 to date. This includes initial build, maintenance and development, hosting, videos and promotion.</p><p>Contracts and services for Sorting out Separation have been procured using the online ‘Contracts Finder' and CloudStore (‘G Cloud' framework). Both of these are flexible, low-cost methods of commissioning, which has enabled the Department to maintain a strong focus on value for money from initial development to live running.</p><p>As of 31 May 2014 there were 180,000 visitors to Sorting out Separation, which equates to an approximate cost per user of £2.30. We have commissioned work on search engine optimisation to maximise awareness and usage and we anticipate that this will sharply reduce the cost per user in due course.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 30/06/2014 15:04:35 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
tabling member	230 label Biography information for Mr Ben Bradshaw

63428

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Council Tax Benefits
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) East Midlands and (d) the UK received council tax benefit in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Ashfield
tabling member printed	Gloria De Piero
uin	201708
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>Most of the information requested is published and available for each month from November 2008 to February 2013 and can be found in Table 10 of the publication at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-benefit-and-council-tax-benefit-caseload-statistics-published-from-november-2008-to-present" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-benefit-and-council-tax-benefit-caseload-statistics-published-from-november-2008-to-present</a></p><p> </p><p>Council Tax Benefit (CTB) was replaced in April 2013 by the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme and in England the Department for Communities and Local Government is now responsible for these statistics. The Scottish and Welsh Governments have similar responsibility.</p><p> </p><p>Information for Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics and can be found at:</p><p><a href="http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm" target="_blank">http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm</a></p><p> </p><p>The information requested for Ashfield Parliamentary Constituency is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>However a Parliamentary Constituency breakdown for CTB was produced as a one-off exercise for January 2011 and this is published at:</p><p><a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107093842/http:/statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hb_ctb_parlc_jan11.xls" target="_blank">http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107093842/http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/hb_ctb_parlc_jan11.xls</a></p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 26/06/2014 14:30:31 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
tabling member	3915 label Biography information for Gloria De Piero

63429

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	Crisis Loans
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 loan award made for the purpose of paying rent in advance was in the last year of operation of crisis loans.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Withington
tabling member printed	Mr John Leech
uin	201696
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>Crisis Loans may have been awarded for more than one purpose (for example rent in advance and living expenses). The department does not hold the data to accurately calculate the average award made solely for the purpose of rent in advance.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 30/06/2014 14:23:15 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
tabling member	1543 label Biography information for Mr John Leech

63430

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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: Housing Benefit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of universal credit on landlords who have claimants as tenants; what the results were of the direct payment demonstration projects on the effect of paying housing benefit direct to tenants; and if he will reduce the two calendar month rent arrears trigger point before a landlord can go directly to his Department for direct payment.
tabling member constituency	Heywood and Middleton
tabling member printed	Jim Dobbin
uin	201714
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2014 answer text <p>Interim evaluation from the first 6 months of the Direct Payment Demonstration Projects was published in December 2013 and can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265257/direct-payment-demo-figures-dec-2013.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265257/direct-payment-demo-figures-dec-2013.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>DWP has developed three levels of safeguards for tenants and landlords based on findings from the Direct Payment Demonstration Projects and continuous improvements through our test and learn approach in live service.</p><p> </p><p>We make an initial judgement on each claim as to whether the claimant is at risk of default and if so, we can put them on managed payments immediately. In the majority of cases Direct Payments will apply and we have two safeguards in place; (1) We will review the initial decision if we are advised that arrears have reached the equivalent of one months rent. (2) We will move to payment to the landlord if we are advised that arrears have reached the equivalent of two months rent.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 26/06/2014 14:13:49 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
tabling member	446 label Biography information for Jim Dobbin

63431

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
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	EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions officials from his Department had with the Northern Ireland devolved administration ahead of the informal Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council on 29-30 April 2014.
tabling member constituency	Bury South
tabling member printed	Mr Ivan Lewis
uin	201722
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The devolved administrations are always consulted on any European dossier deposited with the Cabinet Office that is subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. While social security is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, International Relations are an excepted matter under the Northern Ireland Act 1998.</p> answering member constituency Wirral West answering member printed Esther McVey question first answered 30/06/2014 14:47:17 answering member 4084 label Biography information for Esther McVey
tabling member	441 label Biography information for Mr Ivan Lewis