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1138074

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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	Sahaviriya Steel Industries UK: Redundancy
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timetable is for the publication of its final report on the effectiveness of programmes to protect former SSI steelworkers from long-term unemployment.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	275684
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) Task Force, funded by the Government to support individuals and businesses directly affected by the closure of SSI in Redcar, has published 3 annual reports (the most recent in 2018) setting out progress with helping the people affected by the liquidation of SSI. Further details are at: <a href="https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/SSITaskForce" target="_blank">https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/SSITaskForce</a></p><p> </p><p>The Task Force has commissioned the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to analyse the outcomes of workers affected by the closure.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP has been working to identify; quality assure; integrate and securely store and handle data on former SSI UK employees and workers in its supply chain to fulfil the commission of the Task Force. The department’s analysis will innovatively combine data from the official receiver; local tracking data from collected by Job Centre Plus; DWP/HMRC administrative data; and published ONS data.</p><p> </p><p>The analysis is currently being finalised and will be published in due course by the Department for Work and Pensions.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 14:30:53 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1138133

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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
	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 have people on universal credit who have turned down a job offer in the last 12 months have cited lack of affordable childcare as the reason; and how many of those people received (a) a civil penalty and (b) a sanction.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	275817
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>On Universal Credit, claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70 per cent on the legacy system. Where the initial month’s childcare costs may prevent a claimant from starting work, Jobcentres can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants. This is a non-repayable award, which can be used to meet the upfront costs of childcare to help support a claimant into work.</p><p> </p><p>Civil Penalties may be imposed by both DWP and Local Authorities, where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error. Civil Penalties are not imposed in the event of a claimant refusing to accept a job offer.</p><p> </p><p>The information request about those receiving a sanction is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 15:15:03 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1138168

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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
	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 18 June 2019 to Question 263677, for what reason the letter sent to a universal credit claimant’s journal to confirm an advance payment does not specify the (a) amount to be repaid each month or (b) number of months that the repayments will last; and if he will add that information to that letter.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275662
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department encourages all Universal Credit claimants to actively consider how best to manage their personal budget, with additional advice and support available from work coaches and case managers. When an advance payment is appropriate, claimants decide what percentage of their expected monthly award to apply for and over what period to repay it, up to a maximum of 12 monthly instalments.</p><p>Claimants have the ability to make the decision for themselves on the time period for repayment. Most claimants (around 85%) choose to repay their advance over a 12-month period, with others repaying in a shorter timeframe.</p><p>The Department has taken a number of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that recovery arrangements are personalised and reasonable. From October 2019 we are reducing the maximum rate of deductions to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery period for advances from 12 to 16 months.</p><p>Claimants can view their Universal Credit statement online to see how their award is calculated and a breakdown of what deductions are being made.</p><p>We are committed to keeping all Universal Credit services and processes, under review and will make improvements where necessary.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 15:51:24 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138172

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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 information her Department holds on the extent to which fraudulent claims for universal credit have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275665
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275666 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138177

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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 information his Department holds on how much has been spent on investigating fraudulent universal credit claims that have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275666
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275665 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138178

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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 information her Department holds on the proportion of successful universal credit claims which are fraudulent; and how that figure compares to legacy benefits.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	275667
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Under Universal Credit (UC) claimants will only have one claim to benefit, whereas under Legacy, they may have made claims to multiple benefits. It is therefore not possible to draw a direct comparison between the caseloads of UC and Legacy benefits. UC will also incorporate Tax Credits which is currently administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who record their overpayments differently.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is open and transparent about the cost of fraud and error in the benefit system, publishing our National “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System” statistics each year which detail the amount we estimate is lost to both fraud and error across all benefits.</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. 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.</p><p /><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates 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 15/07/2019 15:11:50 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138234

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	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	Unemployment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will (a) make representations to the Office for National Statistics on (a) compiling and (b) publishing monthly data on long-term unemployment in each parliamentary constituency; and (b) allocate funding for the compilation of those statistics.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	275688
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Estimates of the number of people who are unemployed for sub-regional geographies in the UK are compiled by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is done using the Annual Population Survey (APS), a large household survey of people in the UK.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – along with the Department for Education; the Ministry of Defence; Public Health England; the Welsh Government; and the Scottish Government – contributes funding for the ONS to conduct the APS. The department’s officials work with the ONS to offer advice on the design and delivery of the survey.</p><p> </p><p>It is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people who are long-term unemployed (12 months or more) for parliamentary constituency areas, due to the size of the survey sample at this level of geography.</p><p> </p><p>It is also not considered technically feasible to alter the APS to allow for the production of robust monthly estimates of the number long-term unemployed people at parliamentary constituency area.</p><p> </p><p>The ONS are working on alternative approaches to producing labour market estimates, as part of the ONS’s Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme. The outcome of this work may enable the requested data to be produced, however this programme is still in its research and development stage.</p><p> </p><p>The DWP publishes, via its Stat Xplore website, official statistics on the duration people have claimed Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency area.</p><p> </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><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 15/07/2019 14:43:28 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1138155

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Railways: Surveys
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department will update the National Rail Travel Overview Survey Report.
	tabling member constituency	Chesham and Amersham
	tabling member printed	Dame Cheryl Gillan
	uin	275643
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is currently considering updating the National Rail Travel Survey, and will reach a decision in due course.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 15/07/2019 11:03:15 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	18 label Biography information for Dame Cheryl Gillan

1138214

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Severn Tunnel
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contingencies are in place for a complete structural failure of the Severn Tunnel.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	275658
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The structure of the Severn Tunnel is maintained by Network Rail. In line with all structures on the route, it is inspected annually with a detailed survey carried out every six years. Established maintenance plans are in place to maintain the condition of the track. Network Rail are confident that the tunnel remains structurally sound and they consider the risk of a complete structural failure to be very unlikely.</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 15/07/2019 10:31:25 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

1138072

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what outcomes NHS England plans to achieve for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities during the lifespan of the NHS Long Term Plan.
	tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
	tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
	uin	275749
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Aspirations for children and young people are set out in the NHS Long Term Plan and the recently published Implementation Framework. Services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and learning disabilities and autism are separate workstreams under the new Children and Young People Transformation Board.</p><p>Funding to deliver the improvements set out in the Long Term Plan will be provided through clinical commissioning groups allocations and additional service development funding.</p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 275750 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:30:31 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
	tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell