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1172107

registered interest
date	20/01/2020
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 estimate she has made of the number of universal credit claimants who have had a (a) waiver and (b) reduction in deductions to their monthly payments on the grounds of hardship in the latest period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	5464
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2020 answer text <p>The Department has an obligation to ensure that public funds are administered responsibly and to abide by the principles set out in Her Majesty’s Treasury’s guidance on Managing Public Money. Waiver applications have to be considered in line with this guidance. Debts can only be waived if recovery is causing substantial medical and/or financial hardship to a claimant or their immediate family.</p><p> </p><p>In 2019/20 (up to 31<sup>st</sup> December 2019), there were 10 Universal Credit claimants who had their debts waived.</p><p> </p><p>We understand the impact that debt can have on the wellbeing of claimants and we endeavour to ensure that the recovery of any overpayment is managed in a way that takes account of the claimant’s individual circumstances. Where a person says they cannot afford the proposed rate of recovery, a reduction in their rate of repayment may be agreed.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In 2019/20 (up to 31<sup>st</sup> December 2019), 159,000 Universal Credit claimants had the rate at which they were repaying a benefit overpayment reduced.</p><p> </p><p><em>*The figures provided in this response have been sourced from internal management information and were not intended for public release. They should therefore not be compared to any other similar figures subsequently released by the Department. The figure relating to the number of debts waived has been rounded to the nearest 10, and the figure relating to reductions in repayment rates has been rounded to the nearest 1,000. It is important to note that debts waived may not all relate to Universal Credit.</em></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/01/2020 16:30:45 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1172109

registered interest
date	20/01/2020
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 estimate she has made of the value of universal credit deductions made to repay administrative errors in the latest period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	5466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2020 answer text <p>As a Department, we understand the impact that debt can have on the wellbeing of claimants and we endeavour to ensure that the recovery of any overpayment is managed in a way that takes account of the claimant’s individual circumstances. Where a person says they cannot afford the proposed rate of recovery, a reduction in their rate of repayment may be agreed.</p><p> </p><p>Section 105 of The Welfare Reform Act 2012 amended the Social Security Act 1992, such that for Universal Credit, New Style JSA and New Style ESA, any payment in excess of the entitlement is recoverable, regardless of how the overpayment of entitlement occurred. This policy was brought in to reflect the need for a better value for money welfare system and to reinforce the overarching aim that Universal Credit mirrors work.</p><p> </p><p>In 2018/19, working with local authorities, the Department recovered £1.1bn in overpayments. Of this, £19.3m related to Universal Credit overpayments arising as a result of Departmental errors.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/01/2020 16:38:35 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1171106

registered interest
date	15/01/2020
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 and what proportion of new claims for universal credit were paid in full and on time by (a) child element, (b) limited capability for work element, (c) childcare element and (d) housing element in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	3829
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/01/2020 answer text <p>Our latest data shows the proportion of new Universal Credit claims paid in full on time was 88.4%. In many cases where full payment is not made on time, it is due to unresolved issues such as: claimants not accepting their Claimant Commitment or passing identity checks, or having outstanding verification issues, such as housing costs and self-employed earnings.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The latest available information on payments made in full and on time to Universal Credit claimants 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> </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><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 20/01/2020 14:16:58 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1079383

registered interest
date	28/02/2019
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, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of staffing levels in universal credit centres; and what proportion of fixed-term staff working in universal credit centres are on (a) permanent contracts and (b) zero-hour contracts.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	227130
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The Department regularly reviews both the numbers of people working in Universal Credit service centres and their performance to ensure we have the right number of people available to manage claimants Universal Credit claims. Services and staff training is assessed, both in real time to meet any short term peaks in demand and also reviewed for longer term improvements to ensure the service continues to meet customer service expectation.</p><p> </p><p>Our priority is to give all employees, including those delivering Universal Credit, the necessary resources, including manageable workloads, so that they can carry out their roles successfully.</p><p> </p><p>The size of a Case Manager’s caseload is dependent on a number of factors, including the complexity of the caseload and experience of the case manager.</p><p> </p><p>All staff on fixed-term contracts are employed on the basis of agreed full or part time hours. No staff are employed on zero-hour contracts.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 05/03/2019 17:53:37 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1077142

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, what the cost to the public purse is of the administration of the advance payment system.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	225548
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 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 question first answered 05/03/2019 17:44:23 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1003675

registered interest
date	09/11/2018
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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding her Departments has allocated to universal credit hardship payments.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	189735
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/11/2018 answer text <p>As Universal Credit hardship payments are included in Annually Managed Expenditure there is no separate funding allocated to them.</p><p> </p><p>The information requested about the number of claims to hardship in the Glasgow South constituency is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 189736 question first answered 19/11/2018 13:39:50 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens