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1147781

registered interest
date	02/10/2019
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 30 September to Question 290673 on Universal Credit, whether a reduction in the monthly repayments of a court fine from 40 per cent to a lower amount will return to the 40 per cent rate in the following month if a person has no other deductions attached to a universal credit claim.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	293470
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2019 answer text <p>Our deductions policy strikes a fair balance between a claimant’s need to meet their obligations and a claimant’s ability to ensure they can meet their day-to-day needs. From October 2019, deductions will be capped at 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance down from 40% to better achieve this balance.</p><p> </p><p>In the scenario outlined, if a person has no other deductions, the most that would be deducted for a court fine in the following assessment period is £108.35. This is because the maximum deduction for court fines is based on a fixed figure in regulations rather than a percentage. If the £108.35 figure were more than 30% of the claimant’s standard allowance, the deduction would be reduced to 5% of the standard allowance, ensuring the 30% cap was not exceeded. The policy was designed to deduct either the minimum or maximum set out in regulations and avoid inconsistencies that may arise if discretion was to be exercised for each claimant’s deduction.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 08/10/2019 09:55:53 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1147023

registered interest
date	30/09/2019
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Cash Dispensing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will instruct the Payment Systems Regulator to take the necessary steps to prevent further reductions in access to free-to-use cash machines.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	292108
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>The Government recognises the continued importance of free access to cash to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. The Government is engaging, and will continue to engage, with the regulators and industry on this important topic.</p><p> </p><p>LINK, the scheme that runs the UK’s ATM network, has publicly committed to maintain the broad geographic spread of ATMs and has put in place specific arrangements to protect remote free-to-use ATMs one kilometre or further from the next nearest free-to-use ATM. More recently, LINK has committed to protecting free access to cash on high streets – where there is a cluster of five or more retailers – that don’t have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within 1 kilometre.</p><p> </p><p>UK Finance has also launched a Community Access to Cash Initiative, offering grants to local communities to improve cash access.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015, with robust powers and a statutory objective to ensure that the UK's payment systems work in the interests of their users. The PSR regulates LINK and is monitoring ATM market developments closely. The PSR has used its powers to hold LINK to account over their public commitments.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 03/10/2019 16:15:12 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1147032

registered interest
date	30/09/2019
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	Food Banks
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) formal and (b) informal referrals to food banks have been made by Jobcentre Plus in each of the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	292109
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>Jobcentres do not refer claimants to food banks or issue food bank vouchers. The Department has long-standing guidance in place which allows staff to signpost customers in writing to a food bank where they have asked for details, and if all sources of statutory support have been exhausted. Jobcentre Plus staff are not required to keep records of the number of benefit claimants signposted to food banks in their local area, and we have no current plans to develop official national statistics on food bank use.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 03/10/2019 15:09:33 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1147066

registered interest
date	30/09/2019
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	Healthy Start Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many individual Healthy Start vouchers have been used in each of the last 10 years for which data are available.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	292110
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>A total of around 256 million Healthy Start vouchers have been redeemed within the last 10 complete financial years. A full breakdown of the redemption within each year can be found in the following table.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><p>Redeemed Healthy Start Vouchers</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Financial Year</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009/10</p></td><td><p>31,632,099</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010/11</p></td><td><p>31,825,262</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>31,152,563</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>31,322,441</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>29,191,004</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>26,105,893</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>22,691,074</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>19,927,901</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>17,462,707</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>14,585,372</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grand Total</p></td><td><p>255,896,316</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: Healthy Start Reimbursement Unit</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 03/10/2019 13:19:24 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1147077

registered interest
date	30/09/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	National Vocational Qualifications
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons his Department's plans to publish Progress 8 data do not include key data on BTEC Level 2 qualifications; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	292111
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/10/2019 answer text <p>The Government has not changed its policy in this area. The Department can confirm that those BTEC Level 2 qualifications which are on the Key Stage 4 approved list of qualifications will be included in the 2019 provisional Key Stage 4 data scheduled to be published on 17 October 2019.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 04/10/2019 13:27:53 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb previous answer version 137132 answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1145747

registered interest
date	25/09/2019
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: Suicide
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many inquests relating to benefits claimants who have ended their life by suicide her Department has submitted evidence to since 2013; and in how many inquests it was ruled that the policies of her Department were partly responsible for the deceased person’s state of mind.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	290669
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/09/2019 answer text <p>Unfortunately, the information requested is not held centrally and is therefore unavailable without incurring a disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 30/09/2019 16:33:53 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1145748

registered interest
date	25/09/2019
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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the return envelopes provided for UC50 and ESA50 forms are first class envelopes and the envelopes provided for personal independence payments are second class.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	290670
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>It is currently DWP policy to use second class post for business reply envelopes. First class business reply envelopes are only used by exception and where there is a clear business need to ensure that the appropriate rate of benefit is paid as speedily as possible.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 03/10/2019 16:15:55 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1145749

registered interest
date	25/09/2019
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
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 place in the Library (a) information for each of the benefits in respect to which Kofax Capture software is used and (b) the indexing business rules for each of those benefits.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	290671
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/10/2019 answer text <p>The following benefits use KOFAX: ESA, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, DLA 65 Plus, DLA Child, Social Fund, Retirement Pension, International Pensions, Carers Allowance, Pension Credit, Maternity Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disability Benefit, Bereavement Benefit,</p><p> </p><p>I have attached a digital copy of the Index Business Rules which will be placed in the House of Commons Library.</p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 04/10/2019 09:49:06 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies attachment 1 file name PQ 290671 Index Business Rules 04.10.19.xlsx title Index Business Rules
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1145998

registered interest
date	25/09/2019
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	Maternity Pay
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the processing times for applications made for statutory maternity pay.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	290672
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/10/2019 answer text <p>Statutory Maternity Pay is administered by employers and as such the Department has no estimate regarding the processing times for applications.</p> answering member constituency Eastleigh answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 03/10/2019 15:05:54 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1146227

registered interest
date	25/09/2019
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, whether the information provided in the Benefit Overpayment Recovery Guide Appendix 4, that fines have a maximum deduction rate of £108.35 a month, and a minimum deduction rate of an amount equivalent to five per cent of the claimant’s UC Standard Allowance. Any other deductions being taken reduce the maximum deduction rate pound for pound, so that the total of all deductions doesn’t go above the overall maximum deduction rate of 40 per cent of the claimant’s UC Standard Allowance, is still applicable.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	290673
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/09/2019 answer text <p>The maximum rate of deductions cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance and does not reduce other components of an award, such as money paid for children, housing or when someone is caring for a severely disabled person. From October 2019 this will be reduced to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery period for advances from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt, so last resort deductions can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their fuel supply (gas/electricity) cut off, by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of these essential services. In these cases, when it is considered to be in the best interests of the claimant and their family, deductions may be taken above the 40 per cent limit.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant is in financial difficulty as a result of the level of deductions being made they can contact the Department to request that a reduction in deductions be considered.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 30/09/2019 14:53:40 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead