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573920

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on claimants of no longer being eligible to receive employment and support allowance payments at the assessment rate when undergoing a mandatory reconsideration of a work capability assessment.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44461
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>ESA claimants who are found fit for work and are waiting for their mandatory reconsideration application to be decided, are eligible to claim JSA. This is the right benefit for those who are capable of work, with Jobcentre work coaches fully supporting these claimants during this period - and the statistics released on 8 September show that this period is now a relatively short one – the median average being around 9 days.</p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 12/09/2016 13:30:24 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573931

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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: Telephone Services
	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 and median waiting time is for users calling the universal credit helpline; and how many calls to that helpline were answered in (a) less than five, (b) between five and 10, (c) between 10 and 15, (d) between 15 and 20 and (e) more than thirty minutes between 1 January and 30 June 2016.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44470
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>The data below states the Average Speed of Answer for all UC calls for the period 1 January 2016 – 30 June 2016.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Universal Credit Average Speed of Answer</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Average Speed of Answer</strong></p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>January 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:09</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>February 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:03</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>March 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:01</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>April 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:44</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>May 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:24</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>June 2016</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:41</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p>00:02:22</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Data source: Operational Management Information System (OPMIS)</p><p>It would be a disproportionate cost to compute the median in each month, and the breakdown by waiting time intervals.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:06:10 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573932

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of the contract between his Department and SCC for providing server support for the universal credit portal.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44471
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>This information can be found on the Contract Finder website - please see the below link.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder</a></p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:55:58 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573933

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that a server issue with the universal credit portal does not reoccur.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44472
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.</p><p>The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.</p><p>We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 44473 44510 question first answered 12/09/2016 10:54:57 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573934

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will prepare an impact assessment of any future server outage on the universal credit portal.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44473
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.</p><p>The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.</p><p>We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 44472 44510 question first answered 12/09/2016 10:54:57 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573938

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were affected by the recent server issue affecting the universal credit portal; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44510
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.</p><p>The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.</p><p>We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 44472 44473 question first answered 12/09/2016 10:54:56 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573935

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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, with reference to the recommendations made by the UK Statistics Agency in August 2015, what plans his Department has to extend the range of benefit sanction data available by addressing gaps in information on repeat sanctions and hardship payments alongside the development of sanction data from the universal credit system.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44474
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>The sanctions publication strategy which details the approach being taken by DWP statisticians to improve the sanctions statistics being developed, which include the addition of Universal Credit sanction statistics, can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-sanction-statistics-publication-strategy" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-sanction-statistics-publication-strategy</a></p><p> </p><p>The latest release of sanction statistics within the Quarterly Statistical Summary: August 2016 includes an experimental monthly rate of claimants sanctioned and can be found (on page12) at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-statistical-summaries-2016" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-statistical-summaries-2016</a></p><p> </p><p>The related background information to support this can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-rate-of-claimants-sanctioned-background-information-and-methodology" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-rate-of-claimants-sanctioned-background-information-and-methodology</a></p><p> </p><p>Management Information data on the number of applications and awards for hardship payments were published on 18th November 2015 and can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jsa-and-esa-hardship-applications-and-awards-apr-2012-to-jun-2015" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jsa-and-esa-hardship-applications-and-awards-apr-2012-to-jun-2015</a></p><p> </p><p>We will consider the regularity of future publications of hardship statistics alongside our routine prioritisation of our statistical work programme.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 16:36:03 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573936

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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 his Department has made of the effect on claimants of the (a) seven waiting days at the beginning of a universal credit claim and (b) six week period a claimant must wait before receiving their initial payment.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44469
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Many claimants come to Universal Credit with final earnings to support them until their first payment, and they often find work quickly.</p><p>The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it mirrors the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.</p><p>As with other working age benefits, Universal Credit is not designed to provide cover for brief spells of unemployment or sickness, and seven waiting days are served in Universal Credit as they are in Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.</p><p>We have a number of safeguards in place to help claimants' transition to Universal Credit, including Advances and Budgeting Support.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 11:59:25 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573925

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on claimants of having no timescale within which his Department must return a mandatory reconsideration decision to the claimant.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44468
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>There has been no statutory requirement to make a benefit decision within a specified time since 1998. This applies equally to a claim for benefit, an application for review and, since it was introduced in April 2013, an application for Mandatory Reconsideration. Decisions are made without delay – whilst giving claimants every opportunity to provide new and additional evidence to support their application.</p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 12/09/2016 11:02:01 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford

573924

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2016
	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, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the decline in Short Term Benefit Advance applications in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK between February 2015 and March 2016.
	tabling member constituency	Banff and Buchan
	tabling member printed	Dr Eilidh Whiteford
	uin	44467
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2016 answer text <p>Short Term Benefit Advances (STBAs) are payments on account of benefit. The majority of STBAs are awarded to people in the period before their benefit is first due to be paid, but STBAs can also be paid where a change of circumstances significantly increases the amount of benefit due. STBAs are predominately paid to people claiming Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance. They are not available to people claiming Universal Credit.</p><p>Between April 2015 and March 2016, there were 218,592 STBA applications in Great Britain as a whole, with monthly variations ranging from 17,188 in September 2015 to 21,529 in February 2016, but with no downward trend at the year end. In Scotland, there were 26,322 applications over the same period, with monthly variations ranging from 1,462 in November 2015 to 3,022 in April 2015, with a clear downward trend at the year end.</p><p>As the roll-out of Universal Credit to all new claimants progresses, we anticipate a corresponding decline in the number of STBA applications.</p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions continues to advertise the availability of STBAs through the gov.uk website, with information posters and leaflets in Jobcentres nationwide.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 12/09/2016 12:45:34 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	3911 label Biography information for Dr Eilidh Whiteford