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1186422

	registered interest
	date	19/03/2020
	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	Zero Hours Contracts: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department is providing to people on zero-hours contracts whose employment has been terminated as a result of covid-19 and do not qualify for Statutory Sick Pay because they are not self-isolating.
	tabling member constituency	Harlow
	tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
	uin	32138
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances and we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those affected in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system in the past fortnight to ensure people are supported in doing this. These changes include:</ins><br /></p><ul><li><ins class="ministerial">making it easier to access benefits. Those applying for Contributory ESA will be able to claim from day 1 – as opposed to day 8 - and we have removed the need for face-to-face assessment. Both Universal Credit and Contributory ESA can now be claimed by phone or online;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by around £1000 per year;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">temporarily relaxing the application of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of COVID-19 to ensure that the self-employed can access UC at a more generous rate; and</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing in the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.</ins></li></ul><p><ins class="ministerial">Together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Chancellor has also confirmed that, depending on their status, workers on zero hours contracts may be eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and we would urge people to explore this avenue too.</ins></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 24/03/2020 11:57:37 question first ministerially corrected 15/04/2020 15:01:33 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 14226 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1105758

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2019
	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	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 she has made of whether Maximus is meeting the SC12 and SC13 targets in schedule 2.2 of the Health and Disability Assessment Services contract; and whether the Government collates data from individual assessment centres on those targets.
	tabling member constituency	Falkirk
	tabling member printed	John McNally
	uin	237797
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/04/2019 answer text <p>The supplier aims to deliver quality assessments as efficiently as possible. Our priority is to ensure that claimants who attend an assessment centre are seen and the supplier is achieving the SC1<ins class="ministerial">3</ins><del class="ministerial">2</del> target which measures the percentage of claimants sent home unseen. Currently, more people are waiting longer in assessment centres than we would like; the supplier is currently just below the SC1<ins class="ministerial">2</ins><del class="ministerial">3</del> target level which measures waiting times in assessment centres. SC12 and SC13 are national contractual service levels, but the Department does monitor performance at assessment centre-level. We are working closely with the supplier to improve waiting times for more claimants while ensuring the length of the assessment meets the individual claimant’s needs and claimants who attend for an assessment are seen.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 04/04/2019 13:46:25 question first ministerially corrected 29/04/2019 16:36:42 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 112078 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4424 label Biography information for John McNally

1171460

	registered interest
	date	16/01/2020
	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: Severe Disability Premium
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to complete the process of back paying claimants who were incorrectly moved from severe disability premium on to universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Inverclyde
	tabling member printed	Ronnie Cowan
	uin	4395
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2020 answer text <p>The SDP gateway has been in place for over a year to prevent those claimants entitled to the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) as part of their legacy benefit from claiming Universal Credit. We have successfully identified eligible former SDP claimants who have already moved to Universal Credit due to a change in circumstances, providing them with monthly payments and a lump sum in arrears, where appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>As of 17 January 2020, 15,397 claims have been paid an SDP transitional payment. The average (median) value of the lump sum payments is £2,280. To date, over £51.5m has been disbursed to support former SDP claimants, including the recurring payments that have now commenced.</p><p> </p><p>Positive progress has been made and caseload growth has now slowed, however, in the event a new case is discovered payments will be in place quickly. It is not possible to estimate when we will have paid everyone who is entitled as some people become entitled to these payments retrospectively, and therefore the caseload is not a fixed number.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 30/01/2020 10:49:10 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 2161 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4465 label Biography information for Ronnie Cowan

1010390

	registered interest
	date	19/11/2018
	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: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claimants receiving the housing element of universal credit are also claiming the state pension.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	192811
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2018 answer text <p>The table gives the estimated number of households receiving the Housing Element of Universal Credit in Great Britain, May 2018. The notes should be read in conjunction with the information provided in the table.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><p>Estimated number of households in payment and receiving the Housing Element of Universal Credit in Great Britain, May 2018</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p><del class="ministerial">471,800</del><ins class="ministerial">425,400</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Claiming State Pension</p></td><td><p>200</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong>Source:</strong> Household on Universal Credit dataset <strong>and</strong> Work and Pensions Longitudinal Survey.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><ol><li>The figures are derived from unpublished information and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.</li></ol><ol start="2"><li>Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Individual figures may not add up to the total due to rounding.</li><li>A count date of the second Thursday of the month is used when calculating the statistics for households on Universal Credit.</li><li>Further information on the background and methodology for Universal Credit can be accessed here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739399/universal-credit-statistics-background-methodology.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739399/universal-credit-statistics-background-methodology.pdf</a></li></ol> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 27/11/2018 11:22:16 question first ministerially corrected 06/12/2018 16:58:29 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 87254 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

514832

	registered interest
	date	21/04/2016
	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 estimate his Department has made of the number of universal credit claimants who do not have basic digital skills; and whether his Department has plans to reduce the number of such claimants without those skills.
	tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
	tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
	uin	35020
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2016 answer text <p>DWP recognise that some people will need help with on-line claims and activity. Those people without digital skills will be offered support in our offices to make and manage their claims on-line, and also to acquire or improve core digital skills.</p><p> </p><p>DWP has also rolled out the Universal Support initiative alongside the national roll out of Universal Credit, as part of which Local Authorities deliver both digital and budgeting support.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Witham answering member printed Priti Patel question first answered 27/04/2016 09:19:35 answering member 4066 label Biography information for Priti Patel previous answer version 57699 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

1186292

	registered interest
	date	18/03/2020
	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	Statutory Sick Pay: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions her Department has had with the Treasury on increasing the amount of Statutory Sick Pay paid to people who have to (a) self-isolate or (b) are diagnosed with covid-19.
	tabling member constituency	Wallasey
	tabling member printed	Ms Angela Eagle
	uin	31442
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/03/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances, we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The current Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rate is the legal minimum rate that an employer must pay to an employee; many employers have their own occupational health schemes. The SSP system is designed to balance support for the individual with the costs to the employer and, as such, there are no plans to make this change. The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those affected in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system in the past fortnight to ensure people are supported in doing this. These changes include:</ins></p><ul><li><ins class="ministerial">making it easier to access benefits. SSP is now payable from day 1 – as opposed to day 4 – and those applying for Contributory ESA will be able to claim from day 1 – as opposed to day 8 - and we have removed the need for face-to-face assessment. Both Universal Credit and Contributory ESA can now be claimed by phone or online;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by around £1000 per year; and</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing in the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.</ins></li></ul><p><ins class="ministerial">Together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system.</ins></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 23/03/2020 13:01:31 question first ministerially corrected 15/04/2020 15:01:51 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 13832 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1185463

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	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	Statutory Sick Pay
	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 make an assessment of the adequacy of statutory sick pay in covering individual weekly living expenses; and if she will increase the value of that pay to the European average during the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
	tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
	uin	30126
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances, we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The current Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rate is the legal minimum rate that an employer must pay to an employee; many employers have their own occupational health schemes. Our welfare system is not directly comparable with other European countries. The SSP system is designed to balance support for the individual with the costs to the employer and, as such, there are no plans to make this change. The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those affected in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system in the past fortnight to ensure people are supported in doing this. These changes include:</ins></p><ul><li><ins class="ministerial">making it easier to access benefits. Those applying for Contributory ESA will be able to claim from day 1 – as opposed to day 8 - and we have removed the need for face-to-face assessment. Both Universal Credit and Contributory ESA can now be claimed by phone or online;</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing the standard allowance of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by around £1000 per year; and</ins></li><li><ins class="ministerial">increasing in the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.</ins></li></ul><p><ins class="ministerial">Together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system.</ins></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 24/03/2020 12:15:27 question first ministerially corrected 15/04/2020 15:02:08 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 14238 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

424395

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2015
	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: Overpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value is of outstanding benefit overpayments due to be recovered by his Department.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Heeley
	tabling member printed	Louise Haigh
	uin	13613
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2015 answer text <p>The latest preliminary figures for 2014/15 estimate Fraud and Error levels as £3.2 billion, or 1.9% of benefit expenditure. The net figure after recoveries is £2.3bn, or 1.4%. This means that DWP Fraud and Error is at its lowest ever level.</p><p>The total value of outstanding benefit overpayments as of 1 October 2015 is £2.5 billion. This represents less than 1.5% of the total benefit expenditure of £168 billion for 2014 – 2015.</p><p>The Department recovered over £1.3 billion of debt in 2014-2015, including benefit debts.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 03/11/2015 10:46:29 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 26901 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4473 label Biography information for Louise Haigh

1185252

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	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	Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to protect sick, elderly or disabled people in receipt of (a) employment support allowance, (b) personal independence payment and (c) universal credit from having to attend mandatory assessments or appointments in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	30000
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2020 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that no one should be penalised for doing the right thing. These are rapidly developing circumstances, we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">From 17<sup>th</sup> March, we suspended all face-to-face assessments for health and disability benefits. For existing claimants, we have also automatically extended awards and suspended any new review or reassessment activity, except where claimants notify us of changes to their needs that may result in an increase to their award. </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">We have temporarily suspended the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments for all claimants in Universal Credit, Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA), Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Income Support. This means that claimants are not expected to contact their Jobcentre Plus while this temporary suspension is in place. They will continue to receive benefits as normal and they will not be sanctioned for not taking part in interviews with Jobcentres.</ins></p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 19/03/2020 17:45:25 question first ministerially corrected 15/04/2020 15:02:18 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 13583 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1202405

	registered interest
	date	10/06/2020
	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	Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many assessments for (a) personal independence payments, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) the limited capability for work component of universal credit were scheduled to take place after 1 March 2020; and how many of those assessments have taken place.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	58015
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2020 answer text <p>Our priority throughout this Covid-19 period continues to be to protect the public and staff, while ensuring people receive the benefits they are entitled to quickly and safely. We suspended face-to-face assessments, reviews and reassessments. We continue to assess people based on written evidence alone, where that is possible, and have introduced telephone assessments. We also automatically extended awards where necessary for certain health and disability benefits, providing reassurance to those in receipt of them. This action enabled us to prioritise activity on new claims and changes of circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>The number of assessments that were scheduled to have taken place between 1 March 2020 and 30 May 2020 and the number of assessments that took place during that time can be found in the table below:</p><p /><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Assessments</strong> <strong>Scheduled</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Assessments</strong> <strong>Completed</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PIP</p></td><td><p>187,700</p></td><td><p>117,050</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>ESA</p></td><td><p>20,370</p></td><td><p>14,500</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>UC</p></td><td><p>34,530</p></td><td><p>19,890</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>Please note:</p><p>Data has been rounded to the nearest 10.</p><p>Figures do not include paper based reviews.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>PIP</strong></p><p>The Assessments Scheduled data has been produced by the assessment providers (Capita and Independent Assessment Services).</p><p>The Assessments Completed data is derived from unpublished contractual management information produced by the assessment providers which was collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.</p><p> </p><p>Face-to-face assessments for PIP were paused due to Covid-19 from 17 March 2020. Telephone assessments began a piloted roll out from 23 March 2020 for Capita and 03 April 2020 for IAS.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>ESA and UC</strong></p><p>Face-to-face assessments for UC and ESA were paused due to Covid-19 from 17 March 2020. Telephone assessments began a piloted roll out from 04 May 2020 where only Limited Capability for Work Related Activity recommendations were being made.</p><p> </p><p>The department continues to process both New Claims and Changes of Circumstance and encourage anyone with a change in their needs to contact the Department so that we can ensure they are receiving the correct level of support.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 17/07/2020 14:07:10 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 28975 answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens