Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1022833

registered interest
date	10/12/2018
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	Carer's Allowance: Overpayments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to conduct a review of eligibility criteria for carer’s allowance as a result of the number of carers that have been overpaid.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	200669
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2018 answer text <p>The primary purpose of Carer’s Allowance (CA) is to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person. Around 850,000 carers are being supported through CA at a cost of over £2.8 billion a year (2018/19 forecast expenditure). The rate of CA has increased from £53.90 to £64.60 a week, with a further increase to £66.15 proposed for April 2019 subject to Parliamentary approval, meaning an additional £635 a year for carers since 2010. We continue to keep the key elements of CA under review to ensure it is meeting the needs of carers.</p><p> </p><p>As with all benefits we also continually review detailed operations. This includes reminding carers of the importance of reporting changes of circumstances (including to their earnings) and introducing new technology to help identify and prevent overpayments in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>Carers will also be a fundamental part of the Government’s upcoming Social Care Green Paper. A sustainable settlement for social care will not be possible without focussing on how our society supports carers.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 18/12/2018 14:39:47 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1022835

registered interest
date	10/12/2018
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	Carer's Allowance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the merits of introducing a taper for claimants of carers allowance once the claimant has reached the earnings threshold.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	200670
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2018 answer text <p>This is an issue that we have looked at closely, particularly in the light of recommendations from the Work and Pensions Select Committee in their report on employment support for carers and support for a taper from other stakeholders.</p><p> </p><p>Carer’s Allowance (CA) is not a means-tested benefit and its primary purpose is to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person.</p><p> </p><p>The purpose that the weekly earnings limit serves in CA is very different to that of a taper – it is essentially there to provide a test of whether the carer is in “gainful employment” and, therefore, eligible for CA. Tapers are designed to make sure that work pays in means tested benefits, and already work well for those carers also claiming Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>A cost neutral taper would need to begin at a level lower than the current earnings limit. We are concerned that introducing a cost neutral taper, effectively reducing the amount of CA for some, would introduce a disincentive to work for some of those carers with the lowest incomes, as well as significantly complicating the current CA scheme (for example, we would need to put arrangements in place to manually collect details of weekly earnings and adjust CA awards accordingly).</p><p> </p><p>In view of the recent focus on overpayments of CA, it is worth noting that a cost neutral taper would mean more carers would have to report changes of earnings more frequently, thus presenting fresh challenges in terms of making correct payments. For these reasons, we are not in favour of introducing a taper in CA. We will, of course, continue to keep the earnings rules in CA under review to ensure they are meeting their objectives.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 18/12/2018 14:49:11 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1020855

registered interest
date	07/12/2018
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	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, with reference to her letter of 5 December 2018 on the Work Capability Assessment, when her Department will provide statistics on how many people flowed off Employment and Support Allowance whose date of death was at the same time, and who had a Work Capability Assessment decision of fit for work between March 2014 and February 2017.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	200157
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>As my Right Honourable friend, the Secretary of State, said in her letter to you and the Honourable member for Wirral West of 5 December 2018, we do monitor requests we receive for statistics, and consider whether we can produce and release analysis that will helpfully inform public debate.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 12/12/2018 16:44:05 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1020741

registered interest
date	06/12/2018
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	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on disabled claimants of personal independence payment (PIP) of the closure of the Atos PIP customer service email.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	199923
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2018 answer text <p>A general email enquiry address is not currently available but work is underway to introduce a new online contact route as soon as possible in 2019. Where claimants require contact via email as a reasonable adjustment to make a claim, Independent Assessment Services continue to make arrangements to do so. There are a range of contact routes currently available to claimants, including a free phone enquiry line, written enquiries by post or a range of alternative formats including braille, large print, text phone &amp; sign video to assist claimants within the claim process.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 11/12/2018 15:41:19 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1020742

registered interest
date	06/12/2018
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	Personal Independence Payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that disabled people have access to a customer service email address for personal independence payment assessments.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	199924
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2018 answer text <p>A general email enquiry address is not currently available but work is underway to introduce a new online customer service route as soon as possible in 2019. Where claimants require contact via email as a reasonable adjustment to make a claim, Independent Assessment Services continue to make arrangements to do so.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 11/12/2018 15:30:53 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

988881

registered interest
date	16/10/2018
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: Disability
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 publish her Department’s calculations of the number of disabled people who will (a) lose benefit funding from the introduction of universal credit and (b) would lose benefit funding but for transitional protection.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	180310
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2018 answer text <p>When fully rolled out, Universal Credit will support low income households with around £62 billion a year across the whole of Great Britain.</p><p> </p><p>More people who are severely disabled will receive higher payments under Universal Credit. The rate in Universal Credit for these claimants is higher at £326 per month (up from £158 per month on the equivalent ESA Support Group). The managed migration regulations, which are currently before Parliament, includes transitional protections to ensure that no one loses out at the point of transition.</p><p> </p><p>This means that around 1 million disabled households will gain on average around £100 more per month on Universal Credit, than on legacy benefits. Within the legacy system there are £2.4bn of unclaimed benefits not taken up by people who need them, because they do not know about them. These Regulations will ensure that 700,000 more households will get paid their full entitlement under Universal Credit.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 20/12/2018 12:15:53 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova