Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many outstanding Carer’s Allowance Verify Earnings and Pension service alerts there were at the end of the financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP is currently developing recommendations focused on helping claimants understand their responsibilities to report a change of circumstances and how DWP can help prevent the accumulation of debts amongst Carer’s Allowance claimants.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many PIP claimants have been assessed as unfit for work due to mental health issues in 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No one has been assessed as unfit for work as the assessment for Personal Independence Payment does not assess a claimant’s capacity for work or work-related activity.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has (a) made an assessment of the potential impact of Universal Credit migration on disabled people and (b) put support in place for disabled people affected by that migration.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP continue to learn and iterate our approach as we progress our Move to Universal Credit activity. We remain committed to ensuring that the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible for all customers, including the most vulnerable in society. Our latest insight publication is available on GOV.UK - Move to Universal Credit – insight on Tax Credit migrations and initial Discovery activity for wider benefit cohorts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We have developed an enhanced support journey for ESA and Income Support customers and remain confident that this provides effective support for our most vulnerable customers.
All customers can also use the independent Help to Claim service run by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland which provides support across England, Scotland, and Wales as well as accessing face to face support at job centres.
Also, we continue to work with a broad range of external stakeholders to gather their insight and experience of working with our mutual customers, to learn and develop our approach for moving legacy benefit customers to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of trends in the the number of people who are out of work because of a musculoskeletal condition.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the number of people who are out of work because of a musculoskeletal condition is not held by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The available published information on the number of disabled people aged 16 to 64 with a musculoskeletal condition by employment status in the UK is shown in the table below.
Number of disabled people (in thousands) aged 16 to 64 with a musculoskeletal condition by employment status, UK
| Main long-term health condition | Main or secondary long-term health condition | ||||
| Total | In employment | Not in employment | Total | In employment | Not in employment |
2013/14 | 2,386 | 1,217 | 1,169 | 3,712 | 1,594 | 2,119 |
2014/15 | 2,460 | 1,308 | 1,152 | 3,835 | 1,735 | 2,099 |
2015/16 | 2,438 | 1,317 | 1,121 | 3,850 | 1,760 | 2,090 |
2016/17 | 2,409 | 1,354 | 1,056 | 3,746 | 1,795 | 1,950 |
2017/18 | 2,355 | 1,367 | 988 | 3,684 | 1,818 | 1,866 |
2018/19 | 2,365 | 1,367 | 999 | 3,688 | 1,829 | 1,859 |
2019/20 | 2,342 | 1,404 | 938 | 3,698 | 1,908 | 1,790 |
2020/21 | 2,130 | 1,227 | 902 | 3,623 | 1,789 | 1,834 |
2021/22 | 2,258 | 1,323 | 934 | 3,763 | 1,879 | 1,884 |
2022/23 | 2,342 | 1,346 | 996 | 3,974 | 1,974 | 2,001 |
Data source: Annual Population Survey (APS) - The employment of Disabled People 2023 (LMS003 and LMS004)
Notes:
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living with rheumatoid arthritis have (a) applied for and (b) been successful with an Access to Work application in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does collect information on Access to Work applicant’s primary medical condition, however we do not hold information to the level required to identify people with the specific conditions requested. Therefore, we are not able to make an estimate of the number of people that have applied for, or been approved, for support through the Access to Work scheme.
Information on Access to Work volumes for approvals and recipients by primary medical condition are published annually in the official statistics found here.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people living with osteoarthritis have (a) applied for and (b) been successful in an Access to Work application in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does collect information on Access to Work applicant’s primary medical condition, however we do not hold information to the level required to identify people with the specific conditions requested. Therefore, we are not able to make an estimate of the number of people that have applied for, or been approved, for support through the Access to Work scheme.
Information on Access to Work volumes for approvals and recipients by primary medical condition are published annually in the official statistics found here.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on the digitalisation of Access to Work.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of May 2024, customers are able to both make applications to, and claim payments online for, the following elements of Access to Work:
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information he holds on the number and proportion of participants of the Kickstart scheme that are in employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Impact Assessment on Kickstart is currently being finalised. This assessment will quantify any impact on movement into employment following the scheme. We aim to publish the findings of this assessment in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are in debt to the Department through overpayments of Carers Allowance; and how much do they owe in total.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 14th May 2024, the volume of people who have an outstanding Carers Allowance debt is 134,800 with a total value of £251m. This figure represents the total stock and as such the total monetary amount may have been accrued over multiple years. Those who have an outstanding Carers Allowance debt may no longer be in receipt of the benefit.
Women make up the majority of Carer’s Allowance claims, and this is reflected in the proportion of those with an outstanding Carer’s Allowance debt. As of 14th May 2024, there were 42,800 (32%) males, 91,900 (68%) females and 100 (less than 1%) not identified, with an outstanding Carers Allowance debt.
As of November 2023, there were over 991,000 people in receipt of Carers Allowance. That figure is made up of over 271,000 (27%) males and 720,000 (73%) females.
The data contained in our response has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It should therefore be treated with caution.
All figures provided have been rounded.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) men and (b) women are in debt to his Department through overpayments of Carers Allowance.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 14th May 2024, the volume of people who have an outstanding Carers Allowance debt is 134,800 with a total value of £251m. This figure represents the total stock and as such the total monetary amount may have been accrued over multiple years. Those who have an outstanding Carers Allowance debt may no longer be in receipt of the benefit.
Women make up the majority of Carer’s Allowance claims, and this is reflected in the proportion of those with an outstanding Carer’s Allowance debt. As of 14th May 2024, there were 42,800 (32%) males, 91,900 (68%) females and 100 (less than 1%) not identified, with an outstanding Carers Allowance debt.
As of November 2023, there were over 991,000 people in receipt of Carers Allowance. That figure is made up of over 271,000 (27%) males and 720,000 (73%) females.
The data contained in our response has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It should therefore be treated with caution.
All figures provided have been rounded.