Asked by: Lord Bishop of Truro (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of those applying for a Short Term Benefit Advance in 2014–15 were awarded one but subsequently refused the benefit applied for.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Truro (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of those applying for a Short Term Benefit Advance (STBA) in 2014–15 were rejected because (1) they were not considered likely to be entitled to the benefit for which they required an STBA, (2) they were not considered to be in sufficient financial need to warrant an STBA, (3) they were not expected to be able to repay the loan arising from an STBA, (4) a benefit payment could be made in a timeframe that negated the need for an STBA, or (5) for other reasons.
Answered by Lord Freud
There is no data available to answer questions 1, 2, 3 & 5. Please see table below in response to question 4;
October 2014 – September 2015 | |
| STBA Applications Received 228,039 | 228,039 |
| STBA Primary Benefit Paid | 52,517 |
| % Primary Benefit Paid against Applications Received | 23.0% |
For context we have also provided STBA Applications Received.
The data provided is for Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefits, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support. The Secretary of State announced on 8 December 2014 that DWP would do more to raise the awareness of Short Term Benefit Advances and as well as more information now on Gov.UK there should be posters and leaflets in all Jobcentres.
The data is only available from October 14 therefore we have provided the latest 12 months’ worth of data.
Only Working Age Benefits (i.e. ESA, IB, JSA and IS) are included in the above information for benefit advance applications as the number of applications received for State Pension Credit and Carer’s Allowance is not available.
The Source for the date is as follows: STBA Applications Received & Primary Benefits Paid - Management Information System Programme (MISP). This collation is based on clerical counts submitted by the Centres and is Internal MI which has been agreed for use in publications of Parliamentary questions and Freedom of Information requests.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Truro (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to publish data on the number of claims and awards of Short Term Benefit Advances and Universal Credit Short Term Advances.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.