Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure eligible people over State Pension age are aware that they may be entitled to Carer's Allowance.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the availability of Carer’s Allowance is widely available, including online via GOV.UK and from places such as Carers Trust and Citizens Advice. DWP continually seeks to improve the information it makes available so as to encourage people to claim Carer’s Allowance where they may be entitled.
Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long-held feature of the GB benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to care for a severely disabled person and is unable to undertake full time employment due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.
However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance which is currently £81.90.
Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. This gives access to the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £45.60 a week and potentially other means-tested support. Around 125,000 people are receiving the Carer Premium with their Pension Credit. And even if a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
Social Security is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that older people can access all the benefits and allowances to which they are entitled.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are rightly entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign.
We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, which provides a vital safety net by guaranteeing a minimum level of income – and will also passport them to receive other benefits (including Winter Fuel Payments, help with rent, council tax, fuel bills and a free TV licence for those over 75).
Our drive to increase Pension Credit take up has successfully boosted applications, with the Department receiving around 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement and making 117,800 new Pension Credit awards over the same period. The campaign has included adverts on Television, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube, on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens as well as in the press.
We are now writing to all pensioners who make a new claim for Housing Benefit and who appear to be entitled to Pension Credit – directly targeting this group and encouraging them to make a claim. In the longer term, we will be bringing together the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, so that pensioners receive both Housing Benefit and any Pension Credit that they are entitled to.
For State Pensions, DWP sends out a letter to customers four months prior to their State Pension age, inviting a claim to State Pension. The letter signposts the customer to claim online which is the quickest and easiest way to claim and also includes the telephone number to call to make their claim to State Pension over the telephone. The customer can also request a paper claim form.
Attendance Allowance is currently undergoing a significant modernisation reform through the piloting of an on-line digital claim process as a part of the department’s wider Service Modernisation plans. This aims to provide a more streamlined alternative application method in addition to the current paper form. Online claims are currently being tested with a view to this becoming more widely available in due course.
Information and advice about entitlement to Attendance Allowance and other benefits may be available from a range of outlets including Jobcentre Plus offices, DWP and other helplines, gov.uk and other internet sites, local authorities, Citizens Advice and welfare benefit offices, Social Services, voluntary organisations, such as, Age UK and MacMillan, public libraries, health clinics, doctors' surgeries and health visitors.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they have recovered from fraudulent benefit claimants in each year since 2021 and what percentage this represents of the total amount of benefit fraud in each year.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows total volume of overpayment classified as Fraud (i.e. proven by conviction or admission) by financial year.
| 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Recovery of overpayments classified as Fraud | £46.50m | £44.33m | £42.89m |
Data for what percentage this represents of the total amount of benefit fraud is not available because recoveries in a year do not represent recoveries from fraud committed that year.
The figures provided above only include recovery of overpayments from proven fraud, that is where a claimant has been successfully prosecuted or accepted an administrative penalty. Many other overpayments are likely to be fraudulent but have not specifically been designated as either fraud or error and as such are not included here.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were the levels of overpayments in benefit expenditure by the Department for Work and Pensions in (1) 2022–23, and (2) 2023–24; and what is that as a percentage of overall benefit expenditure.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Levels of fraud and error in relation to benefit payments, as well as levels of overpayments, are outlined here Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 - GOV.UK for 2023/24, and here for the previous year 2022/23: Fraud and error in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2023 - GOV.UK
Please see the requested information in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the level of fraud and error in relation to benefits payments by the Department for Work and Pensions in each of the past two years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Levels of fraud and error in relation to benefit payments, as well as levels of overpayments, are outlined here Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 - GOV.UK for 2023/24, and here for the previous year 2022/23: Fraud and error in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2023 - GOV.UK
Please see the requested information in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were in receipt of the Higher Rate Mobility Component of the Disability Living Allowance in each of the four countries of the UK in the last year; and how many of those recipients in each country used it to cover the cost of a Motability Scheme lease agreement.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The latest available information showing the number of individuals who received the Higher Rate mobility award of Disability Living Allowance, is given in the table below.
Number of individuals in receipt of Higher Rate Mobility Award of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) by country, at the end of each quarter, February 2021 to November 2021: Great Britain.
Quarter | England | Wales | Scotland | Total (GB) |
Feb 21 | 464,946 | 46,003 | 68,817 | 579,767 |
May 21 | 456,141 | 45,065 | 67,551 | 568,752 |
Aug 21 | 448,341 | 44,246 | 66,397 | 558,979 |
Nov 21 | 440,127 | 43,259 | 64,974 | 548,362 |
Source: DLA Cases in Payment, Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions
We do not hold information on the number of higher rate mobility recipients that use it to cover the cost of a Motability Scheme lease agreement. However, the latest Motability annual report does show that over 640,000 people use the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of the triple lock on pensions this year on pensioner poverty.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people who qualify for Pension Credit but do not claim it each year.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
According to the latest data, 770,000 people are eligible non-recipients of Pension Credit for the financial year ending 2020. The published data tables can be accessed here: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they had with the devolved administrations before their announcement of the one-year suspension of the "triple lock" on state pension payment increases.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
One of the benefits covered by the Social Security (Up-rating of Benefits) Bill - survivors’ benefits in Industrial Death Benefit - is devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The Department is temporarily delivering them on behalf of the Scottish Ministers under an Agency Agreement which provides that legislative parity must be maintained, of which there are around 300 recipients of these benefits in Scotland. The Secretary of State therefore wrote to the relevant Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Government ahead of its introduction seeking a decision on whether they would be taking primary legislation in the Scottish Parliament or through a Legislative Consent Motion to allow this Bill to provide the appropriate powers to enable Scottish Ministers to deliver uprating legislation in tandem. The other benefits in the Bill are reserved matters in Scotland.
Social security is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Executive has the power in section 132A of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 to mirror the Up-rating Order in Great Britain made under section 150A (in this case, as temporarily amended). Therefore, the draft Bill does not need to extend to Northern Ireland and no primary legislation is required in Northern Ireland. However, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 sets out that the Secretary of State and the Northern Ireland Minister will seek to maintain a single system of social security, to the extent agreed between them. Officials in the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland have therefore been in discussion on the issue.
Social security is a reserved matter in Wales.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in England they estimate to be entitled to pension credit who are not claiming it, as a percentage of those eligible.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The information requested is not available.
Data related to Pension Credit is published at Great Britain level. The latest estimates were published in October 2020 and relate to the financial year 2018/19 and can be found in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication in the statistics section of gov.uk.