Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to commence sections 2, 3 and 4(1) to (4) of the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 proposed regulations to support the introduction of administrative liability orders (ALOs), removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order. Introducing this process should enable the Child Maintenance Service to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and get money to children more quickly. We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament by the end of this year.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the current and each of the last four financial years, how many 16–24 year olds are receiving personal independence payments at (1) the lower rate for daily living, (2) the higher rate for daily living, (3) the lower rate for mobility, and (4) the higher rate for mobility; and of those, how many have depression and anxiety as the primary reason for receiving that benefit.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of claimants aged 16-24 receiving the different award types for both daily living and mobility components of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and for those aged 16-24 whose primary condition was Anxiety or Depression.
Table 1: Number of claimants aged 16-24 years receiving PIP in England and Wales by award rate for Daily Living and Mobility, split by all medical conditions and Anxiety and Depression only.
|
| 2020_21 | 2021_22 | 2022_23 | 2023_24 | 2024_25* | |||||
DL | Mob | All | A&D | All | A&D | All | A&D | All | A&D | All | A&D |
Enh | Enh | 111,700 | 4,800 | 132,900 | 6,900 | 164,600 | 10,300 | 196,700 | 14,000 | 216,500 | 16,400 |
Std | 39,200 | 5,400 | 45,100 | 7,400 | 53,300 | 10,700 | 63,300 | 15,200 | 70,400 | 18,200 | |
Nil | 16,500 | 3,300 | 15,200 | 3,200 | 15,300 | 3,500 | 14,700 | 3,700 | 14,700 | 3,800 | |
Std | Enh | 8,100 | 1,100 | 9,100 | 1,200 | 10,800 | 1,600 | 12,200 | 1,900 | 13,300 | 2,100 |
Std | 15,900 | 3,300 | 16,900 | 3,600 | 19,200 | 4,800 | 21,600 | 6,100 | 23,500 | 6,900 | |
Nil | 25,600 | 7,900 | 25,600 | 8,300 | 26,800 | 9,100 | 27,300 | 9,700 | 27,900 | 9,900 | |
Nil | Enh | 4,700 | 400 | 5,400 | 500 | 6,700 | 800 | 7,900 | 1,000 | 8,900 | 1,200 |
Std | 3,600 | 800 | 4,000 | 1,000 | 5,400 | 1,700 | 7,000 | 2,400 | 8,600 | 3,000 | |
Notes:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have applied for Pension Credit since 5 July 2024; and how many have been approved.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Pension credit statistics are collated on a weekly (Monday – Sunday) cycle. This means we cannot provide a response aligned to 5 July 2024. However, we can provide a count of claims and awards from week commencing 8 July 2024, as follows:
DWP currently works to a planned timescale of 50 working days to clear Pension Credit claims.
Please note, the awarded volumes since 8 July 2024 will include some claims that were made before 5 July 2024. This is because the Department currently reports clearance times by the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made.
Statistics on Pension Credit award volumes were published on 28 November 2024. This publication includes weekly numbers of applications that were received, awarded and not awarded, up to 17 November 2024. Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK.
The next publication of Pension Credit application statistics is due around the end of February 2025 and will cover the data up to week commencing 10 February 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of individuals eligible to make voluntary contributions for gaps in their National Insurance records for 2006–2018 who would receive more income by not doing so and instead claiming Pension Credit.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such estimate has been made. Whether an individual should or should not make voluntary National Insurance contributions will depend upon their circumstances. It is entirely a decision for the individual to make but it may not always be beneficial.
Before buying voluntary contributions, people under State Pension age can use the online Check your State Pension forecast service to get a forecast and see whether paying gaps will increase their entitlement.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 15000 on Pension Credit and State Retirement Pensions: Suffolk Coastal, what estimate his Department has made of when that data will be updated and made available.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department publishes quarterly statistics on recipients of a wide range of benefits, including State Pension and Pension Credit, by various geographical breakdowns including Westminster parliamentary constituency, on Stat-Xplore. The latest statistics are available up to quarter ending May 2023 for State Pension, and quarter ending August 2023 for Pension Credit. The State Pension statistics were recently temporarily suspended so are currently only available to May 2023, with a progress update on their re-instatement due on 13 March 2024.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to commence section 25 of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023, it amended section 32M of the Child Support Act 1991 as inserted by section 25 of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008.
When commenced it will streamline enforcement processes by removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order and enable the Secretary of State to issue an administrative liability order. This will reduce the process from 22 weeks to as low as 6 weeks, making it quicker to get money to children.
A public consultation to seek views on proposed regulations to be introduced for administrative liability orders concluded in November 2023, and the Government response was published on 12 February 2024. Legislation will be brought forward as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which business or organisation has been awarded the Help to Claim contract for April 2024 to March 2026.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We expect to announce the outcome of the Future Support Offer 2024 grant competition for Help to Claim in March.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people receive (a) the state pension and (b) pension credit in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Paul Maynard
There are currently 30,114 people in receipt of the State Pension in the quarter ending May 2023 in Suffolk Coastal Constituency.
There are currently 1,977 people in receipt of Pension Credit in the quarter ending August 2023 in Suffolk Coastal Constituency.
Figures are published and available via Stat-Xplore
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much child maintenance has (a) been recovered and paid to the receiving parent and (b) not been paid in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are available up to September 2023, with statistics for the amount of maintenance due and the amount paid published in Table 5 of the National tables.
The relevant information is included in the table below.
CMS does not measure the compliance of Paying Parents on the Direct Pay service. Unpaid Maintenance is the value of maintenance scheduled to be paid, but not received from a Paying Parent through the Collect and Pay service, including any transferred from Direct Pay.
CMS Money Due and Paid each Quarter, Great Britain, January 2021 to September 2023
Quarter | Maintenance due to be paid via Direct Pay (£millions) | Maintenance due to be paid via Collect and Pay (£millions) | Maintenance paid via Collect and Pay (£millions) | Unpaid Maintenance (£millions) |
Jan to Mar 2021 | 203.1 | 58.3 | 45.4 | 12.9 |
Apr to Jun 2021 | 212.3 | 60.9 | 46.9 | 14.0 |
Jul to Sep 2021 | 217.1 | 63.1 | 47.4 | 15.7 |
Oct to Dec 2021 | 210.2 | 64.4 | 46.6 | 17.8 |
Jan to Mar 2022 | 207.1 | 66.8 | 45.6 | 21.2 |
Apr to Jun 2022 | 219.7 | 69.6 | 48.8 | 20.8 |
Jul to Sep 2022 | 231.2 | 71.4 | 49.4 | 22.0 |
Oct to Dec 2022 | 231.7 | 69.7 | 49.1 | 20.6 |
Jan to Mar 2023 | 237.0 | 72.0 | 49.1 | 22.9 |
Apr to Jun 2023 | 252.4 | 75.8 | 52.1 | 23.7 |
Jul to Sep 2023 | 263.2 | 79.1 | 57.5 | 21.6 |
Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information
Notes:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government's consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving our enforcement powers through the commencement of curfew orders, published on 9 July 2022, what his Department's planned timetable is for laying the commencement order relating to curfew orders.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Child Maintenance Service already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison. We have explored how Curfews could be implemented as an additional enforcement measure to improve compliance. Several enforcement initiatives aimed at improving compliance are currently in train and we need to get those in place and assess their effects before we can best see how curfews might fit with them. We are continuing to keep their introduction under review.