Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were not notified of the outcome of a personal independence payment assessment or a change in the level of their awards owing to recent IT faults; and what steps have been taken to prevent recurrence of those faults.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We have no record of any Departmental IT failures for Personal Independence Payment in the last 12 months that have resulted in assessment decision notifications not being issued to claimants.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the New Enterprise Allowance is not available to carers on income support.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
For those with caring responsibilities, Income Support is in place to support them while they provide ‘substantial and regular’ care. We have not made this group eligible for New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) as it would be unreasonable to require them to spend a significant amount of time developing a business on top of their caring responsibilities.
If they feel they do have the time to participate in the NEA they are entitled to change their claim to Jobseekers Allowance and could then be eligible for NEA.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Housing Benefit and State Pension Credit (Temporary Absence) (Amendment) Regulations 2016, how his Department defines the term medically approved treatment or care for persons temporarily absent from than UK for more than four weeks; and whether that definition extends to domiciliary care provided by non-professionals when that care is endorsed by a GP or consultant.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Regulation 3(3) of the State Pension Credit Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/1792) provides that Pension Credit may continue for up to 26 weeks notwithstanding a temporary absence from Great Britain where the absence is in connection with medical treatment by, or under the supervision of, a qualified practitioner or where the absence is in order to undergo medically approved convalescence. The regulation defines “qualified practitioner” as meaning a person “qualified to provide medical treatment” and “medically approved” is defined as meaning “certified by a registered medical practitioner”. Therefore in cases where a person has gone abroad to undergo convalescence, it has to be certified by a registered medical practitioner and the absence should not be expected to exceed 26 weeks.
Guidance on the Pension Credit Temporary Absence rules can be seen here.
Regulation 7(16) of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/213) and the Housing Benefit (Persons who have reached the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/214) provide a similar 26 week absence rule for Housing Benefit. Medically approved is defined in regulation 7(18) of those Regulations, as “certified by a medical practitioner”. Further guidance is at paragraphs 3.541 to 3.543 Chapter A3 of the Housing Benefit Guidance manual. In particular, paragraphs 3.542 and 3.543 give guidance on who might be providing care, and where.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Deduction from Earnings Orders are in place relating to child maintenance arrears cases under the 2012 statutory scheme.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information requested is not currently available for publication. When system data are fully assured, it will be considered for release as part of a managed process, which will be pre-announced and in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
The Department last updated its strategy for releasing experimental statistics on the 2012 scheme on 30 September 2015 and this will be updated by the end of November 2016. We plan to release enforcement data by early 2017.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many liability orders have been applied for since June 2014 in respect of child maintenance arrears cases administered by the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information you have requested is not currently available for publication.
The Department last updated its strategy for releasing experimental statistics on the 2012 scheme on 30 September 2015 and this will be updated by the end of November 2016. We plan to release enforcement data by early 2017.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will amend the eligibility criteria for bereavement benefits to enable unmarried couples who have cohabited for many years to claim the same bereavement benefits as married couples and civil partners.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
A key principle of the National Insurance system is that all rights to benefits derived from another person’s contributions are based on the concept of legal marriage or civil partnership. This is a long-standing position in bereavement benefits and will continue under the new Bereavement Support Payment, the provisions of which were debated during the passage of the Pensions Act 2014.
Marriage and civil partnerships are legal contracts that are associated with certain rights, including inheritance, recognition in the tax system and entitlement to certain benefits. Given this legal position, the Government has no plans to extend eligibility for bereavement benefits to cohabitees.
However, cohabitees do have access to income-related benefits. They may also qualify for help with funeral costs from the Social Fund and may of course choose to provide security for their families by way of private pension or life insurance arrangements.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedures the Child Support Agency (CSA) has to ensure that it takes account of a person's assets as well as their income when calculating child maintenance payments; and if he will make it his policy to require the CSA to take into account the value of retained profit of any company controlled by the non-resident parent when calculating child maintenance payments from that parent.
Answered by Priti Patel
Across all three Child Maintenance schemes maintenance is calculated based on a person’s earned income, and does not normally include any consideration of assets.
Since 1996, clients have been able to request either that the standard maintenance calculation can be ‘departed’ or ‘varied’ (depending on which Child Maintenance scheme their case is under) in certain exceptional circumstances. These include where there is income generated from assets, such as property or dividends, which would not otherwise be taken into account.
Where a business retains profits for the purposes of ensuring continued existence and / or growth of the business, and provided the amounts retained are not unreasonable under UK taxation legislation, there is no provision to include these amounts in the calculation of a maintenance liability.