Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a service standard timeframe for criminal investigations by her Department into fraud.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no Service Level Agreement for criminal fraud investigations. Each case presents unique complexities, depending on the offence type and individual circumstances. Cases are often operationally challenging due to the complexity of the work required, involving information gathering from external organisations to obtain supporting evidence. Timelines are also affected by the frequent need to capture witness statements and the reliance on customer participation.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training her Department requires call handlers to complete.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
All directorates within DWP receive Telephony learning. This begins with new joiners receiving induction and mandatory learning which covers topics such as communicating effectively, delivering excellent customer service, keeping safe, and how to support those with additional or complex needs.
On completion of the induction learning delegates will complete their technical learning covering the skills and knowledge required for their specific role.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decision makers in her Department are working on cases of benefits fraud.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of the 31st October 2024, Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt (CFCD) Directorate has the following Full Time Equivalent (FTE) assigned to decision making:
CFCD Internal Decision Makers |
Administrative Officer | Executive Officer | Total |
181.2 | 148.6 | 329.8 |
*This covers both Administrative Officer (AO) and Executive Officer (EO) grades who conduct this work as part of CFCD’s Enhanced Review Team (ERT), Interventions, Investigations, Economic and Serious Organised Crime, and Compliance functions.
In addition, CFCD also refers some of the cases it reviews to decision makers within Universal Credit (UC). As of the 28th October 2024, this function has the following FTE assigned to decision making for CFCD cases:
UC Decision Makers Assigned to CFCD Cases
Total |
110.03 |
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) simplifying and (b) automating the process to apply for Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department continues to assess the Pension Credit service. This led to the introduction of the online claim process, providing customers with a convenient alternative claim route, alongside the existing telephony and paper application methods. As the Department continues to modernise the Pension Credit service, we continue to review the user experience, balancing simplification of application with capturing the right information to ensure accuracy of award.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of demand for the Access to Work scheme since October 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Information on Access to Work applications is available but to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.
However, the Access to Work statistics from previous years includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2022/23. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff are employed to work on the access to work telephone helpline.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
There are currently 131.76 (full time equivalent) colleagues within the Access to Work Service Centre. These are not Case Managers dealing with applications for Access to Work but a separate team that covers telephony, processing claims for reimbursement of costs and other administrative tasks. The team is multi-functional and will be deployed on different areas dependant on demand and business priorities.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to support those on a British National (Overseas) Visa to enter work.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Individuals who have a British National (Overseas) visa have the right to work and study in the UK, but in most circumstances would have a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition attached to their visa. DWP has no powers to award Universal Credit to those with NRPF.
They can apply to have their NRPF condition lifted by making a ‘change of condition’ application if they are destitute or at risk of destitution, if the welfare of their child is at risk due to their low income, or where there are other exceptional financial circumstances. If this application is successful then they can apply for Universal Credit and access the full range of DWP employment services.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department is providing to the Child Maintenance Service to reduce payment recalculation processing times.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Significant improvements have been to the online service ‘My Child Maintenance Case’ to allow Child Maintenance Service customers report a range of changes that, with the associated automation and optimisation, have enabled reduction in payment re-calculation times. Examples of the types of changes that can now be reported through ‘My Child Maintenance Case’ include Paying Parent change of income and changes in shared care. In addition, through modernisation, the service is continuing to enable more and more automation in its regular casework and processing including the automation of changes when qualifying children leave full time education or when customers move on and off benefit. As well as speeding up certain changes this digitisation additionally creates time for caseworker to focus on delivering more complex changes that still require manual action improving speed and quality.
Email and SMS campaigns are now also being used to signpost and inform customers of online services and the volume of customers who are using the online services continues to increase.
As part of the wider DWP Service Modernisation Programme, further enhancements are being made that will support the reduction in time to re-calculate payments. This includes greater use of data available to automate the processing of changes and improved tailoring of the online services to make it easier for customers to navigate and use the online service so get their change made quicker.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time is for payment recalculations under the Child Maintenance Service .
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The Department publishes quarterly Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics, with the latest statistics available to the end of December 2022 found here.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to promote UK Disability History Month.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Disability History Month will run from November 16th - December 16th in 2023. The Disability Unit is currently developing plans to mark the month.
To mark the month in 2022, we used a range of social media posts to celebrate individuals and their contribution to the advancement of rights for disabled people. We anticipate that we will take a similar approach this year.