Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to provide additional (a) financial and (b) other support for people on legacy benefits during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have introduced a balanced package of support for people who are affected by the effects of Covid 19. This includes over £6.5 billion of extra support through the welfare system as part of the unprecedented series of measures, announced by the Chancellor, to support businesses and their employees to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
For Jobseeker’s Allowance we have ensured that any periods of sickness experienced by a person who, is infected or contaminated with coronavirus, in self-isolation or caring for a child or qualifying young person in their household who is infected, will not count towards the maximum permitted number of sickness periods applicable to a claimant, whilst in receipt of that benefit. This means entitlement can continue if this causes them to exceed the maximum of 13 weeks in a 12-month period.
We have also introduced a range of additional measures to support legacy claimants deal with the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic. We made the decision to temporarily suspend the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments from 19 March for all claimants on Universal Credit, new styles Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance, and legacy benefits. Claimants will continue to receive benefits as normal and they will not be sanctioned for not taking part in appointments with Jobcentres.
We also removed waiting days for ESA for claimants affected by Covid-19, so it will be payable from day one of the claim, subject to the claimant satisfying the normal conditions of entitlement.
We have increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for private renters claiming Housing Benefit to the 30th percentile of local rents. As a result, Housing Benefit claimants will gain on average an additional £600 this year in increased housing support. In addition, we have increased the additional earnings disregard in Housing Benefit from £17.10 to £37.10 per week to ensure that the increase of approximately £20 a week we have introduced to the basic element of Working Tax Credit is not clawed back.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to provide additional support for people in receipt of legacy benefits during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic.
These announced measures that have a positive impact on legacy and other working age benefits include:
In addition, we have provided local authorities with £500m to support the most vulnerable households in their area who may struggle to meet Council Tax payments.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
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 the proposal from Citizens Advice to establish a Crisis Minimum Income of £180 per week for people affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no plans to introduce a crisis minimum income at this time.
The Government has been clear in its commitment to support those affected in these difficult times and we have made a number of changes to the welfare system to ensure people are receiving the support they need. These changes include:
Taken together, these measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system and, along with other job and business support programmes announced by the Chancellor, represent one of the most comprehensive packages of support introduced by an advanced economy in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the feasibility of allowing personal independence payments to continue without assessment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that everyone should be supported to do the right thing.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his oral contribution of 27 January 2020, Official Report, column 525 and pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2020 to Question 7257, on Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations, if he will make an assessment of the compatibility of his statement that 82 per cent of personal independence payment claimants were satisfied and the results in the table provided in that answer.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The 82% referenced in my oral contribution of 27 January 2020, referred to the overall satisfaction of PIP claimants in 2017/18 as published in the “Claimant Service and Experience Survey 2017/18”, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-claimant-service-and-experience-survey-2017-to-2018
PIP Assessment Providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS) and Capita, have a separate Claimant Satisfaction target, set at 90%. They have consistently exceeded this target since the measurement began in 2016.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to bring forward to date to extend the repayment period for universal credit advances to 16 months from October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has announced that from October 2021, the repayment period for these advances will be extended further to 16 months. There are no plans to introduce this earlier.
Claimants can access up to 100% of their total expected Universal Credit monthly award, which they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months. Proposed repayments of the advance are explained in advance, and all claimants are advised to request a level of advance which is manageable when considering the repayments required. Work Coaches gauge claimants’ financial needs from their first interview. For those who need help with budgeting, we can signpost to additional support, for example through the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), who can help with personal budgeting and money management through its free helpline, printed guides and digital guidance.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 11 February 2020, HCWS104, on Personal Independence Payment, what recent estimate she has made of (a) number of claimants to still be reviewed, (b) the number of claimants entitled to a higher award, and (c) the associated estimated cost.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Management information at 5 January 2020 shows that so far we have cleared 720,000 cases under the MH decision and 820,000 cases under the RJ decision.
Continuous monitoring of the outcomes of the administrative exercise has shown which cases are most likely to benefit from the exercise. We remain on track to complete the exercise in 2020.
Claimants unlikely to benefit will be contacted in writing and provided with the information they need to decide whether they might be affected. If they feel they may be affected they will be offered the opportunity for their case to be reviewed.
We are currently re-estimating the number of claimants and associated costs as further data on the number of claimants with revised awards has become available as part of our continuous monitoring of the exercise.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on the introduction of a single digital platform for personal independence payments, employment and support allowance and universal credit assessment services.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We remain committed to delivering the new single, integrated assessment service for health assessments across PIP, ESA and UC. We are developing the new digital service and are already using it in a small number of assessment centres. To date the service has handled over 300 assessments. We are using feedback from DWP staff, service users, our assessment providers, and wider stakeholders to involve them in the design of our digital service, making sure we deliver a more user-friendly, streamlined process.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints her Department has received in relation to (a) ATOS and (b) Maximus health assessments in the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Any complaint received by the department relating solely to the service provided by the Assessment Provider is passed to them to action. Providers have their own complaints process to deal with dissatisfaction about the service they provide.
Information on the total number of complaints received by Independent Assessment Service (IAS), formally ATOS and Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), which is a MAXIMUS company, for the period January 2019 to December 2019 are shown in the table below.
Assessment Provider | Total number of complaints received | Complaints as a percentage of assessments |
IAS (prev ATOS) | 6,140 | 0.91% |
CHDA | 3,640 | 0.45% |
* All data collated from provider MI, all numbers rounded to the nearest 10
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
Universal Credit has now rolled out in every Jobcentre with a caseload of 2.7 million, growing every month, now able to access the additional support and flexibilities it offers. The latest data shows the proportion of all Universal Credit claims that received their full payment on time was over 95 per cent.
The Universal Credit Full Service Claimant Survey (June 2018) shows that 9 months into a Universal Credit claim, 40 per cent of claimants are working for an employer in a paid role, as opposed to only 23 per cent at the start of their claim, and people on Universal Credit spend around 50% more time looking for a job than they did under Jobseeker’s Allowance. 86 per cent of people on Universal Credit were actively looking to increase their hours, compared to just 38 per cent of people on Jobseeker’s Allowance. This is because they can take on more hours without losing their benefit.