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Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Thursday 5th September 2019

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to tailor medical assessments for benefits to take account of the needs of ME sufferers.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

Both the assessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) are functional assessments designed to respectively contribute towards the extra costs that arise as a result of a long-term health condition or disability, and to assess an individual’s capability to work. Both benefits are based on the impact of a person’s disability or health condition, not on the condition itself. This is important, as we recognise that the same condition can affect different people in different ways.

Assessors are provided with training and guidance in the full range of health conditions, including ME. For instance, all WCA assessors have access to a learning module on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/ME, that is externally quality assured by an expert clinician. Furthermore, the PIP providers have recently been involved in a programme of engagement with CFS/ME stakeholders, and have developed a comprehensive suite of training products on CFS/ME.


Written Question
Access to Work Programme
Wednesday 6th September 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received support from the access to work scheme, whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or inflammatory bowel disease, in each of the last five years.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The information requested is not available


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Wednesday 6th September 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have received personal independence payments whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis since 2013.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

Between April 2013 and April 2017 there have been 3,700 awards for Personal Independence Payment where the main disabling condition recorded was Crohn’s disease and 1,300 awards where the main disabling condition was ulcerative colitis.


Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance
Wednesday 6th September 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received employment and support allowance, whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was introduced in October 2008.

The available information is shown in the following tables:

Table 1: Number of individuals making an initial claim to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, Great Britain, 2008 - 2016

Year of ESA claim start

Initial ESA
claims

2008 (Oct – Dec)

300

2009

2,200

2010

2,200

2011

2,600

2012

2,800

2013

2,700

2014

2,800

2015

2,600

2016 (Jan - Sep)

1,800

Table 2: Number of individuals assigned to ESA Support Group or the ESA Work Capability Group following their Work Capability Assessment (for initial, repeat or IB reassessment claims), whose main disabling condition was recorded as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, Great Britain, 2008 - 2016

Year of ESA claim start

Initial ESA
claims

Repeat ESA
assessments

IB
reassessments

2008 (Oct – Dec)

100

100

.

2009

700

600

.

2010

800

700

.

2011

1,100

1,300

1,300

2012

1,600

1,900

2,300

2013

1,200

1,000

1,800

2014

1,200

400

200

2015

1,200

300

100

2016 (Jan - Sep)

700

-

-

Source for Tables 1 and 2: Application data is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by the Healthcare Provider.

Notes for Tables 1 and 2:

  1. The figures are rounded to the nearest 100. ‘–‘denotes figures that are zero or less than 50. ‘.’ denotes not applicable.
  2. The information for 2016 is provided up to September 2016 only; this is the latest data available at time of request.
  3. Data is available for ESA from October 2008 and for IB reassessment claims from April 2011.
  4. An individual may have made more than one ESA claim or assessment in any given year. These individuals will only be counted once in each of the figures provided.
  5. The primary medical condition recorded on the claim form does not itself confer entitlement to ESA. So, for example, a decision on entitlement for a customer claiming ESA on the basis of Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis would be based on their ability to carry out the range of activities assessed by the work capability assessment.

Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Repayments
Tuesday 4th April 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department enforces the repayment of any benefit payment made into an account after the death of the person entitled to that benefit.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

The enforcement of repayment of any benefit overpayment can only be made in the civil court, under the provisions of the Social Security and Administration Act 1992.

If, following the death of a claimant, monies continued to be paid into their account, there is no statutory right under social security legislation to enforce repayment of those monies. We would try to recover any payments made after death on a voluntary basis but could not enforce recovery against any estate as the monies were not properly due to the deceased and do not therefore form part of the deceased’s estate.

There are occasions where the payment continues after death because, for example, a third party has not reported the death to the relevant authorities, including the department. In such circumstances, the department would consider referring any evidence or information it held of possible fraud to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of prosecution.

The decision on whether or not to prosecute lies entirely with the Crown Prosecution Service, and any related recovery of monies or confiscation of assets would be made by the court.


Written Question
Pension Protection Fund
Tuesday 4th April 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the proposed changes to the Pension Protection Fund's compensation cap extension will be implemented; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford

The regulations to implement the increase in the Pension Protection Fund’s compensation cap for long service were laid on 7 March 2017, and subject to Parliamentary approval, will come into force on 6 April 2017.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: Care Homes
Friday 31st March 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons state pensions are not provided to those who have lived in care homes for the previous 12 weeks or more.

Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford

Both State Pension and Pension Credit are payable to people who permanently reside in care homes. However, entitlement to Pension Credit including entitlement to any Pension Credit additional amounts depends on individual circumstances, which may change when a person moves permanently into a care home. For example, those in receipt of Attendance Allowance may receive the additional amount for severe disability included in Pension Credit. As Attendance Allowance provides support for care costs, payment will stop after 4 weeks, if care is funded by the Local Authority in order to avoid duplicate care funding. Entitlement to the additional amount will end when payment of Attendance Allowance stops and this could lead to cessation of entitlement to Pension Credit.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad
Wednesday 22nd March 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with which overseas banks located in which countries his Department is working on overseas state pension fraud and error.

Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford

The Department combats overseas state pension fraud and error by means of data matching and life certificates.

DWP continues to explore how to extend and improve existing data matching arrangements. However, at present, the Department does not have any formal arrangements with overseas banks regarding notifications of death.

On occasions, DWP will receive notification from an overseas bank informing the Department that a payment has been rejected because of the death of a payee.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad
Monday 16th January 2017

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2016 to Question 50587, on state retirement pensions, by what means overseas claimants are audited.

Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) operates a proof of life programme (referred to as a Life Certificate) where State Pension customers residing permanently outside the United Kingdom are required to provide independent evidence, in the form of a witness statement, confirming that they are alive. The Life Certificate also provides verification of a customer’s address and contact telephone number and forms an integral part of DWP’s strategy to reduce fraud and error by ensuring that State Pension is paid to the right person at the right time. In addition to the Life Certificate, DWP has agreements in place with some countries to exchange data when a customer is deceased.


Written Question
State Retirement Pensions
Wednesday 2nd November 2016

Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in (a) the UK and (b) resident in overseas countries over the age of 100 received the state pension in each of the last three years; and how many such people lived in each such overseas country in each of those years.

Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford

DWP does not hold information on the number of people over the age of 100 who live in each overseas country.

The table below shows the information requested for numbers aged 100 or over recorded on our State Pension administrative data as of February 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Please note these figures will include dormant cases where no State Pension is in payment but their cases have not been fully closed. This will happen when, for example, the Department has lost touch with a customer or does not have a validated date of death. These cases are suspended, with no payments being made, rather than being completely closed. It is not possible for us to identify and remove these cases from the centrally held figures below.

February 2014

February 2015

February 2016

Abroad not known

-

-

-

Alderney

-

-

-

Australia

300

300

300

Austria

-

-

-

Bangladesh

-

-

-

Barbados

-

-

-

Belgium

-

-

-

Bermuda

-

0

0

Canada

100

200

200

Chile

0

-

0

Croatia

-

0

0

Cyprus

-

-

-

Denmark

0

0

-

Djibouti

0

0

-

Dominica

-

-

-

France

-

-

-

French Overseas Departments

0

-

0

Germany

-

-

-

Ghana

0

0

-

Gibraltar

0

0

-

Great Britain

20,100

20,500

20,700

Greece

-

-

-

Grenada

-

-

-

Guernsey

-

-

-

Hong Kong

-

-

-

Hungary

-

-

-

India

-

-

-

Israel

-

-

-

Italy

-

-

-

Jamaica

-

-

-

Jersey

-

-

-

Kenya

-

-

-

Lebanon

-

0

0

Lithuania

0

-

-

Luxembourg

0

-

-

Malta

-

-

-

Monaco

-

0

0

Montserrat

0

-

-

Morocco

-

-

-

New Zealand

-

-

-

Nigeria

-

0

0

Northern Ireland

-

-

-

Norway

-

-

-

Not known

-

-

-

Not yet recorded

-

0

0

Pakistan

-

-

-

Peru

-

0

0

Philippines

0

-

-

Poland

-

-

-

Portugal

-

-

-

Republic of Ireland

-

-

-

Republic of Yemen

-

-

-

South Africa

-

-

-

Spain

-

-

-

Sri Lanka

0

0

-

St Kitts and Nevis

-

0

0

St Lucia

-

-

0

St Vincent and The Grenadines

-

-

-

Swaziland

0

0

-

Sweden

-

-

-

Switzerland

-

-

-

Tanzania

0

0

-

The Czech Republic

-

0

0

The Netherlands

-

-

-

Tours

-

-

0

US Virgin Islands

0

0

-

USA

100

100

100

Ukraine

-

-

-

United Arab Emirates

-

-

-

Zimbabwe

-

-

-

Great Britain

20,100

20,500

20,700

Overseas

1,200

1,300

1,300

Total

21,300

21,800

21,900

Source: DWP - Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

Notes:

  1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100, “-“ indicates less than 100 cases. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
  2. February 2016 is the latest data available.
  3. Countries where there are no people aged 100 or over recorded in our data as in receipt of the State Pension are not listed above.