Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2023 to Question 3498 on Pension Credit: Applications, what steps his Department is taking to modernise the Pension Credit application process.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Citizens currently have the choice of three routes to make an application to Pension Credit, online, by phone or by paper. Through our Service Modernisation Programme, DWP aims to further improve the process of claiming Pension Credit based on user research with customers and their representatives.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the application process for Pension Credit; and if he will take steps to help increase the accuracy of decisions made on Pensions Credit applications.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department regularly looks at the effectiveness of its Pension Credit claims processes. A Quality Framework is used to assess the accuracy of Pension Credit decisions and this informs operational learning and continuous improvement. Pension Credit is being modernised and user research is integral to our design for modernising the Pension Credit application processes to ensure the effectiveness and accuracy of Pension Credit application processes.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department will respond to the letter sent by the hon. Member for Glasgow North East to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Pensions, dated 24th March 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member was sent on 3 May from the relevant Minister.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the updated uptake figures for Pension Credit for the period March 2022 to March 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In March we will publish the Family Resources Survey for 2021/22. Following this, work will begin to assess whether the data can produce new take-up estimates. In line with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics I will provide an update at this stage. 2022/23 take up will be published as normal in Autumn 2024.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Glasgow North East, dated 30 June 2022, on Pension Credit and the £650 Cost of Living Payment.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I replied to the hon. Member on 29 September.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the uptake of Pension Credit was in (a) Glasgow North East constituency and (b) the UK in (i) 2019-2020, (ii) 2020-2021 and (iii) 2022 to 14 June.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Estimates for the number of Pension Credit claimants in Glasgow North East constituency can be found on Stat-Xplore. The latest data is for November 2021.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Estimates for Pension Credit take-up in a financial year are only available at the Great Britain level and are available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found on the statistics section of gov.uk. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made on the cumulative impact on the living standards of households in receipt of universal credit of the decision not to up rate benefits in line with inflation in addition to the cut to universal credit and rise in living costs.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to my response to Parliamentary Question 127316 answered 25th February 2022.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of not uprating benefits in line with inflation on the incomes of households in receipt of universal credit taking into account the reduction in that benefit in 2021.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to my response to Parliamentary Question 127316 answered 25th February 2022.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made on the impact of not uprating benefits in line with inflation on levels of child poverty in Glasgow North East.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to my response to Parliamentary Question 126529 answered 25th February 2022.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of personal independence payment applicants who are refused on initial assessment were applying on the grounds of primarily mental health issues between (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. It is not recorded at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the reason for application or the number of applicants to PIP with particular conditions. Only those who have a disability assessment determination decision will have a main disabling condition recorded for them.
The Department does collect data on the main disability condition for those who have had a PIP assessment. This can be found in Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Stat-Xplore holds data up until October 2021.
The ‘PIP Clearance’ tables contain details of those awarded and disallowed, broken down by disability. The Disability Category ‘Psychiatric Disorders’ includes mental health issues. The full disability hierarchy can be found here: Disability Category / Disability Sub Group (dwp.gov.uk).
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.