Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with epilepsy have had their application for personal independence payment refused in each year since 2017.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The latest available data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clearances split by main disabling condition and by type of clearance (i.e. whether the claim was awarded, disallowed or withdrawn) for both new claims and reassessments from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) made from April 2013 – October 2019 can be found at https://stat-xplore.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.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to tackle the disparity of treatment between self-employed and employed people in relation to statutory maternity pay.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The differences in the parental benefits available to the self-employed reflect that this group generally have more flexibility over how to plan their workload and time off. This is reflected in the additional flexibility seen in Maternity Allowance (when compared to Statutory Maternity Pay).
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents have had their passports revoked following a failure to make Child Maintenance Service payments since the new provisions came into effect.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The number of passports revoked by Child maintenance Service is 4. This is clerically derived data, and therefore as with all clerically derived data, is subject to caveat.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 ensure that non-maintenance-paying parents do not request mandatory reconsiderations from the Child Maintenance Service to continue to avoid making payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
All clients, regardless of their role within the scheme, have the right to request a decision be reconsidered by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). Mandatory reconsideration rights only apply to decisions relating to child maintenance liability. The standard timescale in which a revision may be requested is within 30 days of the date of notification of the decision. Our policy is that a mandatory reconsideration will only happen once in respect of any particular decision, after which a client accrues the right to appeal to an independent tribunal.
If a client requests a mandatory reconsideration, their child maintenance liability will remain in place as usual until a decision is made. Where a mandatory reconsideration or appeal is ongoing, the Service will continue to attempt collection of any debt that is not covered by the appeal. The CMS may make a decision to suspend enforcement action on debt which is subject to an appeal, as this may result in reimbursement for the amount collected.