Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of (a) universal credit, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) personal independence payments have died between March 2020 and March 2021.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
(a)Universal Credit can be claimed by a range of working age people, some of whom have health conditions or disabilities, which may be degenerative or life limiting. The decision to claim Universal Credit can be prompted by a range of a factors, including when someone is terminally ill, so mortality figures should not be viewed in isolation.
Between 1st March 2020 and 30th November 2020, 12,600 or 0.2 per cent of Universal Credit claimants died. The number of people who received Universal Credit at any point during this period was 6.2million.
(b) The information requested for Employment and Support Allowance is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
(c)Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is claimed by people with a range of health conditions and disabilities, many of which are degenerative or life limiting and the Department treats the death of any claimant sympathetically. The cause of death of claimants on PIP is not collated centrally by the Department. The decision to claim PIP can be prompted by a range of a factors, including when someone is terminally ill, so mortality figures should not be viewed in isolation.
Table 1 below shows the number of claimants receiving PIP who died each month from March 2020 to October 2020, the latest data available, who were receiving PIP at the end of the previous month. Note that the numbers of PIP claimant deaths in March and April 2020 here differ to those presented previously in PQ 59467, due to a methodological update.
Table 1: Number of PIP claimants with entitlement who died each month from March 2020 – October 2020
Month | Number of PIP Claimant Deaths |
Mar-20 | 6,120 |
Apr-20 | 7,540 |
May-20 | 5,650 |
Jun-20 | 4,960 |
Jul-20 | 4,820 |
Aug-20 | 5,050 |
Sep-20 | 5,010 |
Oct-20 | 5,700 |
Source: PIP ADS and Customer Information System
Notes:
Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is an easement in place for people who fail to (a) attend and (b) participate in a telephone assessment for (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) universal credit.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Our priorities are people’s safety and ensuring that they receive the support they are entitled to. We will contact anyone who has not engaged in a telephone Work Capability Assessment arranged since 2 November 2020 to establish if they have a good reason for not attending or participating. Claimants will be given the opportunity to explain why they did not, or could not attend or participate in the telephone assessment and where good cause is provided and accepted, support will continue
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) failed to attend or (b) failed to participate in a telephone assessment for the limited capability for work components within universal credit since March 2020.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have interpreted your question (a) as being failed to attend and the case returned to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). From the introduction of telephony Work Capability Assessments to 6 November 2020, 38 Universal Credit (UC) cases have been returned to the DWP due to failure of the customer to attend their telephone assessment.
We are unable to provide a figure for how many people have failed to participate in a telephone assessment because the information requested is not available.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what changes her Department have made to its policies on easements related to telephone assessments since such assessments were introduced in March 2020.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Our priorities are people’s safety and ensuring that they receive the support they are entitled to. We will be contacting anyone who did not engage in a telephone appointment for a Work Capability Assessment arranged since 2 November 2020, to establish if they have a good reason for not attending or participating. Claimants will be given the opportunity to explain why they did not, or could not attend or participate in the telephone assessment and where good cause is provided and accepted, they will be given a further opportunity to take part in an assessment.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have (a) failed to attend or (b) failed to participate in a telephone assessment for employment and support allowance since March 2020.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have interpreted your question (a) as being failed to attend and the case returned to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). From the introduction of telephony Work Capability Assessments to 6 November 2020, 18 Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) cases have been returned to the DWP due to failure of the customer to attend their telephone assessment.
We are unable to provide a figure for how many people have failed to participate in a telephone assessment because the information requested is not available.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of claimants in receipt of universal credit died between (a) March to May 2020, and (b) March to May 2019.
Answered by Will Quince
Universal Credit can be claimed by a range of working age people, some of whom have health conditions or disabilities, which may be degenerative or life limiting. The decision to claim Universal Credit can be prompted by a range of a factors, including when someone is terminally ill, so mortality figures should not be viewed in isolation.
Between 1st March 2019 and 31st May 2019, 1,600, or less than 0.1 per cent, applications were made to Universal Credit where the claimant died. Over the same period the volume of people on Universal Credit stood at 2.3 million.
Between 1st March 2020 and 31st May 2020, 2,700, or less than 0.1 percent, applications were made to Universal Credit where the claimant died. Over the same period the volume of people on Universal Credit stood at 4.9 million.