Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to provide an update on the progress in the implementation of his Department's response to the Independent Review into Carer’s Allowance Overpayments to the (a) Public Accounts and (b) Work and Pensions Committees.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the two outstanding recommendations from the Independent Review into Carer’s Allowance Overpayments which have not been accepted by his Department.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a copy of the (a) written and (b) SMS correspondence sent to people when the Department requires further information to reassess their Carer's Allowance case.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children under three years are receiving the DLA care component under special rules in England.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Quarterly statistics for the number and age of children in receipt of the highest rate care award of Disability Living Allowance, with a main disabling condition recorded as Terminally ill, are published on Stat-Xplore here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 whether there has been a change in the average time taken to process Access to Work payments in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I refer to my response to PQN/21-22/2021/7311921-
Access to Work aim for customers to be paid within 10 days of receipt of claims and all supporting evidence.
Following postal delays during July and August, we are seeing payment clearance times returning to normal levels.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 reduce the time taken for beneficiaries to receive their Access to Work payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Access to Work aim for customers to be paid within 10 days of receipt of claims and all supporting evidence. During July and August postal delays held up payment claims being received into DWP.
We have introduced scanning of all claims on day of receipt improving payment times, and Access to Work are also developing a digital claim portal which will allow customers to submit their claim online and upload any supporting information. We expect to start testing this with some customers in December 2021.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time is for beneficiaries to receive Access to Work Payments in each of the last (a) 12 months and (b) five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The average length of time for beneficiaries to receive Access to Work Payments in each of the last (a) 12 months and (b) five years is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people currently eligible to claim carers allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Information on the number of people that (a) have an underlying entitlement to Carer’s Allowance and (b) receiving a payment for Carer’s Allowance by Parliamentary constituency is published and available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people currently receive carers allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
As of November 2020, there were 937,000 people claiming Carer’s Allowance.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who would be eligible to claim carers allowance if the hours of care requirement are reduced from 35 hours to (a) 30 hours, (b) 25 hours and (c) 20 hours.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The threshold of providing at least 35 hours care a week has been in place since Carer’s Allowance (CA) was first introduced in 1976, and has been maintained by successive Governments as a reasonable point at which many carers would find it difficult to combine their caring responsibilities with a full-time job.
The Government has not made any estimates of how many additional people would become entitled to CA if the number of hours of care required to be provided were reduced.
There is support for those caring for less than 35 hours a week in the benefit system - including Carer’s Credits and changes to jobsearch requirements in Universal Credit which can be tailored to reflect caring responsibilities. (Carer’s Credits can be awarded to those providing care for over 20 hours a week, helping carers maintain their National Insurance records, thereby protecting their State Pensions, regardless of whether or not they are also working.)