Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that a server issue with the universal credit portal does not reoccur.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will prepare an impact assessment of any future server outage on the universal credit portal.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations made by the UK Statistics Agency in August 2015, what plans his Department has to extend the range of benefit sanction data available by addressing gaps in information on repeat sanctions and hardship payments alongside the development of sanction data from the universal credit system.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The sanctions publication strategy which details the approach being taken by DWP statisticians to improve the sanctions statistics being developed, which include the addition of Universal Credit sanction statistics, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-sanction-statistics-publication-strategy
The latest release of sanction statistics within the Quarterly Statistical Summary: August 2016 includes an experimental monthly rate of claimants sanctioned and can be found (on page12) at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-statistical-summaries-2016
The related background information to support this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-rate-of-claimants-sanctioned-background-information-and-methodology
Management Information data on the number of applications and awards for hardship payments were published on 18th November 2015 and can be found at:
We will consider the regularity of future publications of hardship statistics alongside our routine prioritisation of our statistical work programme.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on claimants of the (a) seven waiting days at the beginning of a universal credit claim and (b) six week period a claimant must wait before receiving their initial payment.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Many claimants come to Universal Credit with final earnings to support them until their first payment, and they often find work quickly.
The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it mirrors the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.
As with other working age benefits, Universal Credit is not designed to provide cover for brief spells of unemployment or sickness, and seven waiting days are served in Universal Credit as they are in Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
We have a number of safeguards in place to help claimants' transition to Universal Credit, including Advances and Budgeting Support.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were affected by the recent server issue affecting the universal credit portal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobseeker's allowance and employment and support allowance hardship payments were (a) made and (b) applied for and declined in (i) Scotland and (ii) the UK, before review or appeal, between 1 July and 31 December 2015.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the applications and awards for hardship are provided below. The figures cover Great Britain; information regarding Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. It is not possible to provide figures for the number of applications declined before review or appeal.
JSA and ESA hardship awards between 1 July and 31 December 2015 | ||||
Benefit | Great Britain | Scotland | ||
JSA | 60,100 | 5,900 | ||
ESA | 1,500 | 200 | ||
JSA and ESA hardship applications between 1 July and 31 December 2015 | ||||
Benefit | Great Britain | Scotland | ||
JSA | 67,600 | 6,400 | ||
ESA | 1,700 | 200 | ||
(1) The tables show the total number of JSA and ESA hardship applications received and the number of awards made in the period from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015. These figures show applications and awards rather than the number of individuals; individuals may have made more than one application and received more than one award.
(2) The numbers are collated from aggregate DWP MISP Management Information. This data is a combination of system and clerically sourced Management Information. As such it may contain duplicates and other inaccuracies. It does not form part of the official statistics outputs that are released by the Department in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice, and is subject to potential future revision.
(3) The difference between applications and awards will include those not progressed for a number of reasons, for instance applications that are refused or withdrawn.
(4) Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to include proposals relating to personal independence payments in his Department's Green Paper on the disability employment gap.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Later this year, we will produce a Green Paper and conduct a consultation on a wide range of issues.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, entitled Voices of the hungry, published in April 2016, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) initiate regular annual monitoring of adult and child food insecurity in the UK and (b) determine a precise estimate on which to base action to reduce food poverty.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Food insecurity is a global problem which the United Nations (UN) agreed to confront at the World Food Summit in 1996 and has framed subsequent sustainable development goals. Getting accurate and informative data was the motivation for the ‘Voices of the Hungry’ project. This project has established an annual universal metric to measure lack of access to food and the severity of this in over 150 countries, and help inform UN policy. The Department for International Development has provided financial support to enable the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to take this forward.
The United Kingdom is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the data the FAO commissions and manages. There are therefore no plans for the Department of Health to independently monitor food insecurity going forward, or determine a precise estimate on which to base action to reduce food poverty.
The Government is committed to tackling childhood obesity and launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action on 18 August. A copy of the plan is attached and is also available at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546588/Childhood_obesity_2016__2__acc.pdf
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, entitled Voices of the hungry, published in April 2016, whether tackling dietary inequality will be a focus of the forthcoming childhood obesity strategy.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Food insecurity is a global problem which the United Nations (UN) agreed to confront at the World Food Summit in 1996 and has framed subsequent sustainable development goals. Getting accurate and informative data was the motivation for the ‘Voices of the Hungry’ project. This project has established an annual universal metric to measure lack of access to food and the severity of this in over 150 countries, and help inform UN policy. The Department for International Development has provided financial support to enable the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to take this forward.
The United Kingdom is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the data the FAO commissions and manages. There are therefore no plans for the Department of Health to independently monitor food insecurity going forward, or determine a precise estimate on which to base action to reduce food poverty.
The Government is committed to tackling childhood obesity and launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action on 18 August. A copy of the plan is attached and is also available at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546588/Childhood_obesity_2016__2__acc.pdf
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides on the minimum number of days between benefit payments for a person ending an employment and support allowance claim and beginning a jobseeker's allowance claim; and what the average time between such benefit payments was in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not specifically hold data in relation to claimants who transition from ESA to JSA and the time taken to award JSA following the closure of an ESA claim. As a department we strive to process all new claims made to JSA as quickly and efficiently as possible with a minimum expected level of 90% processed within 10 days. We are currently achieving 90.7% as of July 2016.