Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Pension Credit applications her Department received in each region in each of the last three months for which data is available.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We confirm that we do not hold the information you have requested as our systems do not breakdown Pension Credit applications by region.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
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 for Pension Credit were (a) initially turned down and (b) successful on appeal in each region in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information requested on the proportion of Pension Credit claims which are initially turned down but are subsequently overturned at Tribunal is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Information on appeals in the First-tier Tribunal, including Pension Credit appeals, is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
Specifically, information on the number of appeal receipts, disposals and outcomes of Pension Credit appeals can be found in the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) tables: SSCS_1, SSCS_2 and SSCS_3 of the Main Tables.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average Pension Credit processing time is (a) per month in the latest three-month period for which data is available and (b) in each region.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Average actual clearance times are shown in the table below from 3 June 2024. Please note, the information is not available monthly.
The table below shows the average (in working days) for each week.
Source | RS PBi App / PC Claims AACT |
03/06/24 | 45 |
10/06/24 | 44 |
17/06/24 | 43 |
24/06/24 | 44 |
01/07/24 | 44 |
08/07/24 | 45 |
15/07/24 | 48 |
22/07/24 | 44 |
29/07/24 | 45 |
05/08/24 | 40 |
12/08/24 | 39 |
19/08/24 | 36 |
26/08/24 | 31 |
02/09/24 | 29 |
09/09/24 | 30 |
16/09/24 | 28 |
23/09/24 | 26 |
30/09/24 | 34 |
07/10/24 | 39 |
Please note, the data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
The information requested is not collected at regional level and to calculate it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department's review of Universal Credit will include the income threshold used to determine eligibility for (a) free school meals and (b) the NHS Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Eligibility criteria, including earnings thresholds for passported benefits including Free School Meals and Healthy Start payments are owned by Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social care respectively.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to launch her Department's review of Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit, to make sure it is doing the job we want it to. We will set out the details of this in due course.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many referrals were made by Jobcentre Plus to employment support programmes that are (a) centrally contracted and (b) not centrally contracted by her Department to (i) voluntary and community sector providers, (ii) private sector providers, (iii) regional/local government providers and (iv) other in the last year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The referral statistics for the centrally contacted employment support programmes are available on GOV.UK.
Restart Scheme statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Work and Health Programme statistics to May 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Statistics on Intensive Personalised Employment Support are planned for future publication and will be formally released, adhering to the Official Statistics guidance.
The information requested for employment support programmes not centrally contracted is not collated and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of incapacity benefit claimants receiving (a) Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity element and (b) Employment and Support Allowance are parents of dependent children.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
a) For UC, the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) and Disabled Child Entitlement breakdowns are currently temporarily unavailable on Stat-Xplore as part of the Households on Universal Credit dataset. Work is being carried out to resolve the issues and both affected measures are expected to be available in the next scheduled statistical release on 12 November 2024.
Once re-instated it should be possible to produce the number of households receiving the LCWRA element by Family Type.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required. A user guide to the Universal Credit Official Statistics on Stat-Xplore is also available.
b) The table below shows the latest available number of claimants with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in payment who receive Child Benefit. The data is from February 2023.
| ESA Claimants | Percentage of total ESA Caseload |
Receives Child Benefit | 158,028 | 9.7 |
To note:
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the two-child limit in Universal Credit applies to households caring for an additional child under a special guardianship order.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Since 6 April 2017, families can claim support for up to two children, and there may be further entitlement for other children if they were born before April 2017 or if an exception applies. One of these exceptions is any child in a household who is living long-term with friends or family who would otherwise be at risk of entering the care system, which includes a child being cared for under a Special Guardianship Order.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to recruit Covert Surveillance Officers to gather evidence to prove or disprove offences relating to benefits claims.
Answered by Paul Maynard
DWP is recruiting Covert Surveillance Officers.
The Department’s Counter Fraud, Compliance & Debt directorate (CFCD) undertakes directed surveillance as part of the criminal investigation process.
All surveillance activity is applied for under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 and is conducted in line with the surveillance Code of Practice. It is undertaken only where necessary and proportionate to the alleged offence.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average decision wait time was for new Personal Independence Payment applications over the last year; and how many applications were awaiting a decision on 25 April 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The average decision wait times for new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applications can be found in the latest published release: “Personal Independence Payment statistics to January 2023”. Particularly, table 1A shows PIP average actual clearance times (median number of weeks) for normal rules, new claims in England and Wales.
Notes:
The number of PIP applicants awaiting a decision has been interpreted as those who had registered a claim, but which had not been cleared. This includes some who may eventually be disallowed pre-assessment, those awaiting an assessment, and those awaiting a decision following an assessment. On 31 January 2023 this stood at 207,000 claims.
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS).
Notes: