Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to help ensure that there are adequate (a) parking facilities and (b) public transport connections for staff working in her Department's offices in Merthyr Tydfil when that office is moved to the hub north of Cardiff.
Answered by Will Quince
We plan to move the back of house staff based in Merthyr Tydfil Ty Bethesda into the new office in Treforest between 2021 and 2023.
Building work on the new Treforest site began in January 2019 and the building is currently on track and due for completion in the last quarter of 2020. There are plans for 444 car parking spaces, along with space for motorcycle and cycle storage at this site.
The development of the South Wales Metro continues and discussions are ongoing between DWP and Transport for Wales around the relocation of Trefforest Estate station closer to the new office.
Before any moves take place, staff will have the opportunity for a formal one-to-one discussion with their line managers about how the move will impact them. This helps to assess any travel impacts of the change of location. We anticipate that these formal discussions will take place approximately nine months in advance of any moves.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to carry out an impact assessment of the effect on (a) staff and (b) customers of the proposed move of staff from Merthyr Tydfil to a new hub north of Cardiff.
Answered by Will Quince
We plan to move the staff based in Merthyr Tydfil Ty Bethesda into Treforest between 2021 and 2023.
Before any moves take place, staff will have the opportunity for a formal one-to-one discussion with their line managers about how the move will impact them. This helps to assess any equality impacts of the change of location.
We anticipate that these formal discussions will take place approximately nine months in advance of any moves.
Merthyr Tydfil Ty Bethesda is a processing site with no direct face-to-face customer interaction and an impact assessment on the effect on customers as a result of the move is not required.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will provide an update on plans to relocate jobs in her Department from Merthyr Tydfil to a new hub north of Cardiff.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2017 we announced plans to create a new hub in Treforest, north of Cardiff.
Building work on the new hub began in January 2019 and the 133,000 sq ft Treforest building is currently on track and due for completion in the last quarter of 2020.
We plan to move staff based in Merthyr Tydfil Ty Bethesda into Treforest between 2021 and 2023.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
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 the potential effect on the economy of Merthyr Tydfil town centre of the proposal to move 250 jobs in her Department from Merthyr Tydfil to a new hub north of Cardiff.
Answered by Will Quince
As a large employer, the Department understands the potential impact that a closure or relocation of an office may have. However, the economic impact of employment is dispersed beyond the specific location of a workplace because people also spend their money where they live.
Where the Department does move staff to a new place of work, it is unlikely that a significant proportion of them would also move their place of residence and so will still continue to contribute to the economy of their home base.
Additionally, as Merthyr Tydfil Ty Bethesda is a leased building the landlord may offer the premises to a new tenant.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the average time between mandatory reconsideration and appeal for personal independence payment claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to Question 234691.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
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 the number of payments of universal credit paid to claimants on time and correct at (a) first assessment and (b) second assessment; what the average amount of time taken has been to resolve such payments; and what the longest outstanding claim has been by number of weeks before it was resolved in (i) Merthyr Tydfil, (ii) South Wales and (iii) the UK.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit Full Service rolled out in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney on 27 June 2018. For new claims to Universal Credit Full Service in ‘Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency’, that were due a first payment in August 2018, our internal data shows that 85% were paid in full on time and 92% were paid in part on time. The information requested for data on payment timeliness for second assessment period payments is not held as the sample size is not sufficient to provide a robust measure of payment timeliness for these claims.
The information requested for data on payment timeliness details for South Wales is not held.
Our most recent payment timeliness statistics for claims in Great Britain have been published on gov.uk and can be accessed at:
This shows that for Great Britain, for first Assessment Periods where the payment was due in August 18: 84% were paid in full on time, and 89% paid in part on time. Our internal data shows for second Assessment Periods where the payment was due in August 18: 92% were paid in full on time and 96% paid in part on time.
Social Security is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and the delivery of Universal Credit in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Communities, part of the Northern Ireland Executive.
To provide analysis of the longest wait for payment would incur disproportionate cost as the information is not readily available.
In many cases where full payment is not made on time, it is due to unresolved issues such as: claimants not accepting their Claimant Commitment or passing identity checks, or having outstanding verification issues, such as housing costs and self-employed earnings. In order to support claimants to claim, we have taken steps to improve verification processes. For example, we have listened to feedback and built processes into the system to make it easier and quicker for people to verify their housing costs, for example through the landlord portal.
For anyone waiting for their first Universal Credit payment, advances are available, so no one should be left without means of support.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
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 (a) universal credit claimants, (b) new universal credit claimants and (c) benefit suspensions in (i) Merthy Tydfil, (ii) South Wales and (iii) the UK in each month since 1 April 2018.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Monthly official experimental statistics on the number of people on Universal Credit, starts and claims, are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics
Further breakdowns of claims by country, parliamentary constituency and local authority and also a breakdown of starts by postcode, since April 2018 are available on Stat Xplore at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Quarterly official statistics Universal Credit decisions are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions
Further breakdowns of sanction decisions by country, parliamentary constituency and local authority since April 2018 are available on Stat-Xplore at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit claimants have been migrated to universal credit since June 2018 in (a) the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council area and (b) the South Wales Region; and what percentage of benefit claimants have been migrated to universal credit since June 2018 in (i) the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council area and (ii) the South Wales Region.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We are not, currently, migrating any claimants from legacy benefits to Universal Credit. Claimants only move from existing benefits to Universal Credit through natural migration when they experience a significant change in their circumstances that triggers a new claim to benefit
We do not hold data on the number of claimants that have naturally migrated to Universal Credit.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of employment and support allowance claims were overturned at the mandatory reconsideration stage between (a) January and December 2016 and (b) January and June 2017.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested for Employment and Support Allowance claims is shown in the table below:
National level | 1st January 16 to 31st December 16 | 1st January 17 to 30th June 17 |
% Overturned at Mandatory Reconsideration | 9.9% | 12.3% |
Source:
Decision Making and Appeals Case Recorder (DMACR).
The above data source is a Departmental performance management, data capture and reporting tool. This type of internal management information 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.
Asked by: Gerald Jones (Labour - Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect on the local economy of towns such as Merthyr Tydfil as a result of the proposed relocation of his Department's offices.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As a large employer, DWP understands the potential impact that a closure or relocation of an office may have. This is why we carefully considered the wider impacts on local communities, like Merthyr Tydfil, as part of the review of our estate.
It is important to remember that the economic impact of employment is dispersed beyond the specific location of a workplace and staff currently based at Merthyr Tidfil already live in the broader area around the site. While we expect the majority of these staff to be relocated to a new place of work, it is unlikely that a significant proportion of them will also move their place of residence.