Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant of the Answer of 18 December 2018 to Question 202142 on Universal Credit: Overpayments, when her Department plans to provide the full answer to that question.
Answered by Lord Sharma
I replied to the hon. Member’s Question on 5 February 2019.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims have been incorrectly calculated resulting in an overpayment.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Our internal data from the last full financial year, 2017/18, shows that around 6%* of the individuals that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18, were overpaid and were referred to Debt Management for the recovery of these overpayments. This figure includes fraud, claimant error and official error overpayments.
* The percentage figure has been calculated by dividing the number of Universal Credit claimants who were overpaid and referred to Debt Management for the recovery of an overpayment, by the number of individual claimants that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18. Not all of the claimants would have been in payment.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people received a benefit sanction in December 2017.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The available information on the number of individuals sanctioned by benefit (which can also be broken down by geographic area such as constituency or local authority) is published and can be accessed at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to pause all benefits sanctions over the Christmas and new year period from 21 December 2018 to 5 of January 2019.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
We have not paused sanctions nationwide during the Christmas and New Year period since 2010 and there are no plans to pause sanctions in the upcoming period. This is consistent with the approach taken prior to 2010.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps have been taken to pause benefits sanctions over the Christmas and New Year period since 2010.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
We have not paused sanctions nationwide during the Christmas and New Year period since 2010 and there are no plans to pause sanctions in the upcoming period. This is consistent with the approach taken prior to 2010.