Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many EU citizens holding (a) settled status and (b) pre-settled status have had their applications for universal credfit refused since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department holds digital pension records for all pensioners.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The number of people claiming State Pension was 12.6 million at August 2019 with an estimated spend on State Pensions for 2018/19, at around £97 billion.
References: DWP benefits expenditure and caseload tables publication, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2019 and the August 2019 Statistical Enquiry, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-benefits-statistics-february-2020/dwp-benefits-statistical-summary-february-2020#pensions
The DWP holds the digital information necessary to support the payment and administration of State Pensions.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an EU national granted settled status in the UK is classified as having a right to be habitually resident for the purposes of applying for (a) universal credit and (b) other benefits.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) benefits, such as Universal Credit, depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim. This is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT).
EU nationals who have been granted settled status (indefinite leave to remain) by the Home Office will satisfy the legal right to reside element of the HRT. All claimants, regardless of nationality, must also demonstrate that they are factually habitually resident in the UK in order to be eligible to claim UC. In general, a period of 3 months residence is sufficient to meet this requirement.
For certain non-contributory benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment, an individual must also satisfy the Past Presence Test (PPT), which requires them to have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the previous 156 weeks.
Information on the nationality of those refused Universal Credit within the last 12 months is still being analysed, not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many EU nationals have been refused universal credit in the last 12 months on the grounds that they have not demonstrated a right to be habitually resident.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Eligibility for income-related (means-tested) benefits, such as Universal Credit, depends on a person’s immigration status in the UK. Claimants must be exercising a legal right to reside and be habitually resident before they are eligible to claim. This is assessed through the Habitual Residence Test (HRT).
EU nationals who have been granted settled status (indefinite leave to remain) by the Home Office will satisfy the legal right to reside element of the HRT. All claimants, regardless of nationality, must also demonstrate that they are factually habitually resident in the UK in order to be eligible to claim UC. In general, a period of 3 months residence is sufficient to meet this requirement.
For certain non-contributory benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment, an individual must also satisfy the Past Presence Test (PPT), which requires them to have been present in Great Britain for 104 weeks out of the previous 156 weeks.
Information on the nationality of those refused Universal Credit within the last 12 months is still being analysed, not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints she has received on the recent universal credit campaign in the Metro newspaper; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Sharma
We are the biggest Government Department with a day to day operation on which around 22 million citizens depend. We have a responsibility to advertise Universal Credit and have been doing so for some time. This helps ensure people understand the benefits they may be entitled to and that they have the information they need when it comes to making a claim.
The Department has a responsibility to ensure claimants do not miss out on their full entitlements and to encourage people to make their claim as quickly as possible.
To identify complaint cases concerning the Universal Credit campaign in the Metro newspaper would require every complaint case to be examined. So, this data could only be collated at a disproportionate cost to the Department.
In November 2018 Ministers agreed to the principle of national media partnerships. The specific Metro campaign was taken forward by Departmental officials. Ministers agreed the content of the launch products.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she consulted Ministers in her Department on the content of the recent universal credit campaign in the Metro.
Answered by Lord Sharma
We are the biggest Government Department with a day to day operation on which around 22 million citizens depend. We have a responsibility to advertise Universal Credit and have been doing so for some time. This helps ensure people understand the benefits they may be entitled to and that they have the information they need when it comes to making a claim.
The Department has a responsibility to ensure claimants do not miss out on their full entitlements and to encourage people to make their claim as quickly as possible.
To identify complaint cases concerning the Universal Credit campaign in the Metro newspaper would require every complaint case to be examined. So, this data could only be collated at a disproportionate cost to the Department.
In November 2018 Ministers agreed to the principle of national media partnerships. The specific Metro campaign was taken forward by Departmental officials. Ministers agreed the content of the launch products.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how frequently her Department re-assesses entitlement to personal independence payments (PIP) mobility element in cases where the individual has previously won their appeal against refusal to award PIP mobility element.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Reviews are a key part of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and ensure that not only do awards remain correct where needs may change but that we also maintain contact with the claimant.
A PIP award, which can be paid at one of eight rates, will be reviewed periodically. Importantly, the length of an award is based on an individual’s circumstances and can vary from nine months to an ongoing award, with a light touch review at the ten-year point.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her policy is on having defibrillators available in all her Department's premises.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Following the Estates contract changes in April 2018, DWP reviewed its policy on defibrillators. As a result of that review, a Defibrillator will be installed in each DWP site. The rollout programme is planned to commence in February.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sanctions were imposed on benefit claimants in Leeds by her Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The available information on the number of benefit sanction decisions by local authority is regularly published and can be found 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
We engage at a personal and individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring the support that we give, and any conditionality requirements to the specific circumstances of the individuals.
We take a number of steps to make sure our decisions are fair. 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 cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.