Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Pension Credit have been (a) received and (b) approved in (i) North West Norfolk constituency and (ii) the UK since 29 July 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information requested regarding the number of Pension Credit applications is not readily available below national level and to provide it at constituency level would incur disproportionate cost.
Year to date figures for weekly Pension Credit claim volumes, received in the Department, were recently published in an ad hoc statistical release. They are available via Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 4(1)(a)(ii) of the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024, what estimate she has made of the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients that are members of a polygamous marriage.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No such estimate has been made as the requested information is not available.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in North West Norfolk constituency will be affected by the change in eligibility requirement for Winter Fuel Allowance.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
To be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payment statistics, the Pension Credit data that has been used is based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024.
It is estimated that around 21,700 pensioners in North West Norfolk constituency (2010 boundary) will be impacted by the decision to amend the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-xplore and the Winter Fuel Payment statistics for Winter 2022 to 2023 which are available via GOV.UK.
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in North West Norfolk constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in North West Norfolk constituency. This is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.
Please note that the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.
The published Pension Credit figures refer to households rather than individuals, so the number of individuals receiving Pension Credit will be higher. This means that the number of pensioners eligible for Winter Fuel Payment will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).
In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in North West Norfolk constituency (a) received winter fuel payments and (b) were eligible for (i) pension credit and (ii) other means tested benefits in 2023-4.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Annual statistics on the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients and households by local authority and by Westminster parliamentary constituency are made publicly available via GOV.UK. The latest release contains data on individual and household level statistics for winter 2022 to 2023. For Winter 2022 to 2023, 24,157 people received a Winter Fuel Payment in North West Norfolk constituency.
Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.
Other means-tested benefits available to pensioners to enable them to receive a Winter Fuel Payment are: Income Support, Jobseekers’ Allowance (income-based), Employment and Support Allowance (income-related), and Universal Credit. Take-up statistics for Universal Credit are not available. Since the introduction of Universal Credit, it is no longer possible to make a new claim to other legacy means-tested benefits. We are therefore unable to estimate the number of pensioners who are eligible to claim other means-tested benefits.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been moved into employment through the Way to Work scheme in (a) North West Norfolk, (b) Norfolk and (c) East Anglia.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We estimate that so far 14,940 unemployed Universal Credit claimants in the East Anglia Jobcentre Plus District have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign between 31 January and 19 June 2022.
This cumulative figure is composed of our into work measure to the end of May (13,480) and our internal management information up to 19 June (1,460). This figure includes claimants with a sanction in place that moved into work during the period of the campaign (800). Unlike the Way to Work data published in response to PQ 19742, this does not include movements into work from JSA claimants as they cannot be broken down to Jobcentre Plus District level. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
We are unable to provide data relating to the North West Norfolk parliamentary constituency, the Norfolk local authority area, or the East Anglia Office for National Statistics (ONS) regional area as to produce it would incur disproportionate cost.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency and timeliness.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who are entitled to pension credit in North West Norfolk constituency who are not in receipt of it.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit are only available at the Great Britain level.
The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020 and can be viewed here: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to increase the take up of carers' allowance by eligible people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
1 million carers were entitled to Carer’s Allowance in 2010/11. By 2025/26 we forecast that this will have increased to just over 1.5 million.
Information on Carer’s Allowance is widely available, including online through Gov.uk. Organisations supporting carers, and other stakeholders and partners, also make information available on carers benefits, including Carer’s Allowance.
Carer’s Allowance can be applied for online and since this option was made available in October 2013 over 1.5 million people have applied that way. Since April 2020, over 90% of Carer’s Allowance applications have been made online and over 90% of those customers have said they are happy with the online service.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish the conclusions of her Department's review of the special rules for terminally ill welfare claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Parliamentary Question 87602 on 9th September 2020.