Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department spent on in-work benefits in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no DWP benefits remaining that are solely payable to claimants in-work. Many allow for some element of earnings to be combined with benefit receipt, and the level of this spend on working as opposed to non-working claimants varies across different benefits.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pension credit cases have not been cleared within 50 days since September 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The most recent information on processing times for Pension Credit was published in the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (ARA) on 22nd July 2024. This shows that in 2023/24 DWP cleared 192,000 Pension Credit claims within the planned 50 working day timescale, equating to 77.7%. The next publication of the ARA will include claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, which is due for publication in the summer.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit applications made before 21 December 2024 are waiting to be resolved.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
61,866 claims made before 22nd December remained outstanding as of 19 January 2025. This includes 6,712 advanced claims. Advanced claims are where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age.
Please note, the data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of disability benefits in (a) 2025 and (b) 2026.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Forecast expenditure on Disability benefits are only available by financial year, in 2025/26 they’re forecast to be £43.8 billion, and £46.4 billion in 2026-27. (Figures quoted in real terms based on 2024/25 prices).
Disability benefits expenditure covers Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, and Attendance Allowance. Full details of this expenditure can be found in the published Outturn and Forecast Tables.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Paul Maynard
We do not routinely publish this data, as has been the case under successive administrations. All Business Units within the DWP Department have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money.
Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average time it takes his Department to respond to enquiries about Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has experienced unprecedented levels of new claims from customers in recent months and, as a result, we have seen increased call traffic.
We are currently in the process of recruiting additional resource into telephony, so that we can increase the number of calls answered and reduce current wait times.
The average speed of answer (ASA) for May was 40 minutes and 43 seconds - however, this may vary at different times of the day.
The average speed of answer (ASA) figures relate to the enquiries line only and does not impact customers being able to make new claims or raise a dispute.
Additional information:
ASA from January 2023 – May 2023 is as follows:
Jan | Feb | March | April | May | |
Average Speed of Answer (ASA) | 00:25:14 | 00:34:50 | 00:40:22 | 00:43:59 | 00:40:43 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department's planned increase to state pension will affect means-tested benefits, including housing benefit.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve. The State Pension is the foundation of support for older people. Subject to Parliamentary approval, State Pensions will increase by 10.1% from April 2023 in line with the Consumer Prices Index increase for the year to September 2022.
Housing Benefit is an income-related benefit which is intended to assist people who need help to pay their rent. Pension Credit is the other main income-related benefit received by pensioners. It is intended to help poorer pensioners with their day to day living costs. This year we are taking action to increase Pension Credit rates by 10.1%, in line with CPI, from April 2023. The personal allowances in Housing Benefit will also be increased by 10.1% from April.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
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| £'s | ||
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| Ministers | Civil Servants | Total |
First Class Rail Travel | 2020 | 199.37 | 1,515.98 | 1,715.35 |
2021 | - | 910.10 | 910.10 | |
2022 | - | 1,330.35 | 1,330.35 | |
Total | 199.37 | 3,756.43 | 3,955.80 | |
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Source: QS Travel App and ABM FTE App. |
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Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when changes to the eligibility criteria for Bereavement Support Payments for cohabiting couples will take effect.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
On 11 October 2022, we laid the draft Bereavement Benefits (Remedial) Order 2022 to extend Widows Parent’s Allowance and Bereavement Support Payment to cohabitees with dependent children. It will lay in Parliament for a 60-day period. The draft Order will be debated, and voted upon, in both Houses of Parliament before the Order can become law. You can find more information in the proposed draft Order and Explanatory Memorandum, which can be accessed on GOV.UK. We cannot at this stage say when the Order will become law and people will be eligible to claim, that will depend on the Parliamentary process.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Julie Marson
(a) Agency workers (more commonly referred to as “Contingent Labour” or “Temporary Workers”) are subject to a Cabinet Office controls framework to ensure robust governance of spending in this area. Contingent Labour Spend Control - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Commentary on Contingent Labour usage, if applicable, is available in departmental annual reports. Annual Reports and Accounts for Central Government Departments - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Crown Commercial Service provides two frameworks specifically for the supply of Contingent Labour which are used by central government departments. These are:
RM3749 - Public Sector Resourcing.
Public Sector Resourcing - CCS (crowncommercial.gov.uk) - This provides a managed service for departmental use including low supplier margins, regular pay rate benchmarking, comprehensive tracking and reporting of contingent labour assignments, full time sheeting and approvals technology and onboarding, contracting and payroll services.
RM6160 - Non Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff.
Non Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff - CCS (crowncommercial.gov.uk) - This provides access to a range of generalist, specialist and niche contingent labour agencies offering a wide range of suppliers, maximum margins, free transfer to permanent after 12 weeks and onboarding, contracting and payroll services.
Use of these frameworks provides robust governance, visibility, value for money and flexibility in meeting departmental contingent labour needs.
(b) We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service, this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post.