Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
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 potential merits of ensuring that the annual Christmas bonus to recipients of benefits is increased in line with inflation.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Christmas Bonus is an annual, tax-free, lump sum payment to pensioners and to working age people who are in receipt of certain qualifying benefits during the relevant week which is usually the first full week in December.
The bonus was initially introduced as a one-off payment of £10 in 1972 and has not been uprated or increased on a yearly basis. The Government remains committed to providing support to pensioners and others who receive the payments and has no current plans to revise the arrangements.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
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 potential merits of increasing the level of cold weather payments to reflect the increase in energy prices.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The current Cold Weather Payment scheme represents a contribution towards additional heating costs, paid at the time of need.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. In 2022-23, the government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy price would have been under the current price cap – reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the details of recipients of Carers Allowance in Carmarthenshire has been (a) requested by or (b) supplied to Carmarthenshire County Council.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As far as I am aware, no such request has been made.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to protect pension rights accrued prior to the 1995 Pensions Act from the effects of inflation.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Pensions Act 1995 required all defined benefit pension rights accrued from April 1997 to be indexed once the pension is in payment. This provides members with a measure of protection against inflation on the pensions rights they accrue after this date.
Before 1997, only contracted out pension rights, which replace the additional State Pension, were required to be indexed. However, many pension schemes voluntarily provided indexation on pensions accrued before 1997. If scheme rules provide for increases on pensions in payment earned before April 1997, those increases must continue to be paid.
Pensions legislation does not usually apply new provisions retrospectively to rights that have already been accrued. It is generally seen to be unreasonable to add liabilities to pension schemes that could not have been taken into account in the funding assumptions that determined the contributions to be paid at the time.
There are no current plans to change these arrangements.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has received a request from the Welsh Government for details of people living in Wales who receive Carers Allowance.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As far as I am aware, no such request has been made.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's policy is on keeping records for applications for benefits and making them available to those seeking to challenge claims by the Department for overpayments.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
DWP’s retention policy is detailed within the DWP Information Management Policy and details on how a customer can access their records are detailed within the DWP Personal Information Charter. Both of these documents are publicly available on the GOV.UK website and can be found in the following links;
DWP information management policy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Personal information charter - Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans for the Welsh language telephone service to be fully functioning.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions has a made a commitment in our Welsh Language Scheme to treat the Welsh and English languages equally and ensure that all services provided for the public in Wales are available in Welsh, as well as English.
All DWP customers are able to access telephony services in Welsh either directly through a dedicated Welsh language helpline or by selecting the required Interactive Voice Response option. Callers to Carer’s Allowance (CA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) helplines who wish to speak to someone in Welsh currently receive a call-back from a Welsh speaker. A Welsh language option will be implemented on these telephone helplines in October 2022.
All our service line telephone numbers are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases relating to Universal Credit have taken place each year for the last five years; and how much those cases cost her Department.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Information on appeal tribunal volumes in relation to Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases (SSCS) is available on - Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – Main Tables, SSCS_3.
The only DWP staff who attend actual Tribunals are Presenting Officers.
The information for the financial years covered by the request for all SSCS tribunals are detailed in the tables below:
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
£7.93m | £7.16m | £6.47m | £1.45m | £5.77m |
The information for the financial years covered by the request for Universal Credit are detailed in the tables below:
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| £0.08m | £0.19m | £0.15m | £0.72m |
Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m
Data Source: ABM
The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff.
Costs provided are for Presenting Officers only and excludes Admin Support or Decision Making operational staff dealing with the Appeals processing work.
Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.
The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost.
Presenting Officer costs are not held for 2017/18 following the introduction of the UC benefit. 2020/21 figures impacted by COVID.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases have taken place each year for the last five years; and how much those cases cost her Department.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Information on appeal tribunal volumes in relation to Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases (SSCS) is available on - Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – Main Tables, SSCS_3.
The only DWP staff who attend actual Tribunals are Presenting Officers.
The information for the financial years covered by the request for all SSCS tribunals are detailed in the tables below:
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
£7.93m | £7.16m | £6.47m | £1.45m | £5.77m |
The information for the financial years covered by the request for Universal Credit are detailed in the tables below:
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| £0.08m | £0.19m | £0.15m | £0.72m |
Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m
Data Source: ABM
The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff.
Costs provided are for Presenting Officers only and excludes Admin Support or Decision Making operational staff dealing with the Appeals processing work.
Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.
The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost.
Presenting Officer costs are not held for 2017/18 following the introduction of the UC benefit. 2020/21 figures impacted by COVID.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of making carer's allowance available to carers in receipt of a state pension; if she will estimate the cost to her Department of continuing to pay carer’s allowance to those carers in receipt of a state pension; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave on 20 April 2022 to question UIN 154461.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-04-14/154461