Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Health and Disability White Paper, CP 807, published on 15 March 2023, whether receipt of a nil award of Universal Credit due to being paid twice in a month would remove entitlement to the Health Element of Universal Credit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are committed to reforming the system to better support people with health conditions overcome the barriers that prevent them from working. We are also committed to making work pay, and incentivising people to seek and stay in work.
The new health element will be awarded to people who are receiving the UC Standard Allowance and any PIP element. Entitlement to the new UC health element will only end when the functional impact of a person’s health condition improves and they are no longer eligible for PIP, or as people earn more money and their UC is tapered away, which ensures that they are financially better off in work.
As we develop our reform proposals, we will consider how some interactions with the UC system will be reflected in the reformed system. This will be carefully worked through and reported on before we introduce legislation in the next parliament.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many of working disabled people in receipt of Employment Support Allowance will be worse off as a result of managed migration to Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As set out in Completing the move to Universal Credit - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), Policy paper, we committed to providing transitional financial protection for those who are moved onto Universal Credit through the managed migration process.
This means those eligible households with a lower calculated award in UC than their legacy benefits awards will see no difference in their entitlement at the point they are moved to UC, provided there is no change in their circumstances during the migration process.
We are also providing additional protection for those who had a change in circumstance and have been receiving Severe Disability Premium.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish the review of the Benefit Cap carried out under S96A of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State’s decision was set out in both the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022 and the Written Ministerial Statement following a statutory review of the benefit cap levels.
Following the review, affirmative regulations are required to amend the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and consequential amendments made to the Housing Benefit Regulations and the Universal Credit Regulations. The changes are grouped together in a single statutory instrument, which was laid before Parliament and is currently undergoing Parliamentary approval.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments of Universal Credit have been attributed to Official Error in each of the last three years; and what the total value of those overpayments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not hold data on actual Universal Credit (UC) overpayments as requested, as there is no requirement to categorise UC debt because it is all recoverable in law.
However, our national statistics on Fraud and Error in the benefit system provide information on the estimated value of UC Official Error, both as a percentage of benefit expenditure and by value.
For UC the figures show that UC Official Error loss has fallen from 1.3% (£250m) in 2019/20, to 0.9% (£330m) in 2020/21, to 0.7% (£270m) in 2021/22.
The statistics do not cover the number of overpayments made across the year but indicate how many cases were estimated to have an overpayment of this type, at a point in time. In 2019/20 the figure stood at 4.1%; in 2021/22 it was 2.6%.
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact DWP to discuss their repayment plan.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many cases where the claimant had previously been advised no overpayment had occurred a Universal Credit overpayment attributed to Official Error has been identified in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not hold data on actual Universal Credit (UC) overpayments as requested, as there is no requirement to categorise UC debt because it is all recoverable in law.
However, our national statistics on Fraud and Error in the benefit system provide information on the estimated value of UC Official Error, both as a percentage of benefit expenditure and by value.
For UC the figures show that UC Official Error loss has fallen from 1.3% (£250m) in 2019/20, to 0.9% (£330m) in 2020/21, to 0.7% (£270m) in 2021/22.
The statistics do not cover the number of overpayments made across the year but indicate how many cases were estimated to have an overpayment of this type, at a point in time. In 2019/20 the figure stood at 4.1%; in 2021/22 it was 2.6%.
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact DWP to discuss their repayment plan.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of overpayments within Universal Credit attributed to Official Error recovered In each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not hold data on actual Universal Credit (UC) overpayments as requested, as there is no requirement to categorise UC debt because it is all recoverable in law.
However, our national statistics on Fraud and Error in the benefit system provide information on the estimated value of UC Official Error, both as a percentage of benefit expenditure and by value.
For UC the figures show that UC Official Error loss has fallen from 1.3% (£250m) in 2019/20, to 0.9% (£330m) in 2020/21, to 0.7% (£270m) in 2021/22.
The statistics do not cover the number of overpayments made across the year but indicate how many cases were estimated to have an overpayment of this type, at a point in time. In 2019/20 the figure stood at 4.1%; in 2021/22 it was 2.6%.
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact DWP to discuss their repayment plan.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people claiming Employment Support Allowance have permitted earnings; and how many and what proportion of those people are also in receipt of (a) working tax credit and (b) child tax credit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In May 2022, there were 120,610 claimants on ESA in permitted work, which is 7.2% of all ESA claimants.
Of these, there were: 700 (0.6%) with Working Tax Credits; 5,420 (4.5%) with Child Tax Credits; and 1,810 (1.5%) with both.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding was allocated to his Department’s Excellence Plan to improve customer service performance in the (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
£NIL funding was allocated to the Excellence Plan in the years 2021-22 & 2022-33. The Excellence Plan was one year funded only for 2020-21, and the Plan closed in 2020-21. Because of COVID interruption to DWP business, some initiatives from the Plan were subsumed into DWP operational work in later years, however they became contained within normal operational budgets, so did not represent ‘extra funds’.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on delivering its Excellence Plan since its introduction; what work his Department has undertaken to deliver that plan; and what outcomes have been achieved to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2019 the Department made a bid, through the Spending Review process, for additional funding in the financial year 20/21 to implement the Excellence Plan. This funding was to improve support for vulnerable customers and their interactions with the Department.
In March 2020, prior to the beginning of the 20/21 financial year, and like many other organisations, we had to reprioritise our operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the following work has been undertaken in the time since.
We have introduced more than 30 Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs) who have now been appointed across Great Britain.
The Department has also created central teams in the Customer Experience Directorate to focus on strategically supporting our most vulnerable customers.
In August 2020 the Internal Process Review Group was established to increase oversight of Internal Process Reviews at a more senior level.
The Serious Case Panel was set up in late 2019 to consider systemic themes and issues that have arisen from serious cases.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report entitled Independent Case Examiner for the Department for Work and Pensions: annual report 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, published on 16 December 2022, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which there was an increase in the number of complaints accepted for examination received by the Independent Case Examiner in 2021-22.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The ICE report is retrospective and many of the cases referenced date back to the pandemic or even earlier, this was a challenging time for DWP and we expect volumes to decrease now the service has stabilised. We continue to value ICE and we learn from the cases, helping us to put things right.
The report reflects the experience of a small proportion of DWP customers as the vast majority of complaints are handled by DWP, with only a small proportion escalating to the Independent Case Examiner who provide an independent avenue for customers.
Overall complaints to DWP remain significantly lower than pre-pandemic. Complaints equate to less than 1% of the department’s caseload.