Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution by the Leader of the House in Business Questions on 21 March 2024, what progress his Department has made on the case of Mr Anthony Rock.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I cannot comment on individual cases for data protection reasons. A response to your letter of 22 February 2023, was sent to you on 11 March 2023 advising you of the actions we were taking on your constituent’s claim.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
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 increasing the eligibility criteria of the bereavement support payment to include separated parents.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Bereavement Support Payment is available to those who are married, in a cohabiting relationship with dependent children, or in a civil partnership. Parents who are separated but still in a legal union may still access this benefit provided their deceased spouse or civil partner was not in a cohabiting relationship with dependent children on the date of death.
We currently have no plans to change the eligibility criteria for Bereavement Support Payment.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
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 impact of the change in the role of Minister for Disabled People from Minister of State to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on his Department's support for disabled people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to this question in the House on the 18th December, Hansard reference: Vol 742, Col 1107 found here.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims were subject to deductions in the most recent month for which data is available in Selby and Ainsty constituency.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In August 2023, 2,200 Universal Credit households in the Selby and Ainsty constituency had one or more deductions from their award.
Notes:
1. The number of claims for Selby and Ainsty are rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
3. Household level figures have been provided as deductions are applied at the household level.
4. Data for August 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
5. Unknown parliamentary constituency accounts for 0.4% of all UC households.
6. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to improve the accuracy of the information collected on parent finances by the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As a principal part of the service design the Department uses data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and its own benefits data to assess 91% of Paying Parents earned income and benefit status, which are key parts of the maintenance calculation. We also receive evidence of income directly from Universal Credit where a customer is in receipt of Universal Credit with earnings.
Primarily, calculations are based on historic income amounts from the latest available tax year, provided via interface by HMRC, where a complete tax year is available within the last 6 years. Where historic tax year information is unavailable, or a customer requests a supersession on the basis that PP income is 25% different from the historic amount, we have two routes based on the PP employment circumstances:
Where a paying parent receives unearned income which can be legally considered in assessing child maintenance either parent can request a variation to the normal maintenance calculation. Cases involving suspected misrepresentation or fraudulent behaviour can be investigated by the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is given.
Where a change to current income is applied, CMS will further verify this against HMRC evidence at Annual Review, and again at a Periodic Current Income Check (+11 months from change to Current Income) to re-verify the income evidence with RTI. This provides comprehensive assurance as it is independent of the Paying Parent and directly interfaces with HMRC, reducing the opportunity for misrepresentation or inaccuracies. We have increased the proportion of changes where we automatically interface with RTI, including changes instigated by Receiving Parents.
In October 2023, the Government announced intentions to introduce legislation so that unearned income can be taken into account automatically when the maintenance calculation is made to ensure a paying parent’s maintenance calculation reflects their ability to pay. We are currently engaging with stakeholders on how best to implement this.
The National Audit Office accuracy figures are published on their website and confirm CMS achieved better than 99% for the last 6 years (2016/17 to 2021/22) however, they are still auditing 2022/23 accuracy.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of including sarcoidosis in the list of prescribed industrial injuries for ex coal miners.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) provides non-contributory, “no-fault” benefit for disablement because of an accident at work or one of over 70 ‘prescribed’ diseases known to be a risk from certain jobs. The department is advised by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC), an independent scientific body, on changes to the list of occupational diseases for which IIDB can be paid. A disease can only be recommended for prescription by IIAC if:
a) the risk to workers in a certain occupation is substantially greater than the risk to the general population, and
b) the link between the disease and the occupation can be established or presumed with reasonable certainty.
The question of whether sarcoidosis should be added to the list of prescribed diseases for which IIDB can be paid will be referred to IIAC. If recommendations are made by IIAC on this matter, they will be carefully considered by the department.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of inflation on pensioners in (a) Selby and Ainsty constituency and (b) North Yorkshire.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help. Overall, we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of bills. This includes 8.7m pensioner households who received a £300 Cost of Living Payment last winter as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment. Pensioners will also receive a further £300 additional payment later this year in their Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for a Work Capability Assessment in Selby and Ainsty constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
DWP publishes Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) national processing times for initial claims on GOV.UK. We are currently unable to provide Universal Credit (UC) WCA processing statistics as these could only be provided at disproportionate cost.