Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many yearly applications have been made for personal independence payments which cite endometriosis as the reason for application in the last five years; and what proportion of those applications were successful.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In the PIP application process, claimants’ main disabling condition is only recorded for collation by the Department at assessment. It is not recorded at the point of application. The Department does not therefore hold data on the number of applicants to PIP with particular conditions. Only those who have a disability assessment determination decision will have a main disabling condition recorded for them.
In respect of the second part of your question, I would like to refer you to the detailed statistics for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) that can be found in Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
We collect data on the main disability condition for those who have had a PIP clearance. This includes those awarded and disallowed at assessment and can be broken down by disability. ‘Endometriosis’ is found under ‘Diseases of the ovary, uterus, cervix, vagina and vulva’ which is under the main disability group of ‘Genitourinary disease’
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many yearly applications have been made of universal credit which cite endometriosis as the reason for application in the last five years; and what proportion of those applications were successful.
Answered by Will Quince
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 capacity of Job Centre Plus to continue to provide services with (a) increased demand and (b) pressures on staff as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Between the 16th March and the end of April, we received over 1.8 million claims for Universal Credit. Overall, that is six times the volume that we would typically experience, and in one week we had a tenfold increase. DWP is standing up to this challenge and payment timeliness for Universal Credit remains high.
We have re-deployed around 10,000 staff to critical frontline services and made important changes to processes.
The Department is continually impacting and assessing the service being offered to customers and we continue to keep staff numbers under review as part of our response to the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market.
Throughout this period, we have collected insight from DWP colleagues on their experiences. We have also refreshed and developed a wide range of wellbeing resources to support our people and will continue to do so.
The Department is continually assessing the service being offered to customers and we continue to keep staff numbers under review as part of our response to the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market. We have already committed to increasing the number of Work Coaches and Case Managers and recruitment is already underway.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect on household incomes of the temporary change to the five-week wait for universal credit during the covid-19 outbreak; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of permanently removing the five-week wait for universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
There has not been a temporary change to the length of the Initial Assessment Period during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure are fundamental parts of the design. The assessment period runs for a full calendar month from the date of entitlement and the Universal Credit pay date will be within seven calendar days after the end of the initial assessment period. Subsequent pay dates will be the same each month. It is not possible to award a Universal Credit payment as soon as a claim is made, as the assessment period must run its course before the award of Universal Credit can be calculated.
No claimant in need of support has to wait 5 weeks for payment under Universal Credit. New Claim Advances of up to 100% of a claimant’s estimated award are available within a few days if claimants need support during their first assessment period.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits for disabled people of the temporary pause to (a) sanctions and (b) face-to-face assessments for disability benefits; and if she will publish a strategy outlining how her Department plans to build on the temporary changes during the covid-19 outbreak to make permanent improvements to the system.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
These pauses were brought in to safeguard the public and staff and because we recognised the need for our staff to focus on the processing of new claims.
We are currently reviewing these measures in light of the latest public health advice and will confirm next steps as soon as possible.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of whether uprating the legacy benefits received by people with disabilities in line with universal credit could remove the income disparities between different groups of disabled people.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
DWP has no plans to increase Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support. These benefits were increased by 1.7% in April 2020 as part of the annual up-rating exercise.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a breakdown of the number of universal credit claimants by employment sector background for each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority.
Answered by Will Quince
We do not systematically collect data on the employment sector background of UC claimants because this does not affect entitlement to UC.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 9 March 2020 to Question 24399, Prisons: Industrial Health and Safety, on how many occasions the Health and Safety Executive inspectors were denied full access to workplaces within prisons in the last (a) two, (b) five and (c) 10 years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
There have not been any occasions reported in the last two, five and ten years where Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspectors have been denied full access to workplaces within prisons.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions in the last (a) 12, (b) 24 and (c) 36 months Health and Safety Executive inspectors were denied full access to workplaces within prisons; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
There have not been any occasions in the last 12, 24 and 36 months where Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspectors have been denied full access to workplaces within prisons.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse was of providing free TV licences to people over the age of 75 for qualifying residents in (a) Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency, (b) Gwynedd local authority area and (c) Wales in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In the 2015 funding settlement, the Government agreed with the BBC that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the BBC in June 2020.
The government and the BBC agreed this is a fair deal for the BBC - in return we closed the iPlayer loophole and committed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation. And to help with financial planning, we agreed to provide phased transitional funding over 2 years to gradually introduce the cost to the BBC.
This reform was subject to public discussion and debated extensively during the passage of the Digital Economy Act 2017 through Parliament.
On 10 June 2019, the BBC announced that the current scheme will end. From 1 June 2020, a free TV licence will only be available to a household with someone aged over 75 who receives Pension Credit.
The table below provides estimates of the costs for 2017/18 of providing free TV licences to people aged 75 and over in the geographical areas requested, in nominal prices. The figures for 2018/19 will be available in September.
| Expenditure (£m) (Nominal) |
| 2017-18 |
(a) Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency | £0.85 |
(b) Gwynedd local authority area | £1.41 |
(c) Wales | £34.11 |