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Written Question
Universal Credit: Childcare
Thursday 30th November 2023

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 allowing future childcare costs to be met in advance through Universal Credit rather than being recovered retrospectively.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government recognises that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours which is why on June 28, 2023, the Department started providing even more help with initial upfront childcare costs when parents move into work or increase their hours.

This means that a parent who needs this additional financial help can now be provided with funding towards both their first and second set of costs (or increased costs), upfront, thereby easing them into the UC childcare costs cycle.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Appeals
Tuesday 1st November 2022

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) mean, (b) median, (c) longest and (d) shortest wait time was for processing mandatory reconsiderations of benefits decisions in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The lower quartile, median, mean and upper quartile waiting times for processing mandatory reconsiderations for PIP, UC and ESA benefit decisions are below. To provide information across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.

Note that information about the extremes of a distribution (e.g. the maximum clearance time) risks being disclosive. We would not release this information publicly. Therefore, we have presented information on the lower quartile, median, mean and upper quartile of clearance times. Please note, the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases. As such, the median is our preferred central measure for MR clearance times.

Table 1: PIP MR clearance times (calendar days), Normal Rules, from August 2021 to July 2022

Year

Lower Quartile

Median

Mean

Upper Quartile

August 2021 – July 2022

38

57

55

70

Notes:

  1. Each PIP claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
  2. The PIP MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the point of registration to the date the MR was cleared.
  3. DWP offers particular support for those coming to the end of their life, known as Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). This was formerly called Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI). Cases which are not processed under SREL are referred to as ‘normal rules’ claims. The status of claims as 'normal rules' or 'SREL' is shown as at the point of registration.

Table 2: UC MR clearance times (calendar days) from October 2021 to September 2022

Year

Lower Quartile

Median

Mean

Upper Quartile

October 2021 to September 2022

23

51

67

100

Notes:

  1. Each UC claim can have more than one reconsideration registered against it. The above includes all MR decisions (excluding withdrawn and cancelled).
  2. The UC MR clearance times are based on the clearance times from the point of registration to the date the MR was cleared.
  3. This data on UC MR clearance times is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.

Table 3: ESA WCA MR clearance times (calendar days) from August 2021 to July 2022

Year

Lower Quartile

Median

Mean

Upper Quartile

August 2021 to July 2022

5

10

13

14

Notes:

1. ESA MR clearance times are based on the date when the Benefit Centre has decided that the MR received is a valid MR, having considered whether they can initially change the decision in the light of any new information to the date when the decision maker at the Dispute Resolution Team (DRT) has cleared and logged the final decision.

Notes

  • Figures are for Great Britain only.
  • Definition of Mandatory Reconsideration: Claimants who wish to dispute a decision made on their PIP claim are required to ask the Department to reconsider the decision, before they can lodge an appeal with Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service. MRs can arise for various reasons, such as omitting to tell DWP about relevant evidence during the initial decision-making process; this could include not returning forms required as part of the claim.
  • Definition of Lower Quartile: The lower quartile is the value for which 25% of all clearance times fall below if you were to order the distribution from lowest value to highest value.
  • Definition of median: The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value.
  • Definition of mean: The mean time is the value if you were to sum all the clearance times together and divide that by the number of cases. Please note, the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases.
  • Definition of Upper Quartile: The upper quartile is the value for which 75% of all clearance times fall below if you were to order the distribution from lowest value to highest value.

Written Question
Universal Credit
Wednesday 19th October 2022

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) what percentage of the 2.6 million people who were claiming legacy benefits in April 2022 have now undergone managed migration to universal credit and (b) what recent assessment she has made of the (i) financial and (ii) emotional impact of managed migration on legacy benefits claimants.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

Managed Migration is a three-year process scheduled to end in 2024 and 55% of people will be better off on Universal credit per month.

In May 2022, DWP began a discovery phase, in line with best practice for agile projects, this phase using the findings from Discovery takes a multi-location approach across the country with small number of claimants, we will continue to develop our processes and systems to ensure the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible before we proceed to scale the migration process.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Disqualification
Monday 17th October 2022

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory reconsiderations of benefits decisions are awaiting processing as of 10 October 2022; what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of mandatory reconsiderations that are awaiting processing; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a clearance time for mandatory reconsiderations.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

There are currently 90,738 mandatory reconsiderations of benefit decisions awaiting processing at 10th October 2022.

DWP are taking steps to help reduce the number of mandatory reconsiderations awaiting processing by improving our processes and correspondence to make the delivery of the mandatory reconsideration customer journey more efficient whilst still ensuring effective decision making and customer service. We have also increased our decision maker capacity by 470 full time equivalent staff over the last 3 months.

We have no plans to introduce a target clearance time. While we endeavour to make decisions without delay, it is important that a decision maker is able to conduct a comprehensive review of the decision being disputed to make a fully informed Mandatory Reconsideration decision.


Written Question
Long Covid: Disability
Wednesday 24th November 2021

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made made of the potential merits of classifying Long Covid as a disability, for the purposes of giving employment protections under the Equality Act 2010 to affected people.

Answered by Chloe Smith

‘Long Covid’ is not classed as a disability. COVID is still a relatively new condition and work is ongoing to understand its long-term effects. Making such a determination would therefore be premature.

As research into the long-term health symptoms and impacts of COVID-19 is ongoing, we will continue to monitor and consider the Government’s support provisions and approach in line with the emerging evidence.

As part of the Government's response to the pandemic, individuals may be eligible for SSP where they are sick or self-isolating due to coronavirus, including where they have tested positive for coronavirus but otherwise feel well. Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first day of sickness absence from work, rather than the fourth, where an individual is self-isolating due to coronavirus. The usual eligibility criteria continue to apply.

If an individual requires further financial support while off work sick, for example where their income is reduced while on Statutory Sick Pay, they may be able to claim Universal Credit depending on their personal circumstances. Where they are not eligible, for example because they earn below the Lower Earnings Limit, they may also be able to claim New Style Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
Thursday 21st January 2021

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what timescales her Department has set for private contracted firms to complete assessments of personal independence payments.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

The Department has three Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts for Assessment Provider Services.

Atos IT Services UK Ltd (T/A Independent Assessment Services) are contracted to deliver PIP assessments in Lot 1 (North West England / North East England / Scotland / Isle of Man) and Lot 3 (London / Southern England.)

Capita Business Services Ltd are contracted to deliver PIP assessments in Lot 2 (Central England / Wales).

Service Level requirements for the delivery of assessments are consistent across all PIP contracts. These are detailed below.

Service Level Requirement

Service Level

PIP Assessment end to end assessment process (excluding Terminally Ill cases).

All cleared within an Average Actual Clearance Time of 35 Working Days

Terminally Ill (TI) cases end to end assessment process.

All TI cases cleared within an average period of two (2) Working Days

Terminally Ill (TI) cases end to end assessment process.

100% to be cleared within five (5) Working Days.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Coronavirus
Tuesday 19th January 2021

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2021 to Question 133744 on Personal Independence Payment: Coronavirus, for what reasons claimants are being advised by a private firm contracted by her Department that timescales are not in place to due to the covid-19.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

We have interpreted your question to mean what reason claimants are advised by assessment providers (Capita and Independent Assessment Services), contracted by her department, that timescales are not currently in place due to COVID-19.

The department maintains the same targets for claims clearance as pre-COVID, but recognises the current delivery challenges faced by its providers due to COVID-19. We are working with our providers to provide continued support to claimants in need of Personal Independence Payment (PIP). We remain committed to delivering quality functional assessments and ensuring claimants are assessed as quickly as possible.

So we do not place people at unnecessary risk, we have temporarily suspended face to face PIP assessments. All assessments are currently being progressed on the basis of paper based evidence alone, or that evidence together with a telephone assessment to ensure decisions on PIP can be made without delay.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Mental Illness
Monday 7th September 2020

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential additional barriers people with mental health problems experience in applying for benefits during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

Ministers and officials of both Departments hold regular discussions relating to the ongoing covid-19 outbreak including its impact on people with health conditions.

My Department has provided mental health training for staff who have direct contact with claimants, including all Work Coaches, to equip them to identify mental wellbeing issues or vulnerabilities, and to take appropriate action to support individuals. Work Coaches will tailor support to the needs of the individual and work closely with local organisations that provide additional specialist support.

Background

Mental wellbeing training has been provided for all staff (around 30,000 colleagues trained to date) who have direct contact with customers (including via telephone).

Staff have also had specific training to help them to identify vulnerable people, and signpost or refer them to further support provided by local partners. Every jobcentre has a complex needs toolkit containing links to local organisations to facilitate this.

Since the start of the pandemic we’ve introduced online claim application processes for ESA and Pension Credit claimants (telephony options still exist). And we’ve also introduced new services for deaf claimants.


Written Question
Universal Credit
Friday 22nd May 2020

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of universal credit on childcare payments.

Answered by Will Quince

The Government is committed to helping parents into work and childcare costs should not be a barrier to this.

Universal Credit pays up to 85% of childcare costs, compared to up to 70% in legacy benefits and can be claimed up to a month before starting a job. In cases where people need to pay for childcare upfront, prior to starting work, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to meet these costs until their first wage is received.


Written Question
Universal Credit
Thursday 8th March 2018

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 of the roll-out of Universal Credit on levels of child poverty.

Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I provided to Question 125103 on 01 February 2018.