Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value of consolatory payments paid out for poor customer service by the Child Maintenance Service was in the 12 months since 16 March 2020.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is unable to provide the data in respect of the total value of consolatory payments paid out for poor customer service by the Child Maintenance Service in the last 12 months. Data for 2020/21 is currently being finalised as part of the end of operational year activities.
Combined DWP figures for maladministration and redress are published in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2021 to Question 157313 on National Insurance Contributions, what progress her Department has made on provision of a National Insurance Number service to the majority of people.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The National Insurance Number Service is now available to all applicants living in England and Wales and, in line with Scottish Government guidelines, will be available, in Scotland, from week commencing 26th April when our face to face service resumes.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
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 effectiveness of using the consumer prices index including housing to calculate pension increases for defined benefit pension schemes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No assessment has been made.
Private pension increases are calculated according to the rules of the scheme.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to resolve the problems with the CMS IT system which suspends the collection of Child Maintenance Service debt.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are not aware of any issues regarding Child Maintenance System and the suspension of debt.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to resolve as soon as possible the problems with the computer system which writes off CSA debt.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Whilst some Child Support Agency (CSA) debt was automatically written-off in the main, once representation has taken place, where write off is appropriate, this is a manual process.
The majority of the CSA debt write off has been completed and CSA systems (CSCS and CS2) have now been decommissioned.
The write off process for CSA debt held on Child Maintenance System is ongoing and we are not aware of any issues with this process.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of her Department's staff have been seconded to other Government departments during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As the Department for Work and Pensions is a critical department during the COVID-19 outbreak, and has experienced a significant increase in demand for our services, it has undertaken a small number of secondments and loans of members of staff to other Government departments.
As at April 2020, the Department had 78,138 staff and we have seconded or loaned out only a very low number of individuals.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
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 delays by the Child Maintenance Service in pursuing payments for resident parents during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises that the income of many separated parents is being impacted by the public health emergency and some receiving parents may receive less maintenance as a result of a paying parent’s drop in income.
Paying parents are still expected to pay child maintenance throughout this period. Our priority is to maintain the flow of maintenance that is currently being paid, by easing the financial pressure on paying parents and ensuring that we transfer the payments as quickly as possible to receiving parents.
In order to ensure that receiving parents do not lose out in the long run, we will update calculations as soon as possible and collect any unpaid amounts that may have accrued. The small minority who might be found to be abusing the system at this difficult time could potentially find themselves subject to the full extent of our enforcement powers once the emergency passes.
Measures have been introduced to support both paying and receiving parents, whose income drops as a result of the public health emergency. These include increasing the standard rate of Universal Credit and working tax credit for this year by over £1000 per year, benefiting over 4 million of the most vulnerable households. We have also increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that it covers the cheapest third of local rents – which is on average £600 in people’s pockets.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department takes to ensure that claimants who are found to be eligible for employment support allowance but don't receive payments due to their household income, are encouraged to continue to apply to make sure that they receive their National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) the “new style” benefit is solely based on the claimant’s national insurance (NI) contributions. The income-related strands of the benefit have been removed. This means that New Style ESA (NS ESA) can be paid alongside Universal Credit (UC), where appropriate.
Claimants who don’t qualify for UC, due to the level of their household income, might still qualify for NS ESA.
If eligible for NS ESA, a claimant will be awarded a Class 1 NI credit for each complete benefit week that the benefit is in payment. A benefit week runs from Sunday to Saturday.
Where there is no entitlement to NS ESA, a person may still be entitled to NI credits provided they continue to meet the eligibility conditions.
Information about claiming NI credits is included in the decision letter sent to the claimant informing them that they are not entitled to ESA. It is also available on Gov.UK.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the findings of the video recording pilot for personal independence payments assessments will be made available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
We are currently evaluating the findings and expect to provide an update on this and future plans in the Autumn.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit appeals are awaiting allocation of a hearing date because her Department has not yet sent an appeal response to HMCTS.
Answered by Will Quince
When a customer appeals a DWP decision this is made directly to HMCTS, who will schedule a tribunal date. Any question on waiting times would need to be answered by the MoJ.