Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of paying benefits on 24 December 2024 on (a) access to banking and (b) time available for Christmas shopping for (i) pensioners and (ii) other claimants of benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP pays benefits and pensions on the date a payment is due. DWP assesses the impact on benefit claimants and pensioners of interruptions to normal access to banking services.
This year, 24 December 2024 is a normal banking day and so customers will be able to access their payments as normal, including those paid through the Payment Exception Service. Customers that are due to receive their payments at weekends or on bank holidays receive them on the previous banking day. Therefore, customers with due dates falling on 25 or 26 December 2024 will receive their payment on 24 December 2024 when banking services are available.
These changes are communicated to customers so that they understand when their payment will be received to support financial independence and planning. New claimants who are waiting for their first payment and who may be experiencing hardship have the facility to request an advance of their payment.
Aside from these circumstances, making a payment of benefit or pension earlier than the due date risks increasing the vulnerability of customers, who will then need to make their payment last for a longer period until the next due date.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will simplify the application form for Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department continues to assess the Pension Credit service. This led to the introduction of the online claim process, providing customers with a convenient alternative claim route, alongside the existing telephony and paper application methods. As the Department continues to modernise the Pension Credit service, we continue to review the user experience, balancing simplification of application with capturing the right information to ensure accuracy of award.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to negotiate a reciprocal agreement with the Australian government on uprating state pensions.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are no plans to negotiate a new reciprocal social security agreement with Australia.
UK State Pensions are payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, and are only uprated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so - for example in countries with which we have a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating.
The policy on up-rating UK State Pensions paid overseas is a longstanding one and has been supported by successive Governments for over 70 years.
Up-rating is based on levels of earnings growth and price inflation in the UK which has no direct relevance where the pensioner is resident overseas.
Over many years, priority is given to those living in the UK when drawing up expenditure plans for additional pensioner benefits.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 12 July 2023 to Question 193037 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the armed forces by local authority area for the most recent assessment period.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone.
Data coverage continues to improve over time and by September 2023 data was held on the armed forces status of approximately 67% of the GB UC caseload (see table below). It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”. Data is not collected on the specific branch of the Armed Forces that claimants are serving in or have served in in the past.
Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far.
The way the data is collected means the claimants for whom an Armed Forces status is recorded are not representative of the UC caseload as a whole. This means it is not yet possible to produce reliable estimates of the overall number or proportion of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past.
The separate spreadsheet shows how many claimants on the September 2023 UC caseload had a recorded armed forces status of each type, broken down by Local Authority.
Spreadsheet Notes:
1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.
2. Figures in the table have been rounded according to the Department’s Official Statistics rounding policy.
3. In line with the latest published People on UC official statistics, provisional figures relating to September 2023 are provided and may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made.
4. Due to methodological improvements, these figures are based on the Official Statistics UC caseload definition. Some answers to previous PQs asking for similar information have used an alternative caseload definition based on assessment period end dates.
5. Further information on the caseload definition used for the UC official statistics can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2023 to Question 187857 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the armed forces for the assessment period ending on 1 July 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone.
Data coverage continues to improve over time and by May 2023 data was held on the armed forces status of approximately 64% of the GB UC caseload (see table below). It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”. Data is not collected on the specific branch of the Armed Forces that claimants are serving in or have served in in the past.
Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far.
The way the data is collected means the claimants for whom an Armed Forces status is recorded are not representative of the UC caseload as a whole. This means it is not yet possible to produce reliable estimates of the overall number or proportion of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past.
Increases in the numbers of claimants with a recorded status of “currently serving” or “served in the past” do not necessarily mean the overall numbers of claimants who are currently serving or have served in the past have increased and may reflect increases in the number of claimants for whom data is held as data coverage improves over time.
The table below shows how the proportion of the GB UC caseload with a recorded Armed Forces status has changed over time. It also shows how many claimants on the caseload had a recorded status of each type.
GB UC caseload by recorded Armed Forces status
UC caseload month | Proportion of caseload with a recorded status | Currently serving | Served in the past | Not served | Prefer not to say | No recorded status |
July 2022 | 51% | 3,000 | 38,600 | 2,804,200 | 21,000 | 2,753,300 |
August 2022 | 53% | 3,200 | 40,100 | 2,912,500 | 21,800 | 2,683,400 |
September 2022 | 54% | 3,200 | 41,400 | 3,002,500 | 22,400 | 2,614,700 |
October 2022 | 56% | 3,300 | 42,800 | 3,131,700 | 23,400 | 2,530,000 |
November 2022 | 57% | 3,300 | 44,000 | 3,218,300 | 24,000 | 2,467,100 |
December 2022 | 58% | 3,400 | 45,100 | 3,299,400 | 24,600 | 2,407,600 |
January 2023 | 59% | 3,500 | 46,200 | 3,375,000 | 25,400 | 2,349,700 |
February 2023 | 61% | 3,500 | 47,600 | 3,462,600 | 26,200 | 2,296,400 |
March 2023 | 62% | 3,600 | 48,300 | 3,530,800 | 26,700 | 2,243,800 |
April 2023 | 63% | 3,700 | 49,500 | 3,626,300 | 27,500 | 2,189,600 |
May 2023 (provisional) | 64% | 3,900 | 51,000 | 3,739,100 | 28,600 | 2,154,900 |
Notes:
1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.
2. Percentages are rounded to the nearest percent and numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. Provisional figures to May 2023, in line with published People on UC official statistics, are provided and may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made.
4. Due to methodological improvements, these figures are based on the Official Statistics UC caseload definition. Some previous figures have used an alternative caseload definition based on assessment period end dates.
5. Further information on the caseload definition used for the UC official statistics can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many recipients of compensation from the (a) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and (b) War Pension Scheme have had their payments considered as income in welfare benefit means tests in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022 and (v) 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Payments are not taken into account in Universal Credit. Guaranteed Income Payments, Service Attributable Pensions and service-attributable, non-taxable Service Invalidity Pensions are also not taken into account.
The requested data is not available for other welfare benefits.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department deducted from welfare benefits as a result of (a) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and (b) War Pensions Scheme payments being considered as income in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022 and (v) 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Payments are not taken into account in Universal Credit. Guaranteed Income Payments, Service Attributable Pensions and service-attributable, non-taxable Service Invalidity Pensions are also not taken into account.
The requested data is not available for other welfare benefits.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 175486 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the armed forces for the assessment periods ending on 1 June 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far.
The way the data is collected means the claimants for whom an Armed Forces status is recorded are not representative of the UC caseload as a whole. This means it is not yet possible to produce reliable estimates of the overall number or proportion of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past.
Increases in the numbers of claimants with a recorded status of “currently serving” or “served in the past” do not necessarily mean the overall numbers of claimants who are currently serving or have served in the past have increased and may reflect increases in the number of claimants for whom data is held as data coverage improves over time.
The table below shows how the proportion of the GB UC caseload with a recorded Armed Forces status has changed over time. It also shows how many claimants on the caseload had a recorded status of each type.
GB UC caseload by recorded Armed Forces status
UC caseload month | Proportion of caseload with a recorded status | Currently serving | Served in the past | Not served | Prefer not to say | No recorded status |
July 2022 | 51% | 3,000 | 38,600 | 2,804,200 | 21,000 | 2,753,300 |
August 2022 | 53% | 3,200 | 40,100 | 2,912,500 | 21,800 | 2,683,400 |
September 2022 | 54% | 3,200 | 41,400 | 3,002,500 | 22,400 | 2,614,700 |
October 2022 | 56% | 3,300 | 42,800 | 3,131,700 | 23,400 | 2,530,000 |
November 2022 | 57% | 3,300 | 44,000 | 3,218,300 | 24,000 | 2,467,100 |
December 2022 | 58% | 3,400 | 45,100 | 3,299,400 | 24,600 | 2,407,600 |
January 2023 | 59% | 3,500 | 46,200 | 3,375,000 | 25,400 | 2,349,700 |
February 2023 | 61% | 3,500 | 47,600 | 3,462,600 | 26,200 | 2,296,400 |
March 2023 | 62% | 3,600 | 48,300 | 3,530,800 | 26,700 | 2,243,800 |
April 2023 (provisional) | 63% | 3,800 | 50,200 | 3,667,900 | 27,900 | 2,196,800 |
Notes:
1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.
2. Percentages are rounded to the nearest percent and numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. Figures may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made. Figures relating to April 2023 are provisional and may be subject to revision.
4. Due to methodological improvements, these figures are based on the Official Statistics UC caseload definition. Some previous figures have used an alternative caseload definition based on assessment period end dates.
5. Further information on the caseload definition used for the UC official statistics can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 175486 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the armed forces by local authority area for the assessment periods ending on 1 March 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many job centres have Armed Forces Champions.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department’s Armed Forces Champions model is based around champions being allocated to Jobcentre Plus Districts, rather than individual Jobcentres.
We introduced our new model for Armed Forces Champions in 2021, which comprises 50 Armed Forces Champions working alongside 11 Group Leads at managerial level. It means for the first time that there is at least one Armed Forces Champion role allocated to each Jobcentre Plus District supported by a Group network, with resources in the network targeted where there is geographically particularly high levels of demand.
In addition to the Armed Forces Champions roles, all Work Coaches are trained to provide veterans and others with the help and support they need to access both benefits and employment support.