Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the total amount lost to personal independence payment (a) fraud and (b) over-payment in financial year (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates of the levels of fraud and error in the benefit system for financial year 2023-24 can be found at: Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK
Below is an extract:
PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE PAYMENTS (PIP) | ||
| Overpayments | |
| FYE 24 | FYE 23 |
All | 0.4% (£90m) | 1.1% (£200m) |
Fraud | 0.0% (£0m) | 0.2% (£40m) |
Claimant Error | 0.3% (£60m) | 0.8% (£140m) |
Official Error | 0.1% (£30m) | 0.1% (£20m) |
The Department will publish the figures for 2024 – 25 in the upcoming year.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 8 October 2024 on DWP Fraud, Error and Debt Bill, HCWS114, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of the £1.6 billion saved over the next five year period will be due to tackling (a) fraud, (b) error and (c) debt in each of the next five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The savings from the Eligibility Verification Measure (EVM) come from both fraud and error, and it is not possible to separate the components.
The measures referred to have now been scrutinised by the Office for Budget Responsibility and included in the Budget (table 2.1 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/672b98bb40f7da695c921c61/Autumn_Budget_2024_Print.pdf) that sets out the year by year savings and estimates £1.5bn over five years from 25/26.
The proportions coming from a) fraud and error which comes from EVM and b) debt which comes from the new debt recovery powers in each year is as follows:
| 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 |
F&E | N/A | 33% | 55% | 64% | 65% |
Debt | N/A | 67% | 45% | 36% | 35% |
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will hold discussions with disability organisations on the potential merits of visits by job coaches to mental health patients in hospital.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ministers across Government value the insights that can be gained from meeting with people with experience and the organisations that represent them. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions demonstrated this recently, sharing her experience of visiting a severe mental illness Individual Placement and Support programme.
The Individual Placement and Support employment model is internationally recognised as one of the most effective ways to support people with mental health problems to gain and keep paid employment. IPS services offer intensive, individually tailored support to help people choose and find the right job, with ongoing support for the employer and employee to help ensure the person sustains their employment.
Policy responsibility for the severe mental illness Individual Placement and Support programme rests with Ministerial colleagues at the Department for Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of additional people that will register for Pension Credit between 1 September and 31 December 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No such estimate has been made.
For Pension Credit claims received up to 22 September 2024, the following report contains weekly figures: Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to write to every person entitled to but not claiming Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Starting this month pensioners in England and Wales will receive a letter informing them of the change in eligibility to the Winter Fuel Payment and encouraging them to check their eligibility for Pension Credit. Similar letters to pensioners in Scotland and Northern Ireland will follow during November.
In November we will also be writing to approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and still qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department spends on publicity to increase the number of people registered for Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department’s current paid marketing activity to promote Pension Credit which includes radio, national and regional press, paid social media and GP and Post Office screens, has been live since 16th September and is ongoing. It is not possible to provide an accurate cost for this paid activity until it is concluded.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who will be entitled to Pension Credit but will have not registered by (a) 31 December 2024 and (b) 1 April 2025.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
No such estimate has been made.
Estimates for pensioner households who are eligible for but not receiving Pension Credit in 2022/23 can be found at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will extend member and trade union representation to the board of the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Paul Maynard
There is no legal requirement for the Board of the Pension Protection Fund to include member or trade union representation, and there are no plans to extend representation to these groups.
The Pension Protection Fund does, however, have Member Panels – which Board members are invited to attend – to enable members to feed in views on the service offered and thoughts about changes that could be made in the future.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment decisions overturned at tribunal were due to (a) the tribunal panel drawing a different conclusion based on the same evidence, (b) oral evidence given by the individual and (c) new written evidence provided at the hearing in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
Analysis of unpublished Personal Independence Payment (PIP) data held by DWP provides data on why decisions by DWP decision makers have been overturned at a tribunal hearing between January 2014 and September 2023 and is shown annually in the tables below. This information is taken from Decision Notices and recorded on the PIP computer system.
This data only provides one reason per appeal why decisions by DWP decision makers have been overturned at a tribunal hearing, and therefore may not give the full story as there may be other reasons.
Appeals data is taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore, this appeal data may differ from that held by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
These figures are the result of a complex data match across a number of data sets. This data is unpublished data. It should be used with caution, and it may be subject to future revision.
Learning from this information, we have made improvements to our decision-making processes to help ensure we make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. We have introduced a new approach to decision making at both the initial decision and the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, giving Decision Makers additional time to proactively contact customers where they think additional evidence may support the claim.
Summary reason DWP decision | Appeal clearance year | |||||||||
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 (to September) | |
Cogent documentary evidence | 100 | 2,000 | 6,300 | 5,000 | 4,400 | 2,600 | 1,900 | 400 | 200 | 300 |
Cogent oral evidence | 1,100 | 14,700 | 22,900 | 26,500 | 25,100 | 26,200 | 11,800 | 8,800 | 8,800 | 11,800 |
Reached a different conclusion on | 200 | 2,900 | 7,700 | 13,600 | 21,100 | 24,600 | 26,100 | 16,300 | 16,700 | 17,500 |
Other | 100 | 2,300 | 5,200 | 8,200 | 7,600 | 7,100 | 5,000 | 1,900 | 1,900 | 2,000 |
Summary reason DWP decision | Appeal clearance year | |||||||||
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 (to September) | |
Cogent documentary evidence | 6% | 9% | 15% | 9% | 8% | 4% | 4% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Cogent oral evidence | 75% | 67% | 54% | 50% | 43% | 43% | 26% | 32% | 32% | 37% |
Reached a different conclusion on | 14% | 13% | 18% | 26% | 36% | 41% | 58% | 60% | 61% | 56% |
Other | 4% | 10% | 12% | 15% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 7% | 7% | 6% |
Note:
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Independent - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the reasons for Personal Independence Payment decisions being overturned at mandatory reconsideration in 2022-23.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
The reasons for Personal Independence Payment decisions being overturned at Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) are evaluated locally on a case-by-case basis, and we continue to learn from this. The Department’s overarching focus at the MR stage is on ensuring that each application is thoroughly reviewed, including considering all available evidence and contacting the claimant where necessary. Decisions will be changed at the MR stage where the evidence supports this, resolving disputes as early as possible and reducing the need to appeal.