Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with the Motability charity on inclusion of Attendance Allowance recipients in their scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Motability scheme is open to recipients of enhanced mobility Personal Independence Payment, higher rate mobility Disability Living Allowance, War Pensioner’s Mobility Supplement and Armed Forces Independence Payment.
Attendance Allowance does not have a mobility component for those whose needs arise after State Pension age. This is because it is expected that many older people will develop mobility issues as part of the ageing process. Eligible benefits such as DLA or PIP are awarded to individuals under pensionable age and, as long as entitlement conditions remain satisfied, the mobility component can continue to be paid beyond State Pension age.
There are no current plans to include Attendance Allowance as an eligible benefit for the Scheme.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to provide additional financial support to disabled people in receipt of the State Pension.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ensuring a decent foundation State Pension for pensioners is a priority for this Government. That is why we have set out our commitment to the Triple Lock, which will substantially improve outcomes for current and future pensioners.
There are already other benefits for those who are disabled, Attendance Allowance (AA) provides additional financial support towards the extra costs faced by those over State Pension age (SPa) with a severe disability who have care needs. It is neither means-tested, nor based on National Insurance contributions paid and recipients can choose how they wish to spend it.
Those already in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment when they reach SPa can continue to receive those benefits. They are not obliged to switch to claiming AA.
Disability benefits open the door to additional amounts in means tested support, receipt of a disability benefit can provide a passport to additional amounts in means-tested benefits (notably Pension Credit and Housing Benefit) for those on low incomes and to Carer’s Allowance for the person providing care for them.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on advertising the Back to Work Plan since November 2023 by advertising method.
Answered by Jo Churchill
To date, the Department has not spent anything on advertising the Back to Work Plan.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on rectifying errors in state pensions.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The overall rate of State Pension underpayment due to official error remains low as a proportion of expenditure (0.5% in 2022/2023). Where errors do occur, we are committed to fixing them as quickly as possible.
The Department of Work and Pensions is currently progressing Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practice (LEAP) exercises to rectify errors in the State Pensions caseload. Our priority is to ensure that everyone receives the State Pension payments to which they are entitled.
The latest update on the progress activity for the State Pension LEAP activity was published on 30 November and shows that between 11 January 2021 and 31 October 2023:
o 593,964 cases were reviewed
o 82,323 underpayments were identified
o £497 million was paid in arrears.
DWP is on track to complete the exercise for Category BL and Category D cases by the end of 2023.
The Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) corrections activity started in Autumn 2023 with HMRC sending letters to potentially affected customers, who are invited to make a claim for missing HRP. Once a customer’s national insurance record has been corrected, DWP will process any state pension changes to ensure ongoing payments are correct and any arrears are paid as quickly as possible. Updates on progress will be communicated as the exercise progresses.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing full compensation to people affected by underpayment errors in state pensions.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Government is fully committed to rectifying any historical errors resulting in State Pension underpayments to ensure individuals receive the State Pension they are due in law, with any arrears payments paid as quickly as possible.
The Department for Work and Pensions is currently addressing, through Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercises, two areas where we know there are State Pension underpayment errors. The Department does not routinely make special payments in such exercises.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been affected by underpayment errors in state pensions in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The information requested is not held by the Department.
The overall rate of State Pension underpayment due to official error remains low as a proportion of expenditure (0.5% in 2022/2023).
Information on the broad categories where State Pension underpayments are most often identified was set out in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23.
DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
DWP is taking action to rectify historic errors in the State Pensions caseload. Our priority is to ensure that everyone receives their correct State Pension entitlement.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure the accuracy of state pension payments.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
Overall error within State Pension is low – the 2022/2023 Annual Report and Accounts show 0.01% overpayment and 0.6% underpayment.
A robust Quality Framework of both local and independent quality checking is in place to assure the accuracy of State Pension payments. Where error is identified proportionate action is taken through root cause analysis and focused improvement activities. Appropriate oversight and governance is provided by a Quality Governance Board.
Fraud and Error risks are further mitigated through the development and design of our online ‘Get your State Pension’ digital service.
In addition to robust quality checking and digital design, lessons learned from the State Pension LEAP exercise have resulted in new data matching rules to reduce the risk of further error entering the caseload and amendments to legacy IT systems reduce the likelihood of human error.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme in supporting at-risk children of alcohol dependent parents.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Reducing Parental Conflict programme aims to improve child outcomes by reducing parental conflict that is frequent, intense and unresolved.
In 2018 the DWP and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched the Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents (CADeP) programme. This included funding of £5.7 million for 9 areas (13 local authorities), to reduce parental conflict alongside improving existing systems of treatment for parents with alcohol dependency.
To ensure that the learning from the programme was shared, DHSC commissioned an independent evaluation of the innovation fund. This evaluation has been published and can be found at Evaluation of the Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents programme innovation fund: full report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The following findings of the evaluation were of particular interest to DWP in relation to the RPC elements of this programme:
The current phase of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme runs between 2022 and 2025, with up to £19 million to fund training, delivery of support, co-ordination and evaluation. This supports Local Authorities to choose activity that best suits local need.
This government remains committed to strengthening the support available to children and families, working with local authorities through government funded programmes including Reducing Parental Conflict, Supporting Families and Family Hubs /Start for Life.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding his Department has provided to the Reducing Parental Conflict programme in each local authority.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Grants for Local Authorities have been one strand of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme since its inception in 2018.
This strand has provided funding of £27.6 million to individual Local Authorities as set out in the attached information.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of adequacy of the provisions available to UK citizens unable to return from abroad during the covid-19 pandemic who incurred a loss of access to public funds.
Answered by Guy Opperman
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the department put into place measures to support existing benefit recipients in exceptional cases where their absence abroad went over the period allowed under the temporary absence benefit rules and could not return to the UK due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Once these temporary measures came to an end, the department was instructed to review cases where claimants had not yet returned to the UK.