Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral contribution to the Work and Pensions Committee of 24 July 2019, how many of the 1,400 cases to have undergone interview under caution due to third-party universal credit fraud have been referred for prosecution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many third parties who have allegedly scammed people into making a universal credit claim have been identified and investigated; and how many of those third parties have been referred for prosecution.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what point during the universal credit claim process her Department checks claims for potentially fraudulent details.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to prevent third-party universal credit fraud.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to prevent cases of third-party universal credit fraud taking place during managed migration.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Green Paper entitled, Transforming children and young people’s mental health, if he will review the Green Paper consultation processes to improve guidance for people who wish to engage with the process.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Consultation on the Green Paper, ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health’, was carried out in line with the Government’s published set of government consultation principles. These principles give clear guidance to Government departments on conducting consultations and are available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants initially refused employment support allowance have subsequently been awarded that allowance under regulation 29 or regulation 35 at (a) the mandatory reconsideration stage and (b) following an appeal hearing in each of the last four years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the process is for ensuring that the outcomes of appeals against the refusal of (a) employment support allowance and (b) personal independence payments are reported to those who made the original decision.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
DWP has processes in place to feedback to original decision makers where a decision is changed at Appeal, this includes feedback from Presenting Officers who have been in attendance at the Appeal.
This is fed back to the relevant decision makers and line managers through a structured mechanism that is used to advise appropriate conversations and quality actions.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have been awarded employment support allowance under (a) regulation 29 and (b) regulation 35 of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations in each of the past four years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Statistics on the number of people that have been awarded Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) following a Work Capability Assessment by ESA group allocation and reasons can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her evidence of 24 July 2019 to the Work and Pensions Committee on increased support with upfront childcare costs, whether work coaches use the Flexible Support Fund to provide that additional support after the first month.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund (FSF) to pay 100% of the upfront childcare costs up to the payment limits set that the claimant incurs between starting work and receiving their first wage. This is paid directly to the childcare providers and is not repayable. Examples of what it can be used to cover include:
Once a claimant has received their first wage, we have given Work Coaches the flexibility to use Budgeting Advances to help pay for further upfront childcare costs where required and where a claimant is eligible. This includes - during school holidays, change of childcare provider, or additional childcare in order to increase work hours. Budgeting Advances do have to be repaid, however, up to 85% of these childcare costs can be reimbursed through the UC childcare offer (up to caps) once a paid receipt is submitted.