Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for pension credit there were from 28t October 2024 to 4 November 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on how many Pension Credit applications made between 1 April 2024 and 22 September 2024 was recently published on gov.uk, Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK.
On 28 October 2024, The Department announcedupdated Pension Credit applications and award statistics will be published on 28 November 2024. This publication will provide application volumes after 22 September 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were waiting to be assessed for pension credit on 29 July 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of 29th July, there were 33,883 claims outstanding and as of 28th October, there were 76,569 claims outstanding.
Since the announcement to means test Winter Fuel payments, to date we have increased the resource in Pension Credit claims by around five hundred more staff through a combination of internal redeployments, use of external providers and external recruitment. This is in line with the overall resourcing plan for Pension Credit claims and Winter Fuel payments.
Please note, the claims outstanding figures do not include Advanced claims. This data is sourced from the Pension Credit system and for internal departmental use only. As such, they have not been quality assured to the same extent as Official Statistics.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were waiting to be assessed for pension credit on 28 October 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As of 29th July, there were 33,883 claims outstanding and as of 28th October, there were 76,569 claims outstanding.
Since the announcement to means test Winter Fuel payments, to date we have increased the resource in Pension Credit claims by around five hundred more staff through a combination of internal redeployments, use of external providers and external recruitment. This is in line with the overall resourcing plan for Pension Credit claims and Winter Fuel payments.
Please note, the claims outstanding figures do not include Advanced claims. This data is sourced from the Pension Credit system and for internal departmental use only. As such, they have not been quality assured to the same extent as Official Statistics.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for pension credit there were in each week from 23 September to 28 October 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As per Gov.uk, the Department has announced it will publish updated Pension Credit application and award statistics on 28 November 2024. Releases will be quarterly, including Pension Credit application, clearance, and award/non-award volumes data from 1 April 2024, up to the most recent data available before each publication.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit claims were processed within her Department’s planned timescale in 2024.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As per the publication of the DWP Annual Report and Accounts (ARA), 77.7% of Pension Credit claims were processed within the Department’s planned timescales in the Financial Year 2023 to 2024. The next publication of the ARA will include claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are waiting to be assessed for pension credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The total outstanding Pension Credit claims as at the end of week commencing 30th September 2024 is 77,703. This includes 8,245 advanced claims where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age.
The Department is significantly increasing the resource on Pension Credit to ensure it processes claims as quickly as possible, with over 500 additional staff to support the increase in applications generated from the successful Pension Credit take-up campaign.
If a claim is made by 21 December, Pension Credit can be backdated for three months if the entitlement conditions have been met throughout that period, and if the claimant was eligible they would also receive a Winter Fuel Payment.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are waiting for over the 50 working day target for their disability living allowance claim to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not have a target timeframe, but we aim to process Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims for children within 40 working days, not 50. As published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024, which covers April 2023 to March 2024, of the 186,200 claims DLA claims for children processed over that period, 6,500 (3.5%) met the planned processing timescales.
DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiverse conditions, with gathering evidence from educational institutions and the NHS taking longer. We are maximising our resources wherever possible and have ongoing recruitment efforts to mitigate these challenges.
For further details, please refer to the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) available on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the rate of disability living allowance claims processed dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2023-24.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims for Disability Living Allowance (Children) since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiverse conditions, with gathering evidence from educational institutions and the NHS taking longer. We are maximising our resources wherever possible and have ongoing recruitment efforts to mitigate these challenges.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit applications made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 are waiting to be processed.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on how many pension credit applications have been made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 was recently published on gov.uk, Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Because of how we capture our operational data, information on how many claims we received over that period which are still outstanding is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs. However, we are actively seeking to develop the data sets to provide that level of information.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the average number of pension credit applications processed within 50 working days dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The department supports customers to claim Pension Credit through a range of take up campaigns. In June 2019, the BBC announced its intention to limit free TV licenses to people 75+ and in receipt of Pension Credit from June 2020. The subsequent mass mailing to existing free licence holders contributed to a significant spike in calls to the Pension Service, and in 2022-23, the department continued to provide vital financial support to pensioners on a low income through Pension Credit.
DWP launched a comprehensive communications campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit and encourage pensioners to apply for it. The campaign included advertising in national and regional newspapers and on broadcast radio and television as well as promotion of Pension Credit via internet search engines and on social media. This, together with success of the Help for Household campaign, led to more than double the level in Pension Credit applications compared to the previous year.