Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of working Universal Credit recipients who received an incorrect payment as a result of an incorrect employer's real time information submission to HM Revenue and Customs in the latest month for which data is available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Legislation provides for the use of RTI in the calculation of UC entitlements. That system is working well and providing accurate information but where a claimant thinks the information provided by their employer to HMRC is wrong they are asked to raise a dispute with HMRC for them to investigate. Over the last 12 months 99.8% of RTI returns by employers to support UC claims were found to be correct. For the 0.2% of cases, where employers adjust their returns, we endeavour to correct UC entitlements as soon as possible.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work coaches have left their roles in each month since November 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs, as to provide a reply would require us to link together several complex datasets and to quality assure the results.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the workload of work coaches in job centres that are (a) taking part and (b) not taking part in the Additional Jobcentre Support Pilot.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The DWP as a whole, Service Leaders and local Jobcentre managers work closely with their teams to ensure that the workload is distributed appropriately, and our Work Coach caseloads continue to remain manageable.
The size of a Work Coach caseload will vary as it is dependent on several factors, including the level of customer support required, the needs of the local labour market and the experience and working pattern of each Work Coach.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help improve collections of debts from individuals who are not currently in receipt of Universal Credit; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department is committed to improving debt collections from those individuals no longer in receipt of benefits, and we continue to investigate opportunities to ensure parity of treatment between those in receipt of a benefit, or in PAYE employment, and those who are not.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
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 adequacy of the extent to which his Department’s Stewardship Guidance is being followed by pension scheme trustees.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We remain committed to reviewing the extent to which the Department’s Stewardship Guidance is being followed by pension scheme trustees to determine how far the guidance has helped trustees understand expectations around the Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) and Implementation Statement (IS), and whether improvements can be made.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the judgment in R (TD & Ors) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWCA Civ 618, when his Department plans to introduce a remedy scheme in the context of that judgment; which claimants are to be included in the proposed scheme; and whether it is his Department's policy for the proposed scheme to offer beneficiaries the difference between the amount they would have received had their legacy benefits not been terminated and the amount received through Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are working on the delivery process for implementing the remedy and will set out the details in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress the Financial Markets and Law Committee’s working group is making on reforming the guidance on fiduciary duty for pension trustees.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Government continues to work with the Financial Markets and Law Committee’s (FMLC) working group to review how best to clarify fiduciary duty, particularly in relation to climate change. The FMLC working group is independent from government. DWP looks forward to the publication of the group’s final report.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the additional number of people who would be found fit for work if the number of points awarded for the (a) coping with social engagement and (b) getting about indicators was reduced.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department has developed estimates across the range of options being considered in the Work Capability Assessment activities and descriptors consultation. The consultation runs until the 30th October and we will continue to refine these estimates as responses are considered following the end of the consultation period.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people whose benefit award would be assessed as lower if the number of points awarded for the (a) coping with social engagement and (b) getting about indicators was reduced.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department has developed estimates across the range of options being considered in the Work Capability Assessment activities and descriptors consultation. The consultation runs until the 30th October and we will continue to refine these estimates as responses are considered following the end of the consultation period.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people whose benefit award would be assessed as lower if the (a) coping with social engagement and (b) getting about indicators were removed from the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department has developed estimates across the range of options being considered in the Work Capability Assessment activities and descriptors consultation. The consultation runs until the 30th October and we will continue to refine these estimates as responses are considered following the end of the consultation period.