Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for Pension Credit were made in each month since January 2022; and how many and what proportion of these new claims were successful.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Estimates of the number of Pension Credit claims since January 2022 are available in four-weekly groupings. Data on the number and proportion of Pension Credit claims that lead to successful awards are not available. This management information has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but are provided here in the interests of transparency.
Time Period | Number of PC Claims |
3rd January- 30th January 2022 | 13,111 |
31st January – 27th February 2022 | 15,824 |
28th February – 27th March 2022 | 17,296 |
28th March – 24th April 2022 | 14,489 |
25th April – 22nd May 2022 | 14,793 |
23rd May – 19th June 2022 | 18,160 |
20th June – 17th July 2022 | 22,205 |
18th July – 14th August 2022 | 26,117 |
15th August – 11th September 2022 | 26,564 |
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of eligible households who are not receiving Pension Credit in the West Midlands as of 20 September 2022.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit are only available at the Great Britain level and are available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found on the statistics section of gov.uk. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 and proportion of eligible households that did not receive Pension Credit in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit are only available at the Great Britain level and are available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found on the statistics section of gov.uk. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of rising fuel and electricity prices, if she will make further targeted financial support available for people with physical disabilities who are reliant on adapted mobility support including (a) adapted cars and (b) electric wheelchairs.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, that is why it is providing over £37 billion of support this year. This includes the £650 Cost of Living Payment which is designed to target support at low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off, disability Cost of Living Payment of £150. And pensioner households will receive a separate one-off payment of £300 (through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment).
People who receive the higher rate mobility component for Disability Living Allowance, the enhanced rate of the mobility component for Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or War Pensioners Mobility Supplement can exchange part or all of their mobility component for a leased car, wheelchair or powered chair/scooter through the Motability scheme regardless of their income.
A Motability lease provides a ‘worry-free package’ including servicing, repairs, breakdown assistance and comprehensive insurance. A National Audit Report on Motability in 2018 also found that leasing a car through Motability was on average 44% cheaper than comparable leasing products in the wider market”
We keep all our policies under continuous review as we have shown throughout the pandemic and in response to the current cost of living pressures.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of the increase in the cost of living, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a £20 a week uplift to all legacy benefits.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a £20 uplift to all legacy benefits.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. These are global challenges, but the government has taken action to support and help families with cost-of-living pressures with a total package worth £37 billion in 2022-23.
This includes helping all domestic electricity customers in Great Britain to cope with the impact of higher energy bills, with £400 off their bills from October through the expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). This is a doubling of the £200 of support announced in February, and there will no longer be any repayments.
The government is supporting over 8 million households across the UK in receipt of eligible means tested benefits with a one-off Cost of Living Payment of £650, paid in two instalments. The government is giving additional UK-wide support to help disabled people with the extra costs they will face, with 6 million people who receive non-means tested disability benefits receiving a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150.
Millions of low-income households will receive at least £1,200 of one-off support in total this year to help with the cost of living.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it his policy to reinstate the £20 a week uplift in the Universal Credit standard allowance in the context of the increase in the cost of living.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are no plans to reinstate the temporary increase to Universal Credit.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. These are global challenges, but the government has taken action to support and help families with cost-of-living pressures with a total package worth £37 billion in 2022-23.
This includes helping all domestic electricity customers in Great Britain to cope with the impact of higher energy bills, with £400 off their bills from October through the expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). This is a doubling of the £200 of support announced in February, and there will no longer be any repayments.
The government is supporting over 8 million households across the UK in receipt of eligible means tested benefits with a one-off Cost of Living Payment of £650, paid in two instalments. The government is giving additional UK-wide support to help disabled people with the extra costs they face, with 6 million people who receive non-means tested disability benefits receiving a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150.
Millions of low-income households will receive at least £1,200 of one-off support in total this year to help with the cost of living.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral contribution of 17 March 2022, Official report 1031, on the closure of DWP processing centres, how many staff are working at the 13 offices that have not been offered an alternative site to which to relocate.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department’s strategic ambition for its back of house estate, announced on 17 March, will reshape how and where the Department works, resulting in a smaller, greener and better estate. This is not about reducing headcount. The Department’s priorities while delivering these changes will be to retain, retrain, and redeploy either within DWP or other government departments in order to ensure we maintain the processing and payment of benefits, where necessary, moving work across the wider delivery network to ensure continuity of service to claimants.
Impacted colleagues are currently having one-to-one discussions with local leaders where their individual circumstances, including any potential impact for those with protected characteristics are discussed and potential options considered therefore we do not have figures on the number of staff offered a relocation until these discussions are completed.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her oral contribution of 17 March 2022, Official report 1031, on the closure of DWP processing centres, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those closures on the processing of social security payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department’s strategic ambition for its back of house estate, announced on 17 March, will reshape how and where the Department works, resulting in a smaller, greener and better estate. This is not about reducing headcount. The Department’s priorities while delivering these changes will be to retain, retrain, and redeploy either within DWP or other government departments in order to ensure we maintain the processing and payment of benefits, where necessary, moving work across the wider delivery network to ensure continuity of service to claimants.
Impacted colleagues are currently having one-to-one discussions with local leaders where their individual circumstances, including any potential impact for those with protected characteristics are discussed and potential options considered therefore we do not have figures on the number of staff offered a relocation until these discussions are completed.