Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she is taking steps to minimise the financial impact of a failure to pay child maintenance on the receiving parent in the context of the cost-of-living crisis.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
Total child maintenance collected using Enforcement Actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to September 2022 compared with £33.8 in September 2021 and £28.4 in September 2020.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to September 2022).
As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity £58.5 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter ending September 2022 compared to £44.8 million in the quarter ending September 2020.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics: National Tables – table 6 ‘How much maintenance the Child Maintenance Service has arranged’ January 2015 to September 2022).
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 adequacy of funding provided to the Child Maintenance Service's Financial Investigation Unit.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) is allocated 2.36% of the Child Maintenance Service funding. The amount allocated to FIU is proportionate to the number of resources on the team.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount of time is for a Child Maintenance Service case to be concluded once it has been referred to the Financial Investigation Unit.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Financial Investigations are average currently taking 23 weeks from allocation to completion by an investigator. Criminal cases will take significantly longer.
All timings will depend on the complexity of each individual case.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement powers of the Child Maintenance Service for ensuring that parents receive the money they are owed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes.
The UK went into its first lockdown on the 23rd March 2020, its second on the 5th November 2020 and its third on the 6th January 2021. The Child Maintenance Service was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant changes to the Department’s operational priorities and staffing resources. CMS have worked in partnership with Courts and Enforcement Agents following the restrictions on Enforcement activity during this period to quickly return to normal operating practice and pursue non-compliant parents.
Total child maintenance collected using Enforcement Actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to September 2022 compared with £33.8 in September 2021 and £28.4 in September 2020. This rise in collections is linked directly to increased collections through Deductions from Earnings Orders, lump sum and regular deductions taken directly from paying parents’ bank accounts, Liability Order and Bailiff actions and making full use of all available sanctions.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to September 2022).
As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity £49.4 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter to June 2022 compared to the quarter ending December 2019 where £44.1 million was paid before the impact of the pandemic took effect.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 5 ‘Money Due and Paid each quarter’ January 2015 to September 2022).
There has been a consistent downward trend in the proportion of unpaid maintenance as a proportion of maintenance arranged since 2017, falling from 12.5% in 2017 to 8.2% in September 2022.
(Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables - table 6 ‘ how much maintenance CMS has arranged March 2015 to September 2022).
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 adequacy of response times to complaints about the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We aim to contact customers within 15 working days to clear their complaint or agree how to investigate it if it will take longer.
DWP now triage complaints giving priority to vulnerable claimants who may be at risk, and those with benefit payment issues. We continue to investigate all complaints as quickly as we can and, as part of the triage process, we write or call those customers, hon. members where there may be a delay in answering their complaint.
Since 2021, Child Maintenance Service complaints team has seen their response times to complainants steadily improve and are now responding to almost all complaints within the timescale.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to support food banks, in the context of increases in demand for their resources.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation.
There is no consistent and accurate measure of foodbank usage at a constituency or national level. We understand the data limitations in this area, and therefore from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track foodbank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. Our commitment to include questions in the Family Resources Survey shows how seriously we take this issue; the data is vital to ensure we understand the full picture.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes and we will spend £245bn through the welfare system in 2022/23.
The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third.
All benefit rates and State Pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022. This will mean that, subject to parliamentary approval, they will increase by 10.1% in April. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1% subject to parliamentary approval.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to over eight million pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the amended Energy Price Guarantee will save the average UK household £500 in 2023/24.
To further support those who are in work, from 1 April 2023 subject to parliamentary approval, the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula. The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need to help with global inflationary challenges and the significantly rising cost of living. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 households that received a food bank parcel in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation.
There is no consistent and accurate measure of foodbank usage at a constituency or national level. We understand the data limitations in this area, and therefore from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track foodbank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. Our commitment to include questions in the Family Resources Survey shows how seriously we take this issue; the data is vital to ensure we understand the full picture.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes and we will spend £245bn through the welfare system in 2022/23.
The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third.
All benefit rates and State Pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022. This will mean that, subject to parliamentary approval, they will increase by 10.1% in April. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1% subject to parliamentary approval.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to over eight million pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the amended Energy Price Guarantee will save the average UK household £500 in 2023/24.
To further support those who are in work, from 1 April 2023 subject to parliamentary approval, the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula. The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need to help with global inflationary challenges and the significantly rising cost of living. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to support food banks with increases in the cost of utilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation.
There is no consistent and accurate measure of foodbank usage at a constituency or national level. We understand the data limitations in this area, and therefore from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track foodbank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. Our commitment to include questions in the Family Resources Survey shows how seriously we take this issue; the data is vital to ensure we understand the full picture.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes and we will spend £245bn through the welfare system in 2022/23.
The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third.
All benefit rates and State Pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022. This will mean that, subject to parliamentary approval, they will increase by 10.1% in April. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1% subject to parliamentary approval.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to over eight million pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the amended Energy Price Guarantee will save the average UK household £500 in 2023/24.
To further support those who are in work, from 1 April 2023 subject to parliamentary approval, the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund, running in England from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421 million of funding. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula. The Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need to help with global inflationary challenges and the significantly rising cost of living. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 suitability of information on their eligibility for benefits sent to members of the public who (a) do not have access to the internet, (b) are unable to use the internet, (c) are unable to read or write and (d) do not have English as their first language.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DWP seeks to identify individuals who have complex user needs and / or require additional support to enable them to access our benefit and services. We provide a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs at any point throughout their journey and ensures appropriate support is made available quickly. This includes those who do not have internet access.
DWP continuously reviews and improves the service for people who claim, or seek to claim, benefits to ensure services are accessible and responsive to citizen needs. All new work coaches undergo mandatory training in the identification and support for vulnerable customers. Specific training and guidance is provided for all staff on working with different vulnerable groups.
DWPs Jobcentres provide access to services for claimants who need face-to-face support. Jobcentres also display, outside each site, a telephone number with details of how to contact DWP. Jobcentre colleagues are available to those claimants who need us most.
Help to Claim support is delivered independently by Citizens Advice, in partnership with Citizens Advice Scotland, with support provided through telephony and digital channels. Those individuals who are unable to access support via these channels can go to their local Jobcentre, local libraries, local advice centres and community organisations where they can use computers with internet access free of charge.
DWP has contracted provision for Interpreter and Translation Services. This provision meets Equality Act 2010 obligations and can be arranged for claimants where English is not their first language, or who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. It is DWPs policy to use an interpreter when we need to communicate with a claimant who:
Individuals can choose to use their own interpreter if they prefer.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which energy provider supplies energy to their Department; how much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is; and what recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s main energy suppliers are Total Energies for gas and EDF for electricity, these supplies are arranged in a tri-party contract with Crown Commercial Services (CCS). DWP aims to ensure all supplies are made with CCS. However, as the DWP acquires new properties, incumbent suppliers (whoever they may be) are adopted in the short term whilst the supply is changed over.
The below list includes suppliers that have served DWP in the last 6 months.
Supplier | Electricity | Gas |
British Gas | Y | |
Bulb Energy | Y | |
Corona Energy | Y | |
Drax | Y | |
Ecotricity | Y | |
EDF Energy | Y | |
Engie | Y | |
Eon | Y | |
Eon Next | Y | Y |
Npower | Y | |
Opus Energy | Y | |
Pozitive Energy | Y | |
Scottish Power | Y | |
Smartest Energy | Y | |
SSE | Y | Y |
Totalenergies Gas & Power Ltd | Y | Y |
Unify Energy Ltd | Y | |
United Gas & Power Limited | Y |
How much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available?
*Spring and summer months
Whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is.
What recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use
The department has a carbon and water management plan as well as a sustainability strategy and is currently running a number of projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. These include: