Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to (a) collect and (b) publish management information on the number of people who have (i) had changes to their National Insurance record and (ii) are waiting to have their state pension calculation updated.
Answered by Paul Maynard
DWP does not publish this information as changes to a citizen’s National Insurance Record forms part of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) function. When DWP receives notification from HMRC of a change in a citizen’s National Insurance record, DWP reviews the State Pension claim accordingly.
The vast majority of changes to a citizen’s National Insurance Record are processed by DWP within days. However, more complex cases requiring specialist caseworkers can take longer to resolve.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of automating data-sharing between his Department's Disability Service Centre and its Universal Credit section.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Department is always looking to make improvements to the design of the service and continues to review the way in which processes can be further automated.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many civil servants are employed in roles relating to the administration of the Access to Work scheme as of 30 January 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
As of 30 January 2024, there were 487.48 full time equivalent civil servants employed to administer Access to Work.
Please note that the data supplied is from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the longest time taken to transfer a claim for a Personal Independence Payment to a claim under Social Security Scotland for an Adult Disability Payment was in each month in 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department does not hold the data requested. The process for transferring claims from Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has been designed and agreed with the Scottish Government in order to facilitate a safe and secure process. Most cases transferring from PIP to ADP are designed to take between 13 weeks and 16 weeks and 6 days to transfer, aligning with pay cycles. However, the time it takes for ADP to be put into payment following a case transfer trigger is a matter for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time was for transferring a claim for the Personal Independence Payment to the Adult Disability Payment under Social Security Scotland in each month in 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department does not hold the data requested. The process for transferring claims from Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has been designed and agreed with the Scottish Government in order to facilitate a safe and secure process. Most cases transferring from PIP to ADP are designed to take between 13 weeks and 16 weeks and 6 days to transfer, aligning with pay cycles. However, the time it takes for ADP to be put into payment following a case transfer trigger is a matter for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of Carers Allowance and State Pension being overlapping benefits on levels of pensioner poverty.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
No such assessment has been made. Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need.
Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances, they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces some income where the carer is not able to work full time due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules normally operate to prevent them being paid together. However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance, which is currently £76.75.
Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week – over £2,200 a year - and around 100,000 carers receive it as part of their Pension Credit award. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. The State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. In April 2023 the State Pension was increased by 10.1% and, subject to parliamentary approval, will be increased by a further 8.5% increase from April 2024. In 2021/22, there were 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10. As far as pensioner carers are concerned, additional financial support is already available, focussed on those in most need.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit recipients had payments reduced to nil due to two earnings payments in the assessment period between (a) 26 January 2023 and 25 February 2023 and (b) 18 August 2023 and 17 September 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The information requested is the subject of an upcoming statistical release, and cannot be released before that publication is ready, subject to usual quality assurance.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to monitor the adequacy of claimant reviews conducted by work coaches in relation to the Back to Work plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Claimant Commitment review meetings are currently in development and will be for those claimants who are still unemployed after the 12-month Restart programme.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2023 to Question 3350 on Access to Work Programme, how many applications to the Access to Work scheme were rejected in each month from April 2021 to April 2022.
Answered by Paul Maynard
In response to your question, I have provided the information on applications not receiving an Access to Work award below:
April 2021 – 1,678
May 2021 – 1,579
June 2021 – 1,909
July 2021 – 1,784
August 2021 – 1,285
September 2021 – 1,547
October 2021 – 1,853
November 2021 – 2,082
December 2021 – 1,954
January 2022 – 1,807
February 2022 – 1,615
March 2022 – 2016
April 2022 – 1,478
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to Work Capability Assessments on levels of poverty among benefit claimants.
Answered by Jo Churchill
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of the changes to Work Capability Assessments on levels of poverty amongst benefit claimants.
We published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment criteria on 22 November, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people, and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.
From 2025, we will make changes to the WCA that continue to protect those with the most severe conditions, while ensuring those that can work are supported in doing so. Most existing claimants that have already been assessed without work-related requirements, will be able to benefit from our Chance to Work Guarantee. This change will in effect abolish the WCA for the vast majority of this group, and they will be able to move towards work without fear of reassessment.
It is right that where people can be supported towards work that they are given that opportunity. There is clear evidence about the importance of work in substantially reducing the risks of poverty - in 2021/22, working age adults living in workless families were seven times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in families where all adults work. These measures are focused on improving employment and independent living outcomes for disabled people and people with health conditions and spreading opportunity right across the country so people can fulfil their potential.