Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care to the hon. Member for South Shields of December 2023, whether her Department has received personal identifiable data from the Department for Work and Pensions on people who are eligible for Healthy Start.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care does not receive personal data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on those eligible for the Healthy Start scheme. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) runs the scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department is continuing to work closely with the NHS BSA and the DWP, in order for the NHS BSA to receive the personal data held by the DWP for those potentially eligible citizens, as soon as possible. The NHS BSA will use this data to reach out to those eligible, who are not currently in receipt of Healthy Start, to encourage them to apply for the Healthy Start scheme.
Mentions:
1: Debbie Abrahams (Lab - Oldham East and Saddleworth) their rights at work, and the UK’s own equality watchdog has said that the Department for Work and Pensions - Speech Link
2: Mims Davies (Con - Mid Sussex) Lady for her point, which takes me back to our time on the Work and Pensions Committee. - Speech Link
3: Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on state pension - Speech Link
4: Mims Davies (Con - Mid Sussex) Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions continue to have regular discussions about state pension - Speech Link
5: Mims Davies (Con - Mid Sussex) As the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has said, there will be no undue haste, and we will be - Speech Link
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on Healthy Start uptake on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Mentions:
1: Kirsty Blackman (SNP - Aberdeen North) They are putting less money into the NHS than they proposed in autumn 2022. - Speech Link
2: Alistair Carmichael (LD - Orkney and Shetland) That is why we have the legacy of the link between national insurance and pensions, which was pointed - Speech Link
3: James Murray (LAB - Ealing North) know what impact the Conservatives’ £46 billion unfunded tax plan will have on pensioners and their pensions - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Andrew Western (Lab - Stretford and Urmston) NHS waiting lists are currently at 7.8 million, with more than 177,000 people on waiting lists in my - Speech Link
2: Mel Stride (Con - Central Devon) The pensions Minister, my hon. - Speech Link
3: Liz Kendall (Lab - Leicester West) Today, their Prime Minister admitted that he has failed on NHS waiting lists, which the long-term sick - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Alan Brown (SNP - Kilmarnock and Loudoun) Having said that, given that the current Labour shadow Work and Pensions Secretary has never uttered - Speech Link
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints her Department received about the (a) processing and (b) administration of GP pensions in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the NHS Pension Scheme. NHS England act as the host board for general practitioners (GPs) and are responsible for local pension administration for GPs. This is provided through the Primary Care Support England contract they hold with Capita. Complaints about the processing and administration of GP pensions may be directed to the NHSBSA or NHS England. The NHSBSA and NHS England operate their own complaints processes.
The Department does not routinely receive complaints on GP pension matters, but it does receive items of correspondence on this issue. However, it is not possible to isolate items of correspondence relating to GP pension processing and administration from other items of correspondence relating to NHS Pension Scheme policy.
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 discussions he has had with the NHS on the impact of its timescales for providing medical evidence for child Disability Living Allowance claims on the time taken to process those claims.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions regularly talk with external stakeholders, including the NHS on a wide range of topics.
To ensure they have sufficient information to make accurate decisions on a child’s entitlement to Disability Living Allowance as quickly as possible, decision makers will request evidence from a number of sources. These include health and educational professionals involved in the care of the child. The Department of Work and Pensions also employ medical advisors who provide comprehensive guidance to decision makers.
Mentions:
1: Sweeney, Paul (Lab - Glasgow) The purpose of the instrument is to increase, by 1.68 per cent overall, the value of NHS optical vouchers - Speech Link
2: Sweeney, Paul (Lab - Glasgow) The policy note states that the instrument will allow for new NHS charges to apply in cases in which - Speech Link