Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the process is for the provision of accessible formats to people with a visual impairment making a claim for personal independence payment; and on how many occasions have claimants with visual impairments been issued with (a) an audio description (b) Braille (c) large print, (d) Moon and (e) telephone assistance in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Claimants can ask for a variety of alternative formats during the initial call to claim or at any time during their claim via letter, email, phone call or via the video relay service. We offer various alternative formats suitable for those with a visual impairment. These include, Large Print, Extra Large Print, Braille, Moon, Audio CD and Email for those who use specific software’s i.e Jaws or Dragon. We also offer telephone assistance and Visiting Officers to assist the customer on the PIP journey.
Unfortunately, we do not have a breakdown of figures for each alternative format as there are several teams throughout PIP Regional Benefit Centres and Alternative Format Teams who record volumes of work not specific formats. To provide this information would be at a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress has been made with housing associations in (a) Glasgow South West constituency and (b) Glasgow on their access to information from the Landlord Portal on universal credit claimants; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Universal Credit Landlord Portal allows social landlords who are registered users, to verify rent and submit managed payment requests through the Landlord Portal, rather than through the established email processes.
Our Trusted Partner scheme allows social landlords to play a key role in engaging with their tenants who are on Universal Credit, helping those who cannot manage their housing payments to access the support available and to request that managed payments are in place where appropriate.
There are now over 750 Social Landlords using the Portal and Trusted Partner scheme, and enrolment onto the Portal & Trusted Partner remains open for any eligible Social Landlords (further details can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-landlord-portal-and-trusted-partner-scheme-for-social-landlords/landlord-portal-and-trusted-partner-scheme-for-social-landlords). The total number of landlords currently enrolled on the Portal represent around 96% of the total Social Rented Sector housing stock.
The Department maintains guidance on GOV.UK, relevant for private and social sector landlords, with information about Universal Credit including the Landlord Portal which has existed since 2017. This can be accessed at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--2/universal-credit-and-rented-housing-guide-for-landlords
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to respond to the email from the hon. Member for Birkenhead on the disability living allowance award of his constituent Ella May Allinson.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A response was sent to the Rt Hon. Member on Friday 1 November 2019.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of offices in her Department whom third party advice agencies may need to contact cannot be contacted by secure email.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP adheres to Email Security and Policy guidelines when exchanging information with third parties.
We have a list of Trusted Partners who are deemed to have the appropriate security in place to allow us to exchange information with. If an organisation does not meet the criteria to be on the trusted partner list, we have an option to use software to encrypt e-mail between us and the third party which will then allow us to exchange data securely. Currently we communicate with 1100 external recipients via this method from 450 organisations. If the external agency cannot support either of the above then we would not be able to exchange information securely via email and would need to agree an alternative method with them.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will set out a timetable for ensuring that all fax machines in (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies are replaced with secure email.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does not currently have a set timetable in place to reduce/remove the ability to send and receive fax messages.
However alternative, wider digital channels of communication will become available to customers & DWP colleagues that will naturally reduce the need to utilise faxes by viewing and sharing data information at source, under secure measures.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for universal credit have been closed due to the claimant not responding to an email or online request broken down by length of time in each year since its introduction.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not held by the Department.
The following table shows the number of claims closed and reason for closure for both new claims prior to payment and claims that were in payment:
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what circumstances her Department refers universal credit claimants to contact their Member of Parliament.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Information is available via Gov.uk regarding the Department’s complaints procedure and what steps people can take if at any stage they disagree with the response they have received from the Department.
If after following the Department’s complaints procedure a claimant remains unsatisfied with the Departments final response, they can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to review the Departments handling of the complaint.
If the claimant is unhappy with the response they receive from ICE we would then advise the claimant to contact their Member of Parliament (MP) to request the complaint is sent to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for further review.
In addition, the Department will respond to all complaints regarding current Policy/Legislation providing a full explanation of the Policy and how it is applied. However, if the claimant disagrees with the actual Policy/Legislation rather than its application they may be advised to contact their local MP to raise their concerns.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure
Prior to the roll-out of Universal Credit Full Service in their constituency, both Ministers and Service Leaders (formally District managers) wrote to each Hon. Member. The letter explained the implicit consent arrangements for MPs and also provided the telephone number and email address of the Service Leader in the constituency, so that MPs can contact Service Leaders if there are urgent constituent cases that need attention. This is the best route to raise issues on behalf of constituents and works well because MPs’ offices can establish local relationships.
We have recently written to hon. Members to confirm named contacts and local telephone numbers to allow local constituency related Universal Credit cases to be raised directly. The letters also extend an invitation for MPs to visit their local Jobcentre to see the work they are doing.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of deaf support services to (a) constituents in West Lancashire and (b) people throughout Lancashire by (i) Lancashire County Council, (ii) the NHS, (iii) courts, (iv) local authorities and (v) other public agencies.
Answered by Sarah Newton
It is for each Government department and public authority to make adequate provision for deaf support services. Disability in the UK is mainstreamed. This means that whilst I promote disability issues across government, every department is ultimately responsible for considering disability in the development and implementation of its policies and services.
For services provided by the Department for Work and Pensions to customers who are deaf or have hearing loss, we provide the following services:
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on disabled claimants of personal independence payment (PIP) of the closure of the Atos PIP customer service email.
Answered by Sarah Newton
A general email enquiry address is not currently available but work is underway to introduce a new online contact route as soon as possible in 2019. Where claimants require contact via email as a reasonable adjustment to make a claim, Independent Assessment Services continue to make arrangements to do so. There are a range of contact routes currently available to claimants, including a free phone enquiry line, written enquiries by post or a range of alternative formats including braille, large print, text phone & sign video to assist claimants within the claim process.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that disabled people have access to a customer service email address for personal independence payment assessments.
Answered by Sarah Newton
A general email enquiry address is not currently available but work is underway to introduce a new online customer service route as soon as possible in 2019. Where claimants require contact via email as a reasonable adjustment to make a claim, Independent Assessment Services continue to make arrangements to do so.