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Written Question
Jobseeker's Allowance
Wednesday 1st May 2024

Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of new Jobseeker’s Allowance claims have been completed within the planned processing timescales by (a) nation and (b) region in each year since 2010.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Table 1 - Percentage of new claims that have been completed within the planned processing timescales by benefit.

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24

Jobseekers Allowance

88.6%

86.8%

80.6%

53.1%

82.5%

87.1%

67.8%

58.7%

Employment and Support Allowance

84.6%

85.3%

73.3%

96.1%

70.9%

42.5%

47.4%

39.5%

State Pension

87.9%

73.7%

86.8%

86.7%

76.2%

45.6%

72.0%

96.2%

Pension Credit

71.0%

55.2%

53.4%

44.8%

88.2%

74.3%

45.7%

77.7%

Disability Living Allowance (child)

96.8%

96.5%

96.2%

91.3%

92.1%

35.6%

4.6%

3.5%

Personal Independence Payment

85.1%

77.2%

72.3%

40.4%

23.0%

6.8%

38.4%

51.7%

Child Maintenance Service

82.8%

87.4%

88.3%

91.6%

84.3%

84.3%

79.4%

79.6%

Universal Credit

80.4%

85.2%

90.9%

85.7%

84.4%

TBC

Comments to note:

  • Data has been provided for the years 2016-17 to 2023-24 (UC 2018-19 to 2023-24). Previous years requested are not retained centrally and the breakdown by nation and region for services except UC would only be available at a disproportionate cost.

  • In the spirit of answering the question we have provided table 1 above.

Service Performance Context:

Jobseekers Allowance

  • From the start of the pandemic until April 2021, JSA claims were subject to easements that meant face-to-face appointment was removed. In April 2021, Claimant Commitments and regular face to face engagement requirements were reintroduced.

Employment and Support Allowance

  • ESA 2019-20 to 2023-24, the new claim process for New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NSESA) changed. In April 2020 a digital claim was introduced during Covid. Prior to this, as part of the new claim process, a period up to 10 days at beginning was never measured. With the re-designed process all time is included, so it is not possible to make a like-for-like comparison with the new claim process before April 2020.

State Pension

  • Performance was severely impacted due to the need to repivot resource to other areas, such as Universal Credit, during the global pandemic. In 2021/22, resource was re-deployed to work through the backlogs. Investment in digital services in this area has also aided recovery leading to significant performance improvements in 2023/24.

Pension Credit

  • 2019/20 was impacted by substantial spikes in claims following the BBC decision to remove free TV licences. Uptake in Pension Credit has been encouraged through campaigns and again led to unprecedented claims being received when entitlement was linked to additional Cost of Living payments. This created backlogs and impacted payment timeliness as these were recovered.

Disability Living Allowance (Child)

  • Disability Living Allowance ceased in 2013 and is no longer an active benefit, it was replaced by Personal Independence Payment. Disability Living Allowance for Children continues to accept new claims and as such we have responded in respect of this benefit.
  • Demand for Child DLA has increased in recent years and is significantly higher than pre-pandemic volumes.
  • During 2020-21 we deferred case renewal activity to focus on processing new claims. Since then the service has had to service both high new claims volumes and the deferred renewal work which has led to longer processing times.
  • We have increased the numbers of staff working on Child DLA to respond to increase new claims volumes, and clear cases in date order to ensure fair customer service.

Personal Independence Payment

  • PIP performance represents a significant recovery compared to prior periods and the lowest average journey time recorded since 2018 (see published statistics)
  • PIP New Claims demand is significantly higher than pre-Covid levels, despite the devolution of Scottish claims during this period.

Child Maintenance Service

  • Child Maintenance Service application volumes have been sharply increasing with CMS receiving more than 50% more in 2023/24 than in 2021/22. This dip in performance over this time can largely be explained by this. More recently, the removal of the Application fee has also resulted in higher volumes.

Universal Credit

  • Data has been provided for the years 2018-19 to 2023-24. Detailed data by local areas is available via Stat Xplore within the Universal Credit Published Statistics (Universal Credit statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Previous years requested are not retained centrally or published and the breakdown by nation and region would only be available at a disproportionate cost.

  • The 2023-24 figures for UC are not available until May as per the Statistics Release schedule.

  • Planned timescales for all benefits are listed in table 2 below.

Table 2: Planned Timescales for new claims (current methodology)

Jobseekers Allowance

Within 10 working days

Employment and Support Allowance

Within 10 working days

State Pension

Within 20 working days of State Pension entitlement date or 20 working days of Initial date of claim if claiming after entitlement has started.

Pension Credit

Within 50 working days

Disability Living Allowance (Child)

Within 40 working days

Personal Independence Payment

Within 75 working days

Child Maintenance Service

Payment within 12 weeks

Universal Credit

% Full Payment 1st Assessment Period

Notes: The planned timescales detailed above relate to those used for the 23/24 financial year. The timescales and methodologies to calculate them have changed over time to reflect new processes, technology and demands on our services.


Written Question
Jobseeker's Allowance: Midlothian
Monday 29th April 2024

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under the age of 25 have claimed jobseeker's allowance for more than (a) one and (b) two years in each year since 2019 in Midlothian constituency.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics for the number of people on jobseeker's allowance by age, duration of claim and parliamentary constituency, are published every three months on Stat-Xplore, and are currently available to August 2023.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Appeals
Monday 13th March 2023

Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of appeals to the tribunals service in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England relating to (i) personal independence payments, (ii) employment and support allowance, (iii) jobseeker's allowance and (iv) universal credit were successful in (A) the most recent period for which figures are available and (B) each of the last three years.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Information about the outcomes of appeals in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

SSCS appeals are listed into the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. The published data (which can be viewed at the link above) provide information about the outcomes of (i) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), (ii) Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and (iv) Universal Credit (UC) appeals for hearing venues covering (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England for the period requested.

The table below contains the requested information for (iii)Job Seekers Allowance (JSA):

Coventry

West Midlands1

England2

2019/20

~

27%

39%

2020/21

~

~

27%

2021/22

80%

42%

28%

Q1 2022/23P

~

26%

25%

Q2 2022/23p

0%

~

17%

Q3 2022/23p

~

~

23%

Notes:

SSCS data is normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.

The proportion of successful appeals is based on the number of cases found in favour of the appellant at a tribunal hearing as a percentage of the cases heard at a tribunal hearing.

Data up to December 2022 in line with latest published statistics.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data that are available.

These data may differ slightly to that of the published statistics as these data were run on a different date.

1. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Nuneaton, Stoke, Telford and Worcester

2. Excludes SSCS Scotland Region and Wales Region.

~ Suppressed in line with official published stats

P Provisional, in line with published data.


Written Question
Training
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people in traineeships were in receipt of (a) Universal Credit and (b) Jobseeker's Allowance in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The table below sets out the data the Department holds on the number of trainees who started a Traineeship that month who were recorded as claiming either Universal Credit or Job Seekers Allowance. The data is for the2021/22 academic year, which is the last 12 months of full reporting available. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10.

Month

Aug 21

Sept 21

Oct 21

Nov 21

Dec 21

Jan 22

Feb 22

March 22

April 22

May 22

June 22

July 22

Universal Credit

280

400

330

450

150

190

280

290

270

370

230

180

Job Seekers’ Allowance

20

20

20

50

10

10

10

10

10

10

low

20

It is not mandatory for providers to state whether a trainee is in receipt of benefits when completing the Individualised Learner Record, nor is there a requirement for those claiming benefits to declare this information when enrolling on a Traineeship. This data may not be fully representative of the numbers of trainees in receipt of benefits.


Written Question
Jobseekers Allowance: Employment
Tuesday 31st January 2023

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the average amount of time between a person first receiving Jobseeker's Allowance and receiving a job offer, for people who gained employment in the past year.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Jobseeker's Allowance
Wednesday 7th December 2022

Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the total (a) expenditure on and (b) number of benefit claimants receiving Job Seekers Allowance in each of the last five years, in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland, (v) each local authority and (vi) each constituency.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The available information on the number of claimants who received benefits in the last five years, broken down by various geographies, is published and can be found on Stat-Xplore. Benefits include Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support, Jobseekers’ Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Personal Independence Payment.

You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Benefit statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Uprating
Tuesday 6th December 2022

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the (a) New Style Contributory Employment and Support Allowance, (b) Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance and (c) Income-related Jobseeker's Allowance will be uprated by the inflation rate announced in his Autumn 2022 Statement.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Yes, they will.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Monday 5th December 2022

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much the threshold for (1) income support, (2) income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, (3) income-related Employment and Support Allowance, (4) housing benefit, (5) child tax credits, and (6) pension credits, has increased (a) in line with inflation, and (b) in monetary terms, each year since 1997.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

For the benefits listed there are many different rates. The tables in the spreadsheet attached show a selection of illustrative examples for each benefit in both cash and real terms.

Child Tax Credits are administered by HMRC and are not a DWP responsibility. Rates are therefore not provided here.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Debts
Thursday 1st December 2022

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants have deductions attached to their claim for non-universal credit debts; and if he will publish a breakdown of the number of those claimants for each benefit.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of customers who had deductions from UC posted to non-UC debts on Debt Manager in October 2022 was 776,664.

The table below shows the benefit to which the deductions were posted. Note that the total number of customers who had deduction posted, will be fewer than the number shown in the table, as some customers will have had deductions posted to more than one debt in the month of October, the period covered by the table, e.g., one debt ended, and another commenced.

Benefit

Volume

Attendance Allowance

10

Affordable Credit Deductions Scheme

7,280

Administrative Penalty

480

Bereavement Allowance

10

Carers Allowance

28,430

CA Short Term Advance

0

Civil Penalty

4,800

Disability Living Allowance

1,340

Disability Working Allowance

0

Employment & Support Allowance: Contribution Based

2,390

ESAC Short Term Advance

10

Employment & Support Allowance: Income Related

17,930

ESAIR Short Term Advance

90

Employment & Support Allowance: New Style

390

Exceptionally Severe Disablement Allowance

0

Family Credit

50

Housing Benefit

86,120

Income Support

42,330

IS Short Term Advance

30

Incapacity Benefit

1,250

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit

0

Integration Loans Scheme

2,310

Invalidity Benefit

10

Jobseeker's Allowance: Contribution Based

410

JSAC Short Term Advance

110

Jobseeker's Allowance: Income Based

9,870

JSAIB Short Term Advance

540

Jobseeker's Allowance: New Style

1,280

Maternity Allowance

140

Pension Credit

190

Personal Independence Payment

1,640

Reduced Earnings Allowance

0

Retirement Pension: Contributory

10

Non-Contributory Retirement Pension Short Term Advance

0

Sickness Benefit

0

Severe Disablement Allowance

50

Social Fund Budgeting Loan

112,690

Social Fund Crisis Loan

40,110

Social Fund: Budgeting Loan Overpayment

180

Social Fund: Community Care Grant Overpayment

20

Social Fund: Crisis Loan Overpayment

50

Social Fund Cold Weather Overpayment

40

Social Fund: Funeral Payment Overpayment

10

Social Fund: SS Maternity Grant Overpayment

10

Supplementary Benefit

50

Tax Credit Overpayment

515,120

Non-UC Tax Credit Overpayment

7,860

Unemployment Benefit

10

Widow's Benefit

10

Widowed Mother's Allowance

40

Widows Pension

10

Widowed Parent's Allowance

460

Please note that the numbers provided have been rounded to the nearest 10.


Written Question
Jobseeker's Allowance: National Insurance Credits
Wednesday 19th October 2022

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people on Jobseeker's Allowance were not receiving Class 1 National Insurance credits in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

All claimants in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance are entitled to receive Class 1 National Insurance credits and these are awarded automatically on an annual basis. Claimants cannot receive Class 1 National Insurance Credits in any week where their award is reduced by a sanction.

DWP does not hold data on each individual’s National Insurance credits.

Any UC claimant not receiving these credits should contact HMRC.