Tag: Frank Field

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-10-27.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to lines 41 and 42 of Table 2.1 of the Summer Budget 2015 Red Book (HC 264), page 73, what the savings to the public purse would be if those measures were to be applied only to households that are not currently in receipt of tax credits or universal credit.

Damian Hinds

This Government is committed to moving from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax, higher wage society. As the Chancellor made clear on [Monday / 26 October], the Government will set out at Autumn Statement how we plan to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits, saving the money we need to save to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

The Summer Budget offered a new deal for working people. A new National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and above, initially set at £7.20 per hour from April 2016, will directly benefit 2.7 million low wage workers, and up to 6 million could see a pay rise as a result of a ripple effect up the earnings distribution. The new National Living Wage will boost pay for those currently earning the National Minimum Wage by £4,800 a year by 2020 when the National Living Wage is expected to rise to over £9 per hour.

To help working families keep more of what they earn, the personal allowance will increase to £11,000 in 2016-17 and £11,200 in 2017-18. The government has committed to increase the personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020 which will mean that a typical basic rate taxpayer will see their income tax cut by £1,205 a year compared to 2010.

The government set out its assessment of the impacts of the Summer Budget policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to lay before Parliament her report on the steps she will take in relation to the powers conferred by section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act on independent child trafficking advocates.

Karen Bradley

Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps it proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act. The Government will publish this report by 16 December, whilst Parliament is sitting.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to update the Pension Service leaflet entitled, A detailed guide to State Pensions to include the introduction of the new State Pension from 6 April 2016.

Justin Tomlinson

“A detailed guide to State Pensions” (publication NP46) was a technical guide aimed primarily at third party advisers and stakeholders, not general members of the public. This guide has not been available since 2010.

We continue to work with stakeholders to supply detailed information on the new State Pension before April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) average and (b) contractually-specified maximum length of time is that a claimant has to wait for their complaint to be resolved by Concentrix.

Mr David Gauke

Concentrix are obliged under their contract with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to respond to complaints which relate to the quality of their handling of compliance interventions, as distinct from complaints on the substance of these investigations which are dealt with by HMRC.

Their contract requires them to respond 80% of these complaints within 15 working days; and to reply to 100% of complaints within 40 working days. So far during 2015/16, Concentrix have received eight complaints. They replied to six of these (75%) within 15 days and seven (87.5%) within 40 days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of households in temporary accommodation which will be affected by the introduction of the lower benefit cap; and if he will estimate the average proportion of the income of such households that will be subject to that cap.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July. A link to the impact assessment is included.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people applying for personal independence payments have passed their medical in each of the most recent 24 months for which data is available.

Justin Tomlinson

The assessment for Personal Independence Payment considers the impact of conditions and impairments on individuals’ everyday lives. The assessment is not a medical one but is focussed on the claimant’s functional ability.

DWP decision-makers review the assessment report and the Claimant Questionnaire along with any other available evidence before making a decision about benefit entitlement.

Data on Personal Independence Payment registrations, clearances and award rates are available on Gov.UK and were most recently updated on 16 December: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims have been made for a Short Term Benefit Advance in the last six months for which data is available; and what the outcomes of those claims were.

Priti Patel

Please see table below for Short Term Benefit Advance (STBA) applications and the outcomes of those claims;

	Aug-15	Sep-15	Oct-15	Nov-15	Dec-15	Jan-16
STBA Requests Received	17,450	17,188	17,391	17,355	17,428	17,526
STBA Requests Primary Benefit Paid (where the primary benefit has been paid negating the need for an STBA)	3,420	3,984	3,890	3,688	3,971	3,699
STBA Requests Disallowed	5,691	5,398	4,973	4,749	4,938	5,375
STBAs Awarded	15,372	15,922	17,515	18,240	21,844	25,118

The data provided is for Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefits, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is after a new (a) jobseeker’s allowance and (b) employment and support allowance claim has been processed to make a first payment to a claimant.

Priti Patel

The Department does not hold data on the time taken to make a payment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement of age discrimination legislation in respect of people seeking employment.

Caroline Dinenage

Age is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. Where differential treatment because of age cannot be objectively justified, this will constitute unlawful age discrimination both in employment and in the provision of goods and services. Enforcement of the Act’s employment provisions is undertaken by Employment Tribunals, to which a person must make a claim if they feel that they have been discriminated against because of age.

Prior to an Employment Tribunal claim, conciliation services are provided by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (Acas). According to the Employment tribunal statistics, 1,087 age discrimination claims were made to Employment Tribunals in 2014/15. 70% (761) of these claims were either withdrawn or successfully conciliated by Acas without the need for a full hearing. The Acas process is intended to enable employers and employees to resolve disputes without the need for a full Employment Tribunal hearing.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s enforcement powers under the Equality Act 2006 apply to age discrimination as they do to other protected characteristics.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions has the personal independence payment (PIP) telephone has been unobtainable to the public in 2016; and how many people calling to enquire about PIP have been affected by those incidents.

Justin Tomlinson

The total number of calls made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Claims and Enquiry lines that were unable to access our services due to heavy demand at peak periods including customers receiving a busy or engaged tone are set out below, this covers the period 1 January to 30 April 2016:

	Calls Received	Calls not Connected	% Not connected
PIP Claims	411,147	168	0.04%
PIP Enquiries	1,113,803	18,949	1.70%

The department employs the following contingency arrangements to reduce the level of unanswered calls::

• assigning staff that are undertaking clerical work to take calls for busy periods,
• opening extra hours and ask for staff to volunteer to take additional calls
• postponing non-priority offline time (L+D, team meetings etc.) to meet the demands of the customers
• increasing the amount of open lines before a call is blocked by the network.