The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of the contract between his Department and SCC for providing server support for the universal credit portal.
Damian Hinds
This information can be found on the Contract Finder website – please see the below link.
https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans are in place to ensure that a server issue with the universal credit portal does not reoccur.
Damian Hinds
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will prepare an impact assessment of any future server outage on the universal credit portal.
Damian Hinds
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations made by the UK Statistics Agency in August 2015, what plans his Department has to extend the range of benefit sanction data available by addressing gaps in information on repeat sanctions and hardship payments alongside the development of sanction data from the universal credit system.
Damian Hinds
The sanctions publication strategy which details the approach being taken by DWP statisticians to improve the sanctions statistics being developed, which include the addition of Universal Credit sanction statistics, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-sanction-statistics-publication-strategy
The latest release of sanction statistics within the Quarterly Statistical Summary: August 2016 includes an experimental monthly rate of claimants sanctioned and can be found (on page12) at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-statistical-summaries-2016
The related background information to support this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-rate-of-claimants-sanctioned-background-information-and-methodology
Management Information data on the number of applications and awards for hardship payments were published on 18th November 2015 and can be found at:
We will consider the regularity of future publications of hardship statistics alongside our routine prioritisation of our statistical work programme.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on claimants of the (a) seven waiting days at the beginning of a universal credit claim and (b) six week period a claimant must wait before receiving their initial payment.
Damian Hinds
Many claimants come to Universal Credit with final earnings to support them until their first payment, and they often find work quickly.
The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure is a fundamental part of the design; it mirrors the world of work, where 75% of people are paid monthly.
As with other working age benefits, Universal Credit is not designed to provide cover for brief spells of unemployment or sickness, and seven waiting days are served in Universal Credit as they are in Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
We have a number of safeguards in place to help claimants’ transition to Universal Credit, including Advances and Budgeting Support.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide details of the contracts that his Department has with the technology company SCC.
Caroline Nokes
The Department does not hold any direct contracts with the technology company SCC. It has however tendered services from SCC via the Crown Commercial Service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were affected by the recent server issue affecting the universal credit portal; and if he will make a statement.
Damian Hinds
Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.
The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.
We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policy on state pension age increases of the Pensions Policy Institute briefing note, published on 27 July 2016, on the effect of rises in state pension age on vulnerable people; and if he will make it his policy to allow early access to a full or reduced state pension for people who have 45 years of national insurance contributions.
Richard Harrington
The Government will consider the evidence on future approaches to State Pension age in the course of the first review of the State Pension age, conducted under Section 27 of the 2014 Pensions Act, which will report by 7 May 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether housing benefit recipients living in supported housing due to mental health problems will be subject to the benefit cap.
Caroline Nokes
People receiving a range of disability benefits including Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment or who receive the support component of Employment and Support Allowance, are exempt from the benefit cap. The benefit cap does apply to claimants living in specified accommodation if they do not meet the criteria for an exemption but any Housing Benefit they receive will not be taken into account when determining whether the cap should be applied.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the savings to the Exchequer resulting from the future transfer of responsibility for funding television licences for people over 75 from his Department to the BBC for (a) Glasgow South West constituency, (b) Glasgow City Council and (c) Scotland.
Richard Harrington
The summer budget 2015 announced a number of fundamental changes relating to the BBC and free TV licences for those aged 75 and over. DWP will cease to fund free TV licences from 2019/20 and the BBC will absorb the cost of this and take responsibility for the policy which currently sits with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is estimated that the provision of free TV licences for 2016/17 will cost £629m and DWP will continue to make a transfer to the BBC during the phasing period, as set out in the table below.
|
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
|
|
HMG transfer for free TV licences (£m) |
468 |
247 |
0 |
DWP resources currently assigned to the provision and collation of data relating to the free television licence scheme for people aged 75 and over is 12 staff days per annum. Any plans for the future role of employees and contractors will be determined following detailed discussions between my Department and the BBC nearer the time the BBC take full responsibility for funding and policy.
In 2014/15 the cost of providing free TV licences to those 75 and over in Scotland was £49m and it is estimated the cost for qualifying residents in Glasgow South West constituency and Glasgow City local authority area was £0.7m and £4m respectively.
The cost of the free TV licences to those aged 75 and over in Scotland for 2015/16 will be published on 21 September on the DWP website. Breakdowns by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency use that Scotland expenditure estimate and are therefore not currently available.
Savings to the Exchequer resulting from the future transfer of responsibility for funding television licences for people aged 75 or over were set out in the summer budget 2015.