Tag: Alan Brown

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-01-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to enable his Department’s child tax credit department to answer the enquiries of hon. Members electronically.

Mr David Gauke

The use of standard email is insecure and therefore in order to protect customers’ information, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not use it when dealing with sensitive personal and financial information. However, HMRC does answer MPs enquiries electronically in cases where the response does not include any sensitive customer data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to introduce lifetime awards for people assessed as requiring the upper personal independence payment allowance mobility component who have been diagnosed with muscle degenerative diseases or conditions.

Justin Tomlinson

Personal Independence Payment is specifically designed to ensure that the benefit is awarded to those with the greatest need and the award review process is integral to ensuring this happens. Under Disability Living Allowance over 70% of all claims had no review built-in, meaning that claimants could have been receiving too much or too little in benefit.

We take a personalised approach to setting the length of awards, varying the frequency and format of awards and reviews depending on the individual’s needs and the likelihood of their health condition or impairment changing.

Where the claimant has high levels of functional impairment which are only likely to increase or not improve, it is likely that the claimant will receive an enhanced rate of benefit and a longer term award.

We recognise that it is important to ensure that the review process is applied sensitively and appropriately. As such, it is likely that the awards of such claimants would also go through a less intensive review process which may not, if all the necessary information is held, include a face-to-face assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32963, how many people who have personal independence payments with enhanced mobility payments have initial awards of (a) three years or less and (b) greater than three years before further re-assessment is required.

Justin Tomlinson

The review date is set at 12 months before the end of the award so there are no changes to the benefit paid before the re-assessment takes place.

As at 31^st January 2016, there were 218,270 claims in payment with enhanced mobility payments, of which;

(a) 112,340 had an initial award that had a review date of three years or less

(b) 105,960 had an initial award that had a review date of greater than three years.

This is unpublished data and, as such, it does not meet the quality standard required for official statistics publication. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.

Notes;

1) The source of the data is the PIP computer system.

2) Figures are correct as at 31^st January 2016 and have been rounded to the nearest 10.

3) Figures include both new claims and reassessment claims, and normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claims.

4) Figures are for Great Britain.

5) We have provided data based on when the initial award’s review date was set to be, as this is the point at which the claimant would be invited to undertake an award review (i.e. further reassessment of their claim). The award review date occurs exactly 12 months before the initial claim end date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent progress has been made on her Department’s market stabilisation Contract for Difference policy; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom

A number of stakeholders have suggested the concept of a market stabilising Contracts for Difference (CFD) for Pot 1 technologies. We have not yet decided whether to pursue any of the proposed options at this time.

Our focus has been on delivering the next CFD Allocation Round by the end of 2016 which we announced at the Budget, with £290m for less established technologies. We will be making announcements in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions he has had with stakeholders in the UK on devolution of control over immigration to the Scottish Parliament once the UK leave the EU.

Mr David Jones

Legislation resulting from the UK’s exit must work for the whole of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister has already held initial conversations with the leaders of the devolved Governments about our plans, and she will make sure that the devolved Administrations have every opportunity to work closely with us.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that job vacancy statistics do not double-count jobs advertised through multiple agencies on the job vacancy portal.

Priti Patel

The official vacancy statistics are national statistics, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and not DWP. ONS is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and is the recognised national statistical institute for the UK.

The ONS is overseen by the UK Statistics Authority, which is an independent body operating at arm’s length from government as a non-ministerial department, directly accountable to Parliament. The UK Statistics authority provides independent scrutiny (monitoring and assessment) of all official statistics produced in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-01-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much correspondence the child tax credits enquiry department receives by fax each day.

Damian Hinds

We do not hold information on the number of faxes received on child tax credits within HMRC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Housing Statistical Release Right to Buy Sales October to December 2015, published on 24 March 2016, what the average length of time was from a start on site to occupancy.

Brandon Lewis

This information is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32963, how many people have been allocated personal independence payments with enhanced mobility payments; and how many of those people have been classed as having muscle degenerative diseases or conditions.

Justin Tomlinson

Information on the number of claimants receiving PIP, by a range of breakdowns, including award combinations in payment and main disabling condition, is published and available using Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-06-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many pensioners pay income tax at the higher rate.

Mr David Gauke

For 2013-14 it is estimated that 558,000 individuals above State Pension Age were liable for Income Tax charged at or above the higher rate. This is based on the most recent Survey of Personal Incomes (2013-14)