Written questions by Lowe.

How many and what proportion of Universal Credit claimants have a note on their record saying that an interpreter is required when her Department contacts them.

Currently, we do not collect structured data on customers who need an interpreter within UC. However, we know of the 43,203,214 calls the department received last year that 865,299 needed an interpreter which is around 2%. The data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.

How many international (a) air miles and (b) flights have been completed by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials in their Department since 5 July 2024.

Data on minister’s overseas travel and on senior civil servant’s business expenses is published on a quarterly basis. This can be found here: DWP ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK and here: DWP senior officials’ business expenses, hospitality and meetings - GOV.UK

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15043 on Social Security Benefits: Overpayments, what the reason was for the increases in Monetary Value of Fraud and Error between FYE 20 and FYE 21.

The Department published a detailed account of its understanding of the reasons for the increase in overpayments in its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21. HC 422 – Department for Work and Pensions – Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

What proportion of reported (a) error and (b) fraud has not been investigated for each of the last five years.

The Department does not hold the data requested.

If she will publish her Department’s response to FOI2024/88818.

As the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, FOI2024/88818, was submitted via WhatDoTheyKnow.com (WDTK), the FOI is already publicly available for anyone to access. The FOI can be accessed on WDTK via the following link: Universal Credit access, Refugees (2023) - a Freedom of Information request to Department for Work and Pensions - WhatDoTheyKnow

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing benefits from foreign national offenders.

In order to receive taxpayer-funded benefits such as Universal Credit or Personal Independence Payments, an individual must either be a British or Irish citizen or hold a valid UK immigration status that allows them to access such benefits. If DWP is made aware of a change in a customer’s circumstances, either by the customer directly or by another government department (such as the Home Office), then the relevant claim will be reviewed. This includes if immigration status is cancelled due to criminality, or if a customer is sent to prison/young offenders’ institution or is in custody awaiting trial (on remand). If a customer is sent to prison, all benefit payments except the following will stop: housing payments part of Universal Credit (in some cases), tax credits and Child Benefit (in some cases), Housing Benefit (for shorter sentences), and council tax assistance (if eligible). Additional information on benefit eligibility whilst in prison or remand is available at: https://www.gov.uk/benefits-and-prison/benefits-that-stop-or-are-suspended. If immigration status ends, they will lose entitlement to benefits.

How many calls to her Department on (a) universal credit and (b) Jobcentre Plus were translated by language code in each of the last 10 years; and what the cost to her Department was for each type of call in the same period.

The tables attachment shows the volume of calls translated by language code since 2021 together with the associated costs. Please note, this information is not available for the last 10 years and also the data is not available by (a) universal credit or (b) JobCentre Plus. 2021 2022 2023 Deliverable calls answeredCost for Telephone Interpreting Deliverable calls answeredCost for Telephone Interpreting Deliverable calls answeredCost for Telephone InterpretingJan56372£423,363.84 84377£449,734.87 68435£335,948.16Feb62083£519,333.68 81380£514,435.08 66693£405,578.24Mar77497£429,554.78 100223£473,036.50 79789£396,991.36Apr65215£476,330.52 83086£560,301.57 58822£468,493.76May62432£385,025.19 48612£450,943.38 64013£337,248.96Jun78102£362,537.22 64390£314,083.09 67090£341,527.04Jul78297£461,935.67 61484£402,505.71 62621£360,482.56Aug70124£473,769.82 60582£383,110.72 62589£342,224.96Sep77618£423,828.76 62005£386,230.72 64527£338,154.88Oct78399£457,728.59 66447£388,296.64 74288£360,275.63Now86701£478,442.90 72931£414,528.00 82226£418,088.00Dec72605£540,289.30 56186£438,235.20 64943£456,997.76The data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.

If she will make an estimate of the number of pensioners per constituency in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty.

Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty are not available at a constituency level. Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty at regional level are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

What is the total amount deducted from benefit payments to pay for claimants' court imposed fines each year for the ten previous years.

Table 1 provides the total amount deducted from Universal Credit payments to repay a Court Fine debt for each financial year from April 2018 to August 2024. Table 1: the total amount deducted from Universal Credit payments for Court Fines, April 2018 to August 2024Financial YearsTotal Amount Deducted for Court FinesApr-18 to Mar-19£2,000,000Apr-19 to Mar-20£49,000,000Apr-20 to Mar-21£95,000,000Apr-21 to Mar-22£52,000,000Apr-22 to Mar-23£45,000,000Apr-23 to Mar-24£58,000,000Apr-24 to Aug-24£28,000,000 Notes:1. Monetary amounts have been rounded to the nearest million. 2. Court fines are classed as a Third Party Deduction. Data for Third Party Deductions is incomplete before April 2018, so we can't provide data for earlier years. 3. Data up to August 2024 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Deductions Statistics.4. Data for 2018/19 only includes Universal Credit full service claims. Data on Universal Credit live service for 2018/19 is not available. In May 2016 the Universal Credit full service for all claimant types began to rollout nationally and was completed by the end of 2018.5. Comparison across the different financial years is problematic due to changes in the deductions policy for Universal Credit, which would have affected the number of households having a third party deduction.6. Figures have been provided for Universal Credit households in Great Britain. Northern Ireland claims are administered by the Department for Communities. 7. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.8. The methodology used is different to those used to derive the Official Statistics Household series and therefore, figures may not be comparable.

What overpayments of benefits due to Departmental error there were in each of the last five financial years.

The Department publishes estimates of the levels of fraud and error in the benefit system by financial year. These statistics for the last five years are available at: Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK Below is an extract: OVERALL LEVELS OF MVFEFYE 24FYE 23FYE 22FYE21FYE 20All3.7%  (£9.7bn)3.6%  (£8.3bn)4.0%  (£8.7bn)3.9%  (£8.2bn)2.4%  (£4.5bn)Fraud2.8%  (£7.4bn)2.7%  (£6.3bn)3.0%  (£6.5bn)2.9%  (£6.2bn)1.4%  (£2.7bn)Claimant Error0.6%  (£1.6bn)0.6%  (£1.4bn)0.7%  (£1.5bn)0.6%  (£1.3bn)0.6%  (£1.1bn)Official Error0.3%  (£0.8bn)0.3%  (£0.7bn)0.3%  (£0.7bn)0.4%  (£0.8bn)0.4%  (£0.7bn)

How many people from the EU without settled status have been paid benefits since the end of the transition period.

The requested information is not readily available. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit claimants. EU citizens present in the UK at the end of the Transition Period but with less than 5 year’s continuous residence have been able to apply for pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. They can access disability benefits and, if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, for example as a worker or self-employed, they can access income related benefits. EU citizens who have arrived in the UK since the end of the Transition Period will be subject to the same rules as citizens from the rest of the world. They typically have no recourse to public funds for the first five years and cannot access income related, disability or carer benefits. Those who have made sufficient national insurance contributions can access contributory benefits.

How many staff her Department employs at (a) SEO, (b) Grade 7 and (c) Grade 6.

We have provided the information requested in the table below. Staffing figures (as of 31st October 2024) are provided as Full Time Equivalence (FTE): GradeFTESEO4099.3G73069.8G61146.0

How many staff of what grade her Department employed in non-customer engaging roles in each of the last five financial years.

The information you have requested is not held centrally and will have to be provided by operational teams. Gathering this data would incur disproportionate costs.

How much her Department has paid in benefits to people from the EU without settled status since the end of the transition period.

The requested information is not readily available. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit claimants. EU citizens present in the UK at the end of the Transition Period but with less than 5 year’s continuous residence have been able to apply for pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. They can access disability benefits and, if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, for example as a worker or self-employed, they can access income related benefits. EU citizens who have arrived in the UK since the end of the Transition Period will be subject to the same rules as citizens from the rest of the world. They typically have no recourse to public funds for the first five years and cannot access income related, disability or carer benefits. Those who have made sufficient national insurance contributions can access contributory benefits.

How much her Department spent on staff (a) travel, (b) subsistence and (c) stays in hotels in each of the last five years.

The Department does not keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.Information on annual DWP spend can be found here.

How many and what proportion of people who took an English for Speakers of Other Languages class claimed Universal Credit in the last 12 months; and what the cost to the public purse was of the provision of those classes in the same period.

The information requested is not held by the Department for Work and Pensions. English for Speakers of Other Languages and other skills data is held by Department for Education for England only. Devolved administrations will hold data on participants on ESOL courses.

If she will publish a breakdown of the preferred (a) written and (b) spoken language of people claiming Universal Credit.

We do not have a breakdown of the preferred language of people claiming Universal Credit because we do not ask customers this information at any stage of the application or process.

What the primary language of benefits claimants has been in each of the last 10 years.

The Department does not centrally hold the information requested as it is not a requirement for a customer to declare their ‘primary’ language. Customer communications and benefit information is provided in English and Welsh as appropriate. Necessary information can be provided in another language and translation services are available.

How many people used Access to Work support at what cost and for what reasons in the last financial year.

The most recent complete financial year of data available in the published Access to Work official statistics is 2023/24: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK. In 2023/24, around 61,630 people received a payment for any Access to Work provision and total expenditure across all provision was £257.8 million. We have interpreted reason for using Access to Work as being the primary medical condition reported by the individual. In 2023/24, the largest Access to Work customer group in terms of number of payments, by primary medical condition are those with a ‘Mental health condition’, who account for 27% (16,560) of the total number of customers. Those with the primary medical condition ‘Learning disability’ are the second most common group and make up 11% of customers (6,720 people). Those who are ‘Deaf or hard of hearing’ are in receipt of the highest proportion (30%) of total Access to Work expenditure.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2024 to Question 12868 on Habitual Residence Test, how many habitual residency tests for Universal Credit there were, excluding factual habitual residency tests, in each of the last five years.

Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) always assess whether individuals are factually habitually resident. For an individual to be factually habitually resident they must have been living here for a significant period of time and have a settled intention to remain. There were therefore no HRTs over the past 5 years which excluded an assessment of factual habitual residence.