Esther
McVey: Each year, DWP serves around 22 million people through a network of
about 870 delivery units.
Information is only available for the last two complete years following changes made in 2011 to the way DWP collects and categorises complaints. Information is as follows:
Between Apr 12-Sept 13 48,320 between Apr 13- Sept13 43037
Lost forms between the same periods 740 and 791 respectively
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will commission an investigation into possible links between the under-occupancy penalty and cases of suicide. [178033]
Esther McVey: Every suicide is a deeply sad and tragic personal event and a matter for the relevant authorities to investigate
Mike Penning: The Government has commissioned RAND Europe to explore how we can achieve better outcomes for people with mental health problems, in and out of work. The Psychological Wellbeing and Work project explores how to better align mental health and employment services for people with common mental health problems to achieve improved employment outcomes. The project report will be published shortly. The advice will inform thinking about next steps not only for government but for all who have a role to play including employers, commissioners, service providers and individuals.
The Government will also be publishing an employment strategy for disabled people and those with health conditions, including mental health conditions, before the end of this year.
Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have exited the benefits system without securing employment in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [177944]
Esther McVey: The Department uses off-flow rates to measure its effectiveness in moving people quickly off benefit. It is not feasible for the Department to capture the destination for each of the people that leave benefits, as it would be very costly and time-consuming to undertake.
The Department does seek to match its off-flow admin data with data from HMRC to calculate the number of people who we know have moved into employment; however that process does not give a true indication of the likely volumes. The HMRC data only contain people with a P45/46 record, and not everyone leaving benefits earns enough income to have this record, thus under-reporting the number moving into work.
Using departmental datasets we can isolate the number of people who immediately returned to benefit once they “off-flowed”. The latest 12 months for which we have data (using the on-flow cohorts August 2011 to July 2012) show that of the 3.22 million people that flowed on to JSA 89.4% (2.88 million) had left by a year later.
Of that 2.88 million:
23.2% (667,000) flowed back on to benefit or left the active labour market (e.g. retired);
18.5% (534,500) found work;
the remainder (1.68 million) went into “potential employment”, where we do not have a definite destination but these could include those that moved into employment.
Read more: Hansard
Information is only available for the last two complete years following changes made in 2011 to the way DWP collects and categorises complaints. Information is as follows:
Between Apr 12-Sept 13 48,320 between Apr 13- Sept13 43037
Lost forms between the same periods 740 and 791 respectively
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will commission an investigation into possible links between the under-occupancy penalty and cases of suicide. [178033]
Esther McVey: Every suicide is a deeply sad and tragic personal event and a matter for the relevant authorities to investigate
Mike Penning: The Government has commissioned RAND Europe to explore how we can achieve better outcomes for people with mental health problems, in and out of work. The Psychological Wellbeing and Work project explores how to better align mental health and employment services for people with common mental health problems to achieve improved employment outcomes. The project report will be published shortly. The advice will inform thinking about next steps not only for government but for all who have a role to play including employers, commissioners, service providers and individuals.
The Government will also be publishing an employment strategy for disabled people and those with health conditions, including mental health conditions, before the end of this year.
Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have exited the benefits system without securing employment in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [177944]
Esther McVey: The Department uses off-flow rates to measure its effectiveness in moving people quickly off benefit. It is not feasible for the Department to capture the destination for each of the people that leave benefits, as it would be very costly and time-consuming to undertake.
The Department does seek to match its off-flow admin data with data from HMRC to calculate the number of people who we know have moved into employment; however that process does not give a true indication of the likely volumes. The HMRC data only contain people with a P45/46 record, and not everyone leaving benefits earns enough income to have this record, thus under-reporting the number moving into work.
Using departmental datasets we can isolate the number of people who immediately returned to benefit once they “off-flowed”. The latest 12 months for which we have data (using the on-flow cohorts August 2011 to July 2012) show that of the 3.22 million people that flowed on to JSA 89.4% (2.88 million) had left by a year later.
Of that 2.88 million:
23.2% (667,000) flowed back on to benefit or left the active labour market (e.g. retired);
18.5% (534,500) found work;
the remainder (1.68 million) went into “potential employment”, where we do not have a definite destination but these could include those that moved into employment.
Read more: Hansard
