DWP Refuses To Pay Out On Emergency Claims

FEWER than half of requests for emergency benefit payments were met by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the latest year for which figures are available, veteran Labour MP Frank Field said today.

Mr Field, who chairs the work and pensions select committee, warned of “state-sponsored destitution” and a “gaping hole” in the welfare system because an unknown number of working-age claimants have not been included in the statistics.

Figures he obtained through a written parliamentary question show that nearly 200,000 applications for an advance on benefits were made in 2016, the latest year for which figures are available.

But only about 100,000 advances were paid to people waiting for their universal credit (UC) applications to be processed, according to DWP figures.

Mr Field said: “These data reveal a gaping hole in the country’s safety net.

“Nearly 200,000 people reached out for the lifeline of emergency payments in 2016, yet the DWP has only a vague idea of how many managed successfully to do so.

“What of the tens of thousands of people not captured by these data? Were they the latest victims of state-sponsored destitution?”

Ministers have defended delays in paying people UC during the nationwide roll-out of the new benefit scheme by saying that claimants can apply for an advance.

A large proportion of claimants receive their main benefit before they need an advance, they added.

The 2016 figures cover benefits such as employment and support allowance, incapacity benefit, jobseeker’s allowance and income support.

The figures show there were 197,514 applications for advances, but only 98,633 people were paid.

“Data is also not available for unsuccessful applications and the difference between ‘received’ and ‘awarded’ applications in the table above does not equate to unsuccessful applications,” Employment Minister Alok Sharma said in response to Mr Field’s question.