COVID-19 easements
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
A number of policy and operational changes (known as easements) were introduced by DWP as a result of COVID-19 to deal with the number of new claims and with capacity restraints.
Please provide a comprehensive list of these easements. The list should include a summary of each easement, the start and - if applicable - end dates of the easements, and (if the information can be provided within the time limit) links to materials publicising the easement (such as a memo, or a link to the gov.uk page on which information about the easement had been included). If this information appears within a single document then please provide the document in full.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens (on behalf of CPAG)
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Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 24th
July.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'COVID-19 easements'.
The request has been refused on the basis that links to materials publicising easements cannot be provided within the cost limit.
Given that the Department would need a lasting record of all of these easements my assumption had been that all of the requested information would be recorded in an easily accessible location, such as a spreadsheet, or that there would be a relatively small number of documents - such as a communication strategy for the easements - which would record the way that each easement had been publicised (if the easement had been publicised at all). I think it is unlikely that the Department would not have recorded this information in some way.
However, even if a response cannot be provided within the cost limit the response overlooks the specific carve out in the event that links could not be provided within the time limit: "...and (if the information can be provided within the time limit) links to materials publicising the easement ..."
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
Thank you for contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been received by the DWP Freedom of Information mailbox and will be
processed accordingly.
Please note that this mailbox is for Freedom of Information (FOI) or
Internal Review (IR) requests only – If you have submitted a non FOI or IR
related email then we may not be able to action it.
Timescales for responding
Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
If your email is a valid FOI request, as per Section 8 of the FOI Act
2000, you can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
Internal Review (IR) Requests
You can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
We will respond to all valid FOI and IR requests within our statutory
timescales, if we are unable to do so then we will contact you to explain
why. Please note that we are not able to process your FOI or IR request in
any shorter timescales that you may indicate.
Receiving a response from us
Please note that email FOI and IR responses will be issued from
[email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk by your email account
provider.
Further Information
Should you have any further queries in connection with your FOI or IR
request please contact us.
More information on the DWP can be accessed on gov.uk here –
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
References
Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I would like to accept your suggested framing of the request. Please provide information in relation to the easement name, easement description, start date and end date.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
Thank you for contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been received by the DWP Freedom of Information mailbox and will be
processed accordingly.
Please note that this mailbox is for Freedom of Information (FOI) or
Internal Review (IR) requests only – If you have submitted a non FOI or IR
related email then we may not be able to action it.
Timescales for responding
Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
If your email is a valid FOI request, as per Section 8 of the FOI Act
2000, you can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
Internal Review (IR) Requests
You can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
We will respond to all valid FOI and IR requests within our statutory
timescales, if we are unable to do so then we will contact you to explain
why. Please note that we are not able to process your FOI or IR request in
any shorter timescales that you may indicate.
Receiving a response from us
Please note that email FOI and IR responses will be issued from
[email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk by your email account
provider.
Further Information
Should you have any further queries in connection with your FOI or IR
request please contact us.
More information on the DWP can be accessed on gov.uk here –
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
References
Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 21st
August.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I'd like to challenge this response.
First, some of the information is not available to me due to formatting issues. Some of the cells in the 'description' column do not display all of the text in the cell.
Second, as far as I can tell the list of easements is not comprehensive. For example, the easement for people who were abroad and could not return to Great Britain due to travel restrictions does not appear to have been included. Please provise a comprehensive list.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
Thank you for contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been received by the DWP Freedom of Information mailbox and will be
processed accordingly.
Please note that this mailbox is for Freedom of Information (FOI) or
Internal Review (IR) requests only – If you have submitted a non FOI or IR
related email then we may not be able to action it.
Timescales for responding
Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
If your email is a valid FOI request, as per Section 8 of the FOI Act
2000, you can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
Internal Review (IR) Requests
You can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
We will respond to all valid FOI and IR requests within our statutory
timescales, if we are unable to do so then we will contact you to explain
why. Please note that we are not able to process your FOI or IR request in
any shorter timescales that you may indicate.
Receiving a response from us
Please note that email FOI and IR responses will be issued from
[email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk by your email account
provider.
Further Information
Should you have any further queries in connection with your FOI or IR
request please contact us.
More information on the DWP can be accessed on gov.uk here –
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
References
Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 5th
September.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 14th
September.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
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Owen Stevens left an annotation ()
complaint submitted to ICO