Discovery - Aplha, Beta, and Delta
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
DWP published statistics on the ETS cohort of the initial Discovery phase of managed migration to Universal Credit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
The Discovery phase also cohorts Alpha - Foxtrot, but DWP has not published any statistics on these cohorts.
DWP may, perhaps, intend to publish some statistics on these cohorts as part of the UC Programme Board publication scheme. Please note that even if this were the case s.22 FOIA would not be engaged - paras.68 & 69 of DWP v Information Commissioner & Anor [2023] UKFTT 822 (GRC).
Cohort Alpha included all benefit types apart from ESA. Cohort Beta included all benefit types except Housing Benefit. Cohort Delta included all benefit types. Charlie, Echo and Foxtrot included Tax Credits only.
Please provide documents including data on cohorts Alpha, Beta and Delta. The data should show the number of people that made claims by their original deadline for doing so, the number of people that made claims by their extended deadline (ideally showing how long after their original deadline they claimed e.g. the number of people that claimed UC by their original deadline + 1 week, + 2 weeks, etc), the number of people that claimed by their final deadline, and the number of people that did not claim by their final deadline. If it is possible to do so then please provide this information broken down by benefit type.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
To clarify - the sentence 'Please provide documents including data on cohorts Alpha, Beta and Delta' should instead read 'Please provide data on cohorts Alpha, Beta and Delta.'
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
Thank you for contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
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Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 11th
December.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
Please review this response.
I do not accept that there is an intention to publish the information. No detail has been provided about the intention to publish the information, such as expected timeframes and whether all of the requested information will be published.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Stevens
Thank you for contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
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Dear Owen Stevens,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 21st
December.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Owen Stevens left an annotation ()
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
The information published by DWP is not exactly what has been requested as the publication appears to conflate original and extended deadlines.
Dear Mr Stevens
We understand from correspondence with the ICO that you are seeking some
further clarification regarding the below revised request.
“REVISED VERSION OF REQUEST
DWP published statistics on the ETS cohort of the initial Discovery phase
of managed migration to Universal Credit:
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
The Discovery phase also cohorts Alpha - Foxtrot, but DWP has not
published any statistics on these cohorts.
DWP may, perhaps, intend to publish some statistics on these cohorts as
part of the UC Programme Board publication scheme. Please note that even
if this were the case s.22 FOIA would not be engaged - paras.68 & 69 of
DWP v Information Commissioner & Anor [2023] UKFTT 822 (GRC).
Cohort Alpha included all benefit types apart from ESA. Cohort Beta
included all benefit types except Housing Benefit. Cohort Delta included
all benefit types. Charlie, Echo and Foxtrot included Tax Credits only.
Please provide data on cohorts Alpha, Beta and Delta. The data should show
the number of people that made claims by their original deadline for doing
so, the number of people that made claims by their extended deadline
(ideally showing how long after their original deadline they claimed e.g.
the number of people that claimed UC by their original deadline + 1 week,
+ 2 weeks, etc), the number of people that claimed by their final
deadline, and the number of people that did not claim by their final
deadline. If it is possible to do so then please provide this information
broken down by benefit type.”
We can advise that this information was published on 29 February 2024 and
is now in the public domain.
It is entitled ‘Move to Universal Credit - Insight on Tax Credit
migrations and initial Discovery Activity for wider benefit cohorts. Annex
A provides the specific statistical information that you had requested
(please see link below).
To be helpful we will explain the information provided using the Alpha
data as an example (please note, for statistical disclosure reasons, all
numbers have been rounded to 10).
• 250 migration notices were sent to claimants and 230 claimants
subsequently claimed Universal Credit. 20 claimants did not make a
claim for Universal Credit and had their legacy benefit closed.
• 170 claimants claimed Universal Credit by the original deadline and 60
claimants claimed after the original deadline (the difference between
230 and 170).
• The original deadline for these 60 claimants was extended - 20
claimants made a Universal Credit claim within 1 week of the original
deadline and 30 claimants made a Universal Credit claim 3 or more
weeks after the original deadline.
We hope this clarifies the data and to note – in the original request you
refer to the Beta cohort. We can confirm that we do not hold information
about a Beta cohort. The cohort is called Bravo and information about the
cohort is include in Annex A.
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
Kind Regards
DWP Central FOI Team
References
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1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
Dear DWP freedom-of-information-requests,
Please note this decision notice, which requires DWP to seek clarification: https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...
Yours sincerely,
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.
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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.
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[1][email address]
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2. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
Dear Mr Stevens,
Please see attached DWP response following the Information Commissioner's Decision dated 1 July 2024.
Kind regards
DWP FoI Team
Dear DWP freedom-of-information-requests,
This is the requested clarification.
Please provide data on cohorts Alpha, Bravo and Delta.
The data should show the number of people that made claims by their original unextended deadline for doing so, and the number of people that made claims after their original unextended deadline (this should be broken down into the number of weeks after the original unextended deadline that the claim was made + 1 week, + 2 weeks, +3 weeks, +4 weeks, +5 weeks, +6 weeks and so on). Please provide this information broken down by benefit type.
I note that it will be possible to infer from this information the number of people that did not claim by their final deadline.
Terms used in this clarification:
-‘original unextended deadline’ refers to the deadline first provided on the migration notice, not the deadline after any deadline extension is applied
-‘deadline’ refers to the deadline for claiming UC, whether or not extended under reg.45 of the UC (Transitional Provisions) Regs 2014
-‘final deadline’ is the date that would be the last day of the monthly assessment period in respect of a claim made on the deadline, as specified in reg.46 of the UC (Transitional Provisions) Regs 2014
I note that the Commissioner's decision notice states that "In light of the passage of time that has elapsed since this request was made, should the complainant be dissatisfied with DWP’s eventual response, the Commissioner will not require them to seek a further internal review before submitting a complaint."
Yours sincerely,
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
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related email then we may not be able to action it.
Timescales for responding
Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests
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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
[1][email address]
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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.
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References
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2. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
Dear Owen Stevens,
Please find attached a response to your request for information, received
5th August.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FOI Team
Owen Stevens left an annotation ()
Complaint submitted to ICO
The information provided in response to this request appears to be inconsistent with the information provided here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...
Dear Mr Stevens,
Following communication with the ICO please see attached letter.
Kind regards
DWP Central FoI Team
Dear Mr Stevens,
Following further communications with the ICO please see attached letter
and file.
Kind regards
DWP Central FoI Team
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Owen Stevens left an annotation ()
ICO complaint