How many INITIAL repayments have been paused or suspended by the DWP or DWP Repayments

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I'd be interested in knowing the statistics on how many (if any) INITIAL repayments for UC claimants have been paused or suspended by the DWP or DWP Repayments, and if so any record if possible the underlying reason(s) for the INITIAL pause or suspension being actioned.

I haven't been able to find this information from enquiries. I'm told in theory it's possible, but from my researches so far, it seems not to have happened at all. For guidance, my hunch is there may be a glitch in the timing for calculation of the monthly benefits entitlement, and then taking any possible planned deductions being taken assessed for calculation of the actual benefit to be paid under the regulations, which would make changes impractical.

There may some information on this - perhaps from DWP repayments, and from DWP Digital teams that would reveal some information.

I look forward to hearing from you. And, of course, I know the dreaded lurgy will slow down the response time. Hey, ho, oh well, there's not much that can be done about that.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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DWP Central FOI Team,

Our ref: FOI2020/20706

Contact email: [1][email address]

Dear Mark Abraham,

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 27th
April. Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

You can normally expect a response to your FoI request within 20 working
days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may not be
possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.

The DWP will make every effort to respond to FOIs as we would usually but
the current situation may mean that available Departmental resources are
needed on other high priority areas.

We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecede nted situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
I am sorry to have to remind you of this request, but sadly it appears that the DWP doesn't extend timelines for claimants to submit items to them, in the same way that you, under law should have responded to me.

If you ask me to accept a continued delay here, then there should be a reciprocal allowance in return, extending the deadline for me to write back to the DWP using any information in an eventual response to this FOI as a request.

Sadly, that isn't the case, and the DWP sets a strict timescale for claimants to follow, thus hampering their claims.

It is not only Dominic Cummings that applies one vision of fairness for himself and his family, while expecting others to follow guidelines so clearly understood. It's also the DWP.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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DWP Central FOI Team,

Dear Mark Abraham,

Our Ref: IR2020/25642

Contact email: [1][DWP request email]

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FoI) review request.

You can normally expect a response to your FoI review request within 20
working days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may
not be possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.

The DWP will make every effort to respond to FoI reviews as we would
usually but the current situation may mean that available Departmental
resources are needed on other high priority areas.

We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I'm still awaiting a reply to my enquiry, and would be grateful for a response, as it will form a part of a tier 2 complaint I am likely to need to refer onto the independent case examiner. I hope to hear from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
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If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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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 'How many INITIAL repayments have been paused or suspended by the DWP or DWP Repayments'.

I don't understand why there has been a reply. Maybe a internal review will prompt a response? Or perhaps I'm getting old and forgetful - and the pandemic has meant we all are affected. We're all in this together.

So if I'm at fault, and have missed something please help me and point me towards the reply. I'd be grateful, and relieved, really.

If it's of any help, I'm asking because I'm told it is possible to have an initial repayment paused and suspended, but I'm sceptical about how it is possible in practice, and just how realistic it is in fact, for the timescale that we're operating in for that to happen.

I was trying to think of an illustration that might break the monotony here, and what game to mind is that you have a lovely individually, but want to store it safely, temporarily, and suggest that you leave it in the fridge I use.

While I do have the space, in practice, something bad in practice is sadly, likely to happen as an outcome.
At the very least, I'm going to find myself in the position of going out to seek out a cake for me.

There you are. I hope mental image of something delicious will cheer you and brighten your day, while you contemplate the image of something we pretty much all love!

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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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 'How many INITIAL repayments have been paused or suspended by the DWP or DWP Repayments'

I have not heard anything from you in response, and I will complain to ICO if I don't hear from you in a week now.

As my guess is you'll still not respond by then, I'll save you and most likely ICO time by suggesting you both disregard the following three paragraphs in my last communication to you:

"I was trying to think of an illustration that might break the monotony here, and what game to mind is that you have a lovely individually, but want to store it safely, temporarily, and suggest that you leave it in the fridge I use.

While I do have the space, in practice, something bad in practice is sadly, likely to happen as an outcome.
At the very least, I'm going to find myself in the position of going out to seek out a cake for me.

There you are. I hope mental image of something delicious will cheer you and brighten your day, while you contemplate the image of something we pretty much all love!"

It was meant to read in the first paragraph 'what came to mind is that you have a lovely individual cake", rather than "what game to mind is that you have a lovely individually".

It was an illustration, to encourage you to respond. But if as I suspect, you won't respond until ICO get in contact, clarification is mainly for the benefit of ICO.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
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Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
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We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
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the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Actually, on second thoughts, I'm no longer prepared to wait while you don't reply on this point, so I'm referring the matter to ICO. So I'll be contacting them today.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
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Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
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the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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DWP Policy Group Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 27th
April.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

DWP Policy Group Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 28th
May.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Thanks for responding, and also, for apologising for the delay. That's kind, I'm grateful for your acknowledgment.

I hope the fundamental specific request for information is clear, i.e. " How many INITIAL repayments" have been paused, reduced, or suspended by the DWP, DWP Repayments? I suppose another way to phrase "DWP Repayments" might be DWP Debt Management, or Debt Management, DWP, to suggest the areas that might be able to pause, suspend, freeze, reduce or stop an INITIAL repayment of a debt, howsoever arising. It's my contention that under Universal Credit, the computer takes over, and in actual fact, no initial repayments are halted. In practice, the UC system, as currently applied makes any INITIAL REPAYMENT simply not possible.

In my case, my request for information here arises from having to repay overpaid tax credits, as a result of being migrated onto Universal Credit. Anecdotally, I'm told by DWP colleagues that it's not possible to pause, freeze, suspend or stop an INITIAL repayment of any debt. However, officially I'm told that it is possible.

So I'm asking for information on the debt repayment process, from statistics kept, to establish whether if ANY INITIAL DEBT REPAYMENTS have, in fact, been paused, suspended, freezed, or stopped, for any of the areas where debt repayment takes place. If they have, what pertinent reasons are there for that process having actually taken place.

I'd would think some statistics and information from Debt repayments on their activity might help here, if the department keeps any records of their activities. Perhaps also, the information could be extracted from an enquiry from Universal Credit computer data. By that I'd expect it should be possible to interrogate the data to find:

1. When a repayable debt was listed on a claim.
2. When a calculation for repayment was made, and the date when it would be instituted.
3. How many times there has been manual intervention to pause, freeze, reduce, suspend or stop an initial debt repayment, and whether that action has taken place before the initial repayment is taken out.

You can limit this enquiry (if necessary on cost grounds) to The period July 2018 to January 2019, and could further reduce that to October to December 2018 if needs be. I'm not sure how to further restrict the search to get to the question of statistics on help you. There may be internal discussion of the problem by staff inside the DWP.

To put it another way - it's fine to say that fairies exist at the bottom of your garden, or the Loch Ness monster is real, or there really is a creature such as the Unicorn. Absolutely fine. But somewhere in the DWP there should be a way to establish factually that an INITIAL REPAYMENT OF A DEBT HAS BEEN PAUSED, SUSPENDED, STOPPED, REDUCED, OR FROZEN, under the Universal Credit system.

The DWP is making the equivalent of those claims here, while colleagues, or people at the actual coal face say that's nonsense. I'm guessing the DWP has some statistics from which it's possible to establish whether or not these claims are mythical.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
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Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
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We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
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Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
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the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I received this notification from what do they know website this morning:
"Department for Work and Pensions has asked you to explain part of your FOI request.

To do this, first click on the link below.

https://eur06.safelinks.protection.outlo...

You will only get an answer to your request if you follow up with the clarification.

-- the WhatDoTheyKnow team"

The link leads me to a reply letter from what do they know, but - as I don't appear to be see any part of the request you've asked to explain on this enquiry, i'm at a loss to know what to do.

Please could you help here?

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
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However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
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Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
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We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
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Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
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the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 4th
September.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Thank you for your kind and painstaking response to my last communication. I really appreciate your thoughtful reply, pointing out the difficulties in fulfilling this request under FOI, and the suggestions you make to obtain information nonetheless.

I accept all the suggestions you make to focus the search for information more accurately, and ask you to proceed to progress the request as amended along these lines. Once again, thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
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We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
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Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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DWP Policy Group Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 2nd
October.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team