Written question asked by Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour) on Friday, 14 January 2022, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 January 2022. It was answered by Chloe Smith (Conservative) on Wednesday, 19 January 2022 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Security Benefits: Newham

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to an investigation into the DWP's handling of Ms U’s migration to Employment and Support Allowance, published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on 13 January 2022, what information her Department holds on the number of the 118,000 claimants who have not received compensation following departmental errors over benefit payments who are resident in (a) West Ham and (b) Newham.

Answer: The Department published an update on the exercise to correct past ESA underpayments on Gov.uk on 8 July 2021. This reported that as of 1 June 2021, of the 600,000 cases checked, 118,000 arrears payments have been made totalling £613 million. This report showed the numbers of cases paid arrears at a national level only as the data was not available at sub-national level at that time. The Department is investigating the feasibility of providing this analysis at a constituency level.

Secondary information