Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how national roll-out of the benefit cap will be carried out after 15 July 2013.
Mr Hoban: The cap will be implemented nationally from 15 July, with all local authorities receiving a number of cases each day between the 15 July and the end of September, when all appropriate households will be capped.
Consultation will continue with local authorities as lessons are learned from phased rollout to determine the most appropriate way to handle the schedule of activity over that period.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department will be involved in administering the overall benefit cap (a) during the pilot scheme and (b) once the national roll-out has been completed. [151881]
Mr Hoban: During phased roll-out there will be 30 members of staff administering the benefit cap. Resourcing for the period following national rollout will be determined from the experiences and analysis of jive running of business and IT processes.
Mr Hoban: Prior to the benefit cap being applied, DWP will be undertaking a 100% check on claimant/households' information against live system records. Once that check is complete, the information will be shared with housing benefit teams overnight so that they can accurately implement the cap via a deduction from housing benefit.
Source: Hansard