Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's policy is on resolving universal credit overpayments in the event that the overpayment is due to an error by her Department.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Where Official Error overpayments do occur in a very small number of cases, the introduction of the 2012 Welfare Reform Act means that all overpayments of Universal Credit are recoverable.
Where recovery is made by deduction from Universal Credit, there is a limit placed on the overall amount that can be deducted which is currently 25% of the Standard Allowance. Moreover, a priority order is applied, which determines the order in which deductions can be made, with ‘last resort’ deductions, such as rent or fuel costs, taking precedence.
Anyone with overpayment deductions who does experience financial hardship is encouraged to contact the Department’s Debt Management unit. Where a person cannot afford the proposed rate, a lower amount can be negotiated.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support unpaid carers during the covid-19 outbreak; and what plans she has to support unpaid carers in the future.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers each and every day in supporting some of the most vulnerable in society including pensioners and those with disabilities. The support that carers provide has been even more vital during the Covid-19 pandemic when other support services may have been reduced or even closed and the caring role became even harder due to the need to self-isolate or shield the person they care for.
Unpaid carers may be able to apply for Carer’s Allowance if they meet the qualifying conditions, such as providing 35 hours of care a week. To ensure that carers already in receipt of Carer’s Allowance do not inadvertently stop receiving it because of changes to patterns of care, we have allowed emotional support to count towards the 35 hours of care being provided by the carer as well as relaxing the rules around breaks in care. We have extended these provisions until 12 May 2021 in recognition that carers need extra flexibility in the way they provide care during the current emergency.
Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to increase by nearly a third (around £1 billion). By 2025/26, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4bn a year on Carer’s Allowance.
As of May 2020, there were 1008 carers in the West Dorset constituency that were receiving Carer’s Allowance and in 2019/20 we spent approximately £3.6 million on Carer’s Allowance there. A further 673 carers had a claim to an underlying entitlement to Carer’s Allowance.
Carers have access to the full range of social security benefits according to their circumstances. Income replacement benefits help people and households on lower incomes, and can include a carer premium, currently £37.50 a week. An equivalent additional amount applies in Pension Credit. Universal Credit also includes a carer element at the rate of £162.92 per monthly assessment period. These amounts recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and mean that lower-income carers can receive more money than others who receive these benefits. Between the existing carer-specific support, and the temporary Covid-19 uplift, 270,000 carer households receiving Universal Credit have benefitted from up to an extra £2,990 this financial year.
During the pandemic, the Government has also, for example: