Department for Work and Pensions

The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The position of Chair of the Universal Credit Programme Board was not advertised. Sir Robert Walmsley was appointed on recommendation by the Major Project Authority

(now Infrastructure and Projects Authority).

The Department uses internal Universal Credit (UC) Management Information and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs Real Time Information data, to assess the number of people entering work.

The allocations of Housing Benefit Administration Subsidy are published annually within Housing Benefit Subsidy Circulars. The allocations for 2022-23 can be found in Circular S6/2022 on www.gov.uk

The Cabinet Office was notified and approved the appointment of a Non-executive Programme Board Chair. The UC Programme Board was not listed in the Public Appointment Order in Council 2019 as the Cabinet Office did not see it as necessary. Therefore, the UCPB is not a body subject to regulation by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

No such assessment has been made.

In Universal Credit, working families can claim up to 85%, increased from 70% in legacy benefits, of their eligible registered childcare costs each month regardless of the hours worked. This equates to a maximum support of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children.

The current childcare offer is comprehensive, broad ranging and reflects different family circumstances, covering children over a range of ages. We believe that helping parents with their childcare costs is one of the best ways to help people into work, support families with the cost of living, and ensure every child has the opportunity of a high-quality early education.

The UC childcare policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer, which includes 15 hours per week free childcare for disadvantaged 2-year-olds and 3-&4-year-olds. This doubles to 30 hours per week free childcare for working parents of 3-&4-year-olds. The UC childcare element can be used to top up a claimant’s eligible free childcare hours if more hours are worked and childcare required. This offer means that for some claimants’ childcare costs should not present any barriers to entering work.

Managed migration phase restarted in May 2022. The first phase of this is a Discovery with controlled volumes, where we are working with small numbers of existing benefit claimants to identify how best to ensure people can smoothly transition to Universal Credit.

The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Processes are in place to ensure deductions are manageable, and customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension, depending on their financial circumstances.

Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 30 % to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties.

Advances are a claimant’s benefit entitlement paid early, allowing claimants to access 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. They ensure nobody has to wait for a payment in Universal Credit and those who need it are able to receive financial support as soon as possible. Claimants can receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit award if required, resulting in 25 payments over a 24-month period. This is not a debt.

The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Processes are in place to ensure deductions are manageable, and customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension, depending on their financial circumstances.

Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 30 % to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties.

Advances are a claimant’s benefit entitlement paid early, allowing claimants to access 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. They ensure nobody has to wait for a payment in Universal Credit and those who need it are able to receive financial support as soon as possible. Claimants can receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit award if required, resulting in 25 payments over a 24-month period. This is not a debt.

The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes official statistics on deaths and injuries at work. Data specifically for agriculture and farms is reproduced in the tables below.

During May 2022, 170,000 individual claimants had deductions taken from their legacy benefits in order to repay overpaid benefits. The average deduction taken in that month was £61.

DWP has a duty to protect public funds and an obligation to ensure that overpaid benefit payments are recovered in accordance with the appropriate social security legislation. However, we seek to discharge that duty without causing undue financial hardship.

We therefore have an established route by which anyone experiencing difficulties with repayments is encouraged to contact DWP Debt Management in order to negotiate a possible reduction in their rate of repayment, or a temporary suspension of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.

In exceptional circumstances there is also discretion to waive recovery of an overpayment, but only were there are compelling grounds to show that recovery of the overpayment is detrimental to the health and/or welfare of the debtor or their family.

A response was sent to the hon. member on 30 June 2022.

If a customer has not paid enough National Insurance contributions to be entitled to a UK State Pension, but has worked and paid contributions in the USA, an investigation would take place to establish if contributions made in the USA can be taken into consideration towards a claimant’s UK State Pension, under the reciprocal agreement between the UK and USA.

When DWP receive correspondence from a Member of Parliament, they aim to fully resolve or agree a resolution within 15 working days of receipt. Complex issues may take longer to resolve.

DWP contacted the hon. Members office on 28 June 2022 confirming a full response will be sent to them within the next 7 days.

Way to Work is a campaign to move 500,000 job-ready Universal Credit and Job Seekers Allowance claimants into work by the end of June 2022, it is not a new policy and we have not produced specific guidance in relation to Way to Work. The focus is to support people into work swiftly by using the strength of the jobs market and we are working closely with employers to help claimants into jobs quicker, as well as strengthening our core support for jobseekers.

Universal Credit guidance is deposited in the House of Commons library twice a year, the latest published guidance was deposited on 26 April 2022 and can be found here.

As of 29 June, we estimate that at least 505,400 unemployed Universal Credit claimants and Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign between 31 January and the end of 26 June 2022.

This total figure is composed of our into work measure to the end of May (over 386,000) and our internal management information up to 26 June (58,900). We are now also able to include JSA claimants who have moved into work between 31 January and 9 June 2022 (35,100) into our total. Furthermore, we have also included those claimants with a sanction in place that moved into work during the period of the campaign up to 26 June (25,400). Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency and timeliness.

The 2021-22 ARA will be published on the 7 July. This year’s reported expenditure will include a breakdown of our Employment programmes expenditure.

The 2021-22 ARA will be published on the 7 July. This year’s reported expenditure will include a breakdown of our Employment programmes expenditure.

We estimate that so far 14,940 unemployed Universal Credit claimants in the East Anglia Jobcentre Plus District have moved into work during the Way to Work Campaign between 31 January and 19 June 2022.

This cumulative figure is composed of our into work measure to the end of May (13,480) and our internal management information up to 19 June (1,460). This figure includes claimants with a sanction in place that moved into work during the period of the campaign (800). Unlike the Way to Work data published in response to PQ 19742, this does not include movements into work from JSA claimants as they cannot be broken down to Jobcentre Plus District level. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

We are unable to provide data relating to the North West Norfolk parliamentary constituency, the Norfolk local authority area, or the East Anglia Office for National Statistics (ONS) regional area as to produce it would incur disproportionate cost.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency and timeliness.

Our Jobcentre teams are committed to delivering a quality service to ensure all claimants receive the best possible support to meet their individual circumstances. Our service delivery framework sets out the service expectations for our Jobcentre network and the requirements for how they deliver their services. The framework doesn't include an assessment of the number of people who move into work. Line managers coach their teams to ensure Work Coaches are skilled and empowered to manage their caseloads and are focussed on helping claimants move into or closer to work.

DWP has a responsibility to the taxpayer to recover any monies overpaid to benefit claimants and to do so in the most efficient way possible. Last year, working with Local Authorities, we recovered £1.0 billion of overpaid benefit.

Recovery from benefit remains the most efficient source of recovery, with 90% of debt recovered this way in 2021-22. However, we recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt and legislation protects claimants from excessive deductions. This means there are limits set for individual deductions. In Universal Credit the overall deduction cap is set at 25% of the standard allowance, having been reduced from 40%.

Additionally, any deductions from benefit are prioritised which means that 3^rd party deductions to help pay utility or rent arrears (for example) take precedence over overpayment recovery deductions.

Anyone experiencing hardship with repayments is encouraged to contact DWP Debt

Management to negotiate a reduction in their rate of repayment, or a temporary suspension of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.

We remain an active participant in Breathing Space, launched in May 2021 as part of The Debt Respite Scheme to support debtors struggling to cope with problem debt. We also signpost customers to trusted partners, who can provide impartial money and debt advice.

It might be helpful to explain that the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is not a medical assessment as it does not require the Health Professional (HP) to diagnose a condition and to recommend treatment options. Instead, it requires the HP to look at the impact the condition or impairment has on an individuals’ daily life.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manages the PIP contracts robustly and have a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery. We ensure a high standard is maintained, having an Independent Audit function that continually monitors performance, and provides feedback to its providers. The contracts allow us to recover any financial loss caused by poor performance, and we have the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.

The department has worked continuously to drive improvements in the assessment service and providers have introduced a number of steps to increase performance across their services. This includes new or enhanced systems of assessment report quality checks, to improve the quality of advice the department receives. In addition, PIP assessment reports have been redesigned to have clearer justifications, which support improved benefit decision making.

PIP assessment providers have consistently exceeded their customer satisfaction target scores of 90% since the measure began in 2016.

DWP takes significant steps to ensure the accuracy of benefit payments. Our Enhanced Checking Service, a team of trained fraud specialists, look at suspicious cases referred to them by benefit processing staff, which helps prevent fraud from occurring at the outset of a claim. Our Integrated Risk & Intelligence Service (IRIS) detects and prevents emerging frauds, which allows our various Disrupt Teams to respond to threats.

We revisited over 900,000 Universal Credit (UC) claims paid under ‘Trust and Protect’ procedures during the early days of the pandemic. Additionally, building on what we have learnt during the pandemic, we are currently creating a dedicated team to deliver targeted case reviews of existing Universal Credit claims. We are expecting to review over 2 million cases over the next 5 years, stopping around £2 billion of losses due to fraud and error over that period.

We increasingly draw on data to help inform benefit payments and the use of HMRC’s Real Time Information has almost eradicated PAYE earnings fraud in UC. We have extended this principle across a range of legacy benefits by way of our Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP) service.

The Department maintains rigorous control of Official Error via its Quality Assurance

Framework, which provides assurance that the necessary quality controls are in place.

An Independent Quality and Assurance Team checks transactions conducted within DWP benefits and this insight informs training requirements, infrastructure improvements and risk management. A senior stakeholder group, comprising of Directors, oversees the quality agenda.

UC Official Error overpayments have fallen in each of the last 3 years, from 2.1% of UC expenditure in 2018/19 to 0.7% in 2021/22.

The Funeral Expenses Payments (FEP) scheme provides an important contribution towards the cost of a simple, respectful funeral arranged by someone who is in receipt of certain income related benefits or tax credits.

The scheme meets the necessary costs of a burial or cremation in full and offers up to £1000 to meet other funeral expenses such as, the cost of a coffin, church and funeral director fees. In April 2020, we increased the maximum amount families can claim for these additional costs by 43%, from £700 to £1000, providing vital financial support to families grieving the loss of a loved one.

The average FEP award in 2020/21 was £1,838, while the average cost of a cremation was £3,765 and average cost for a burial funeral was £4,927. (Costs vary significantly by region).

The Child Maintenance Group keeps the risk of fraud within its business under review, and any cases [where it seems likely fraud has occurred] are investigated. Where fraud is found in informal arrangements relating to other children, the investigation staff may support a new maintenance assessment or use other criminal powers as necessary.

There are two separate social security arrangements in place between the UK and Canada, made in 1995 and 1998. The UK Government is not intending to change the social security relationship with Canada.

The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions, and we continue to up-rate it abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating.

People move abroad for many reasons and it is their own choice to do so. There is information available in leaflets and on GOV.UK on how to claim State Pension from overseas and on what the effect of going abroad will be on entitlement to the UK State Pension.

This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers every day in providing significant care and continuity of support to family and friends, including pensioners and those with disabilities.

The weekly rate of Carer’s Allowance increased to £69.70 in April 2022. This means that since 2010 it has increased from £53.90 to £69.70 a week, providing an additional £800 a year for carers through Carer’s Allowance. Real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2022/23 is forecast to be £3.4bn and between 2022/23 and 2026/27 is forecast to increase by just over a third (around £1.2 billion). By 2026/27, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4.5 billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.

Carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £168.81 per monthly assessment period, and the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £38.85 per week.   Around 405,000 (Feb 2022 data) carer households on Universal Credit can already receive around an additional £2,000 a year through the Carer Element.

Nearly 60% of carers on low incomes who are of working age and on Carer’s Allowance claim an income-related benefit through which they will be entitled to receive a £650 Cost of Living Payment (split over two instalments - the first one of £326 payable from 14 July). The £650 Cost of Living payment is being targeted at low income households who are in receipt of a means-tested income replacement benefit. There are no plans to amend the qualifying benefits for the Cost of Living Payment or to introduce payments for higher income households over and above what has already been announced.

Six million people in receipt of an eligible disability benefit will also receive the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment. This includes carers who are themselves in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients who are domestic energy customers will receive a £400 rebate through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients in England who pay Council Tax should have received a £150 rebate.

In addition to support people who need additional help, the Government is providing an extra £500 million of local support. In England this will be via the Household Support Fund, which will be extended from this October to March 2023 backed by £421m.

The Household Support Fund helps those in most need with payments towards the rising cost of food, energy, and water bills. The government will issue additional guidance to Local Authorities to ensure support is targeted towards those most in need of support, including those not eligible for the Cost of Living Payments.

This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers every day in providing significant care and continuity of support to family and friends, including pensioners and those with disabilities.

The weekly rate of Carer’s Allowance increased to £69.70 in April 2022. This means that since 2010 it has increased from £53.90 to £69.70 a week, providing an additional £800 a year for carers through Carer’s Allowance. Real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2022/23 is forecast to be £3.4bn and between 2022/23 and 2026/27 is forecast to increase by just over a third (around £1.2 billion). By 2026/27, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4.5 billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.

Carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £168.81 per monthly assessment period, and the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £38.85 per week.   Around 405,000 (Feb 2022 data) carer households on Universal Credit can already receive around an additional £2,000 a year through the Carer Element.

Nearly 60% of carers on low incomes who are of working age and on Carer’s Allowance claim an income-related benefit through which they will be entitled to receive a £650 Cost of Living Payment (split over two instalments - the first one of £326 payable from 14 July). The £650 Cost of Living payment is being targeted at low income households who are in receipt of a means-tested income replacement benefit. There are no plans to amend the qualifying benefits for the Cost of Living Payment or to introduce payments for higher income households over and above what has already been announced.

Six million people in receipt of an eligible disability benefit will also receive the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment. This includes carers who are themselves in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients who are domestic energy customers will receive a £400 rebate through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients in England who pay Council Tax should have received a £150 rebate.

In addition to support people who need additional help, the Government is providing an extra £500 million of local support. In England this will be via the Household Support Fund, which will be extended from this October to March 2023 backed by £421m.

The Household Support Fund helps those in most need with payments towards the rising cost of food, energy, and water bills. The government will issue additional guidance to Local Authorities to ensure support is targeted towards those most in need of support, including those not eligible for the Cost of Living Payments.

This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers every day in providing significant care and continuity of support to family and friends, including pensioners and those with disabilities.

The weekly rate of Carer’s Allowance increased to £69.70 in April 2022. This means that since 2010 it has increased from £53.90 to £69.70 a week, providing an additional £800 a year for carers through Carer’s Allowance. Real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2022/23 is forecast to be £3.4bn and between 2022/23 and 2026/27 is forecast to increase by just over a third (around £1.2 billion). By 2026/27, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4.5 billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.

Carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £168.81 per monthly assessment period, and the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £38.85 per week.   Around 405,000 (Feb 2022 data) carer households on Universal Credit can already receive around an additional £2,000 a year through the Carer Element.

Nearly 60% of carers on low incomes who are of working age and on Carer’s Allowance claim an income-related benefit through which they will be entitled to receive a £650 Cost of Living Payment (split over two instalments - the first one of £326 payable from 14 July). The £650 Cost of Living payment is being targeted at low income households who are in receipt of a means-tested income replacement benefit. There are no plans to amend the qualifying benefits for the Cost of Living Payment or to introduce payments for higher income households over and above what has already been announced.

Six million people in receipt of an eligible disability benefit will also receive the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment. This includes carers who are themselves in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients who are domestic energy customers will receive a £400 rebate through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

All Carer’s Allowance recipients in England who pay Council Tax should have received a £150 rebate.

In addition to support people who need additional help, the Government is providing an extra £500 million of local support. In England this will be via the Household Support Fund, which will be extended from this October to March 2023 backed by £421m.

The Household Support Fund helps those in most need with payments towards the rising cost of food, energy, and water bills. The government will issue additional guidance to Local Authorities to ensure support is targeted towards those most in need of support, including those not eligible for the Cost of Living Payments.

Employment support is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to supporting young people with learning disabilities and/or autism move closer to the labour market or into work, and we have a number of initiatives to support people with Autism through Jobcentres across Great Britain.

The DWP Youth Offer provides intensive support through the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to work, and Youth hubs. Our Work Coaches and Youth Employability Coaches are supported by Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) who offer advice and expertise on how best to help disabled people into work.

DWP has been working with the National Autistic Society to design and develop a service delivery framework for people with Autism. The service delivery framework aims to transform the service available to jobseekers on the autism spectrum. This trial is now complete with all 15 sites having passed their accreditation test. We are considering how best to take the Jobcentre Plus Autism Accreditation forward.

For those learning disabled and autistic people who do find themselves excluded from the workplace, starting this Autumn, DWP will invest £7.2 million in Local Supported Employment services, working with around 20 Local Authorities to enable more social care users with a learning disability and autistic social care users to access the support needed to help them get into work and remain in employment.

Furthermore, Young people with Autism can access further employment support through Jobcentres including priority access to the Work and Health Programme in England and Wales, for people with health conditions, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support provision across the UK, which provides highly personalised packages of employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions who require specialist support to achieve sustained employment. Access to Work is also available, which is a demand-led discretionary grant scheme that provides funding for the extra disability-related costs people have when starting work or maintaining employment.

Additionally, Supported Internships are aimed at young people with a learning disability or autism who have an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan. Supported internships usually last for 12 months and provide support from a specialist job coach. Whilst the Department for Education lead on this in England, the Department for Work and Pensions provides support through Access to Work where needed.

Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit are only available at the Great Britain level and are available in the “Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up” publication which can be found on the statistics section of gov.uk. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020.

Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Department for Communities is responsible for Pension Credit in Northern Ireland. Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit in Northern Ireland are available at

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/northern-ireland-benefit-statistics-summary-february-2021

No assessment has been made of changing Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans to a means-tested benefit system.

No assessment has been made of changing Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans to a means-tested benefit system.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer given to PQ15249

I refer the honourable Member to the answer given to PQ15249

I refer the honourable Member to the answer given to PQ15249

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

A range of DWP initiatives are supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to live independent lives and start, stay and succeed in work. These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident. and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services.

Over the next three years we will invest £1.3bn in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions.

In 2017 the Government set a goal to see one million more disabled people in employment between 2017 and 2027. The latest figures released for Q1 2022 show that between Q1 2017 and Q1 2022 the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3m – meaning the goal has been met after only five years.

The disability employment gap was 28.2 percentage points in Q1 2022. This is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points on the year, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points since Q1 2020 and an overall decrease of 5.6 percentage points since the same quarter in 2014.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Available data on journey times for PIP New Claims is published in Table 1A of Personal Independence Payment statistics to April 2022, published on 14 June 2022 here.

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is not a medical assessment as it does not require the Health Professional (HP) to diagnose a condition and to recommend treatment options. Instead, it requires the HP to look at the impact the condition or impairment has on an individuals’ daily life.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to assessing people as quickly as possible, in order that they receive the benefit and support they are entitled to in a timely manner. DWP has worked continuously with providers to drive improvements, to develop the PIP assessment process and how these impact on overall processing times. Telephone assessments were introduced at pace in 2020, when face-to-face assessments were suspended due to the pandemic, with video assessments introduced shortly after. These continue to be delivered alongside face-to-face and paper-based assessments.

Reducing processing times is a priority for the department, however under business-as-usual conditions, there may be referrals that take longer to progress. For example, an interpreter is required in a less common language, or a home visit to be arranged in a remote location. In addition, some claimants also fail to attend assessments for numerous reasons, which requires the department to understand and decide if a new referral to the assessment provider is needed. In these circumstances the overall time from claim registration to the claimant having an assessment may be extended.

The department has recently reiterated its commitment to continuously improve our services in ‘Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper’.

Claimants who had their UC award reduced to zero by the Minimum income floor and did not receive a UC payment during the qualifying period, will not be eligible for a cost-of-living payment.

For those that are not eligible for this support, or for families that still need additional support; the Government is providing an additional £500 million to help households, on top of what has been provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m and is administered by Local Authorities. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.