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Written Question
Household Support Fund
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Household Support Fund since 2021; and what the total distribution of the fund per constituency over the same period.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

A total of £3bn including Barnett impact has been announced since October 2021 to enable the Household Support Fund to run in England. This includes over £2.5 bn allocated to Local Authorities in England. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.

Allocations are made at an upper tier Local Authority, level based on population size and levels of deprivation. Allocations by Local Authority for schemes running between October 2021 to March 2024 can be found at the following links:

Management information for 6th October 2021 to 31st March 2022: Household Support Fund management information: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1st April 2022 to 30th September 2022: Household Support Fund 2 management information for 1 April to 30 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2023: Household Support Fund 3 management information for 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Allocations for the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund Grant Determination 2023 No 31/6496 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Long Covid
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to provide benefit support to individuals with Long Covid.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

People living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus can access the financial support that is available through Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, New Style ESA or Pension Credit depending on individual circumstances.

Disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance do not include or exclude by condition, instead they look at the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability. Therefore people living with a condition arising from exposure to the Covid-19 virus are also able to access these benefits in the same way as other people with long-term conditions or disabilities.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Rents
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that social housing tenants who receive Universal Credit are not financially affected by the 53-week rent year in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

In the financial year 2024-25 social housing tenants will face 52 weekly rent payment days so Universal Credit will make provision for the exact amount of their liability.

Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. This may lead to a slight advantage to the claimant when converting weekly incomes and to a slight disadvantage when dealing with outgoings. The system is used because it is simple to operate and understand. The department has considered alternative options for those with weekly tenancies, but each have their own limitations and disadvantages for claimants and so there are no plans to change.

The legitimacy of this calculation formula in Universal Credit was confirmed by the High Court in 2020 who found it to be neither irrational or discriminatory.

Discretionary Housing Payments can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011, the government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities.


Written Question
Sickness Benefits: South Holland and the Deepings
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in South Holland and the Deepings constituency are on long-term sickness benefits; and how many were on such benefits in each of the last five years.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

People on ‘long-term sickness benefits’ have been assumed as those in the main phase of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Universal Credit (UC) Limited Capability to Work (LCW) and Limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) groups. The Department regularly publishes Benefit Combination statistics on Stat-Xplore and these were extended inFebruary 2024 to include additional information for those on ESA and the UC Health Journey, so can now be used to provide the information, from quarter ending May 2019 to the end of the latest quarter, August 2023.

The figures can be obtained from the ‘Benefit Combinations - Data from May 2019 for England and Wales’ dataset using the ‘Additional Claim Details’ options. The ‘ESA Phase of Claim’ and ‘UC Health Journey’ options should be used to identify quarterly totals for ESA Support Group (SG), ESA Work-related Activity Group (WRAG), Universal Credit Limited Capability to Work (LCW) and Limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) groups and those on one benefit but not the other using the ‘Not On’ options. The ‘Geography’ option can then be used to filter by the relevant Westminster Parliamentary Constituency.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Using the Benefit Combinations data on Stat-Xplore, the number of people on long-term sickness benefits in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency is provided in the table below:

Aug 2019

Aug 2020

Aug 2021

Aug 2022

Aug 2023

Total

2,540

2,750

2,980

3,260

3,940

Source: Stat-Xplore

Notes:

  1. Totals are rounded to 10.
  2. UC Data is not available prior to 2019 as some UC claims were recorded on an interim operational system called UC Live Service (UCLS). Figures for UCLS Health claimants are not currently collated and to develop that information would incur disproportionate cost.
  3. A person can claim both ESA and be on the UC health caseload and these claimants would be counted in each separate caseload in the published data on Stat-Xplore. Benefit Combinations data on Stat-Xplore allows these 'Dual claims' to be identified and only counted once in the above.

Written Question
Universal Credit
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the maximum benefit deduction rate for people on Universal Credit.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The primary aim of the deductions in Universal Credit is to protect claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services.

Making deductions from a claimant’s benefit is a cost effective and efficient mechanism to recover third party debt and benefit debt. Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions. There are limits set for individual deduction items, there is also an overall deduction cap set at 25% of standard allowance, although where necessary to support the claimant, this can be exceeded for rent and fuel debts.


Written Question
Veterans: Universal Credit
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of veterans on Universal Credit.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 6 February 2024 to PQ11939.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Housing
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to bring homeowner service charge support in Universal Credit in line with Support for Mortgage Interest by (a) removing the zero earnings rule and (b) reducing the nine month qualifying period.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has no plans to amend the support that homeowners receive in respect of service charges.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the findings in the Christians Against Poverty report entitled Pushed under, pushed out, published on 12 March 2024, relating to the impact of high debt repayments on people's living standards.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Pushed Under, Pushed Out, published by Christians Against Poverty on 12 March 2024.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Poverty: Children
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty in each year since 2007 in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) the UK.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per country in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication in “table 4.22ts” and “table 4.17ts” (respectively) ofchildren-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2022-23-tables at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/