Asked by: Lord Whitehead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are in receipt of disability payments; and what the annual cost to the public purse is of these payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The number of claimants who received Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in each month, up to and including October 2022, is published and can be found on Stat-Xplore. The number of claimants who received Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in each month, up to and including August 2022, is also published on Stat-Xplore. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here. An account is not required to use Stat-Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.
Annual expenditure data for AA, DLA and PIP is published and can be found in the ‘Disability benefits’ sheet within the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2022 - GOV.UK (www.GOV.UK) for years up to 2021/22. Data for 2022/23 will be published in due course.
The Scottish Government took on responsibility for disability benefits in Scotland from 2020/21, so expenditure data for Scotland only covers years up to 2019/20. Information on expenditure in Scotland from 2020/21 is the responsibility of the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Lord Whitehead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in the UK are in receipt of pension credit; and what the annual cost is of that credit.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In August 2022, the total Pension Credit caseload is 1.38 million. The forecasted real terms expenditure for the financial year 2022/23 is estimated to be approximately £4.9 billion.
Statistics of Pension Credit caseload is publicly available via Stat-Xplore. Available here: DWP Stat-Xplore
Estimates of real terms expenditure of Pension Credit are available in the ‘Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables 2022’ publication, which can be found at Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables 2022 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Lord Whitehead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost of Winter Fuel Payments to eligible households is for (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The total cost of Winter Fuel Payments for 2021/22 was £1,971 million. The Winter Fuel Payment for 2022/23 also included the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment of £300 per household and the total cost is estimated to be £4.6 billion.
Asked by: Lord Whitehead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of local authority Emergency Assistance Payments was for (a) 2021-2022 and (b) 2022-2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
During the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the Department for Work and Pensions has supported Local Authorities in England to provide discretionary support with basic essentials to those most in need through the Covid Local Support Grant and Household Support Fund grant schemes. The Department for Work and Pensions does not provide any funding called ‘Local Authority Emergency Assistance Payments’.
During the financial year 2021/22 the Covid Local Support Grant ran from April to September 2021 and the Household Support Fund ran from October 2021 to March 2022. The total funding allocated for these schemes in England was £621m and the total expenditure was £615m.
For the current financial year 2022/23, DWP has allocated funding for the Household Support Fund in England of £842m. This has been provided in two separate tranches. The total expenditure will be confirmed in due course, once the financial year has ended.
Local Authorities in England can also make similar payments out of their wider funding, received from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The devolved administrations are responsible for their own Local Welfare Assistance provision.