Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they had last year with the government of Australia, if any, on the issue of frozen state pensions.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
His Majesty's Government did not have any discussions on this issue last year with the Government of Australia.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the safety of additive manufacturer products in equipment in the oil and gas industries.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 establishes duties for manufacturers to design and construct safe articles for use at work. In the various health and safety regulations that apply to the oil and gas industry it is the responsibility of the duty holder to ensure that any components used are fit for purpose for their intended use, and that they have the means to ensure those components will remain fit for purpose during their service life. Furthermore, product supply legislation places duties on the manufacturers of such products to assess their safety before their use.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) undertakes market surveillance monitoring of the health and safety of most products used at work. HSE have been engaged with the additive manufacturing industry for a number of years, including the publication of a report into structure properties of the technique in 2015. Industry standards and guidance are being produced in this area and these assure quality control throughout additive manufacture and provide a sufficient quantity and quality of information to manufacturers and dutyholders seeking to make or use these articles which can also be used as benchmarks against which to judge regulatory compliance. HSE is also considering the implications of exposure to fumes and respirable dusts from those undertaking additive manufacturing.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are affected by the under-occupancy charge for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the financial impact of these deductions on those households.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
For the latest data available, related to September 2022, 286,149 households were subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) for 1 extra bedroom, and 63,759 for 2 or more extra bedrooms. This data is available on Stat-Xplore.
For 2021/22, a total of £434m worth of deductions were made for RSRS in Great Britain. This includes households on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. No wider assessment has been made.
The RSRS policy applies to claims for housing support - either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit - where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs.
The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives. An additional bedroom is allowed in certain circumstances such as for disabled people and carers, foster carers, and parents of service personnel. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP’s to local authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce schemes which rate the indoor air quality of commercial premises and their associated risks of viral transmission.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the regulator for workplace health and safety. Whilst HSE expects businesses to consider any risks arising from the quality of the air in their premises and to ensure they have mitigations in place where, for example, work generates fumes or dust that is harmful to workers this does not extend to general infection control. As such HSE has no plans to introduce any schemes to rate indoor air quality or the risks of viral transmission.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people in receipt of (1) Disability Living Allowance (DLA), or (2) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), who are not eligible for the Cost of Living Payment; and what plans they have to provide assistance to those affected.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
Of those claimants in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in England and Wales in May 2022 (the most recent data available), 220 were not eligible for a Disability Cost of Living Payment (DCoLP), as they had claimed the benefit after the 25th May 2022 deadline. A further 3,020 may not have been eligible as they had their DLA suspended in May. Some of these claimants may have been partially suspended and so would be eligible for a payment.
Of those claimants in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in England and Wales in July 2022 (the most recent data available), 2,260 were not eligible for a DCoLP, as they had claimed the benefit after the 25th May 2022 deadline. A further 43,290 claimants may not have been eligible as they had their PIP suspended on the 25th May 2022. This figure includes claimants who were only partially suspended and so would be eligible for a payment.
There is a range of support available to claimants.
DLA and PIP claimants are paid at up to £159.60 per week and we are forecast to spend £24bn on PIP and DLA this year.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why, in addition to the £37 billion of support we have provided for cost of living pressures in 2022-23, we are acting now to ensure support continues throughout 2023/24.
To ensure stability and certainty for households, in the Autumn Statement, the Government has announced £26bn in cost of living support for 2023/24. From April 2023 we are uprating benefits for working age households and disabled people, including DLA and PIP, as well as the basic and new State Pensions, by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1%. Alongside further Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable, the amended Energy Price Guarantee which will also save the average UK household £500 in 2023-24.
For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England, this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities will use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.
Notes:
Source: PIP Atomic Data Store (ADS), National Statistics Frozen Dataset
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 22 November (HL3269), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what are the (1) average, and (2) longest, delays being experienced by pensioners applying for pension credit for applications made (a) in late April, and (b) subsequently.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
DWP does not maintain data for the longest time taken to process Pension Credit applications. This information is only available at disproportionate cost to the Department for Work & Pensions as the Department does not have a business requirement for this information to be retained.
We are processing claims as quickly as possible and streamlining our processes, as well as increasing our staffing resources, which has resulted in the outstanding claims reducing considerably. We expect the clearance of claims to reduce as outstanding claims are cleared.
All successful claims and arrears are paid accordingly to ensure no one misses out.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the (1) average, and (2) longest, delays being experienced by pensioners applying for pension credit for applications made (a) in late April, and (b) subsequently.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
We currently aim to process claims within 35 days from receipt, although following the successful launch of our campaign to increase take up of Pension Credit, we have received an unprecedented number of claims, which has resulted in average processing increasing.
We are processing claims as quickly as possible and streamlining our processes, as well as increasing our staffing resources, which has resulted in the outstanding claims reducing considerably.
All successful claims and arrears are paid accordingly to ensure no one misses out.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total saving to His Majesty's Treasury through (1) housing benefit subsidy, and (2) Universal Credit, of imposing a social housing rent cap at less than the usual level of Consumer Price Index plus one per cent.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Government recently consulted on whether to make a temporary amendment to the CPI+1% cap on annual social housing rent increases. The consultation closed on 12 October and the government is carefully considering the responses.
Any decision to change the CPI+1% cap would subsequently be reflected in the fiscal forecasts (including of Universal Credit and Housing Benefit expenditure) that are published by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the more detailed breakdowns of these expenditure forecasts that are published by DWP.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many households are currently affected by the under-occupancy charge with deductions for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the impact of these deductions given the increased cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The removal of the spare room subsidy is an important tool to make better use of the existing social housing stock, enable mobility within the social rented sector and contain growing housing support expenditure. It also aligns the size criteria rules used in the private rented sector in the social sector.
The policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
Those who need additional support with their housing costs can seek assistance from their local authority via the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHPs) scheme. Since 2011 the Government has provided almost £1.5 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.
The number of Households affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy is set out in the table below.
Households with a reduction due to the removal of the spare room subsidy, Great Britain, February 2022
One bedroom | Two or more bedrooms | Reduction applied but bedroom information is unknown |
396,100 | 84,900 | 500 |
Notes:
i. Figures are from Stat-Xplore and are rounded to the nearest hundred.
ii. Includes Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element. Universal Credit data for February is provisional and will be within two per cent of revised figures in future releases.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of recipients of universal credit discouraged from taking employment by the low level of net financial benefit from being employed due to associated costs, such as transport and childcare, known as the "benefit trap".
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
No such assessment has been undertaken.
UC recipients in work now benefit from a reduction in the UC taper rate from 63% to 55%, and for those eligible customers an increase in the work allowance by £500 per year meaning that working households will be able to keep more of what they earn and strengthening incentives to move into and progress in work.
The National Living Wage has risen from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour from 1 April. That means a pay rise for millions of the country’s lowest paid workers – worth an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.
The Department is aware that for some UC claimants’ childcare costs presents challenges to entering employment. To support parents to become financially resilient by moving into work and progressing in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month regardless of the number of hours they work, compared to 70% in Tax Credits. This is up to the maximum amount of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. For families with two children, this could be worth over £13,000 a year.
This support is available to all lone parents and couples, regardless of the number of hours they work. For couples, both parents need to be in paid work to be eligible unless one of the allowable exceptions is met.
The UC childcare policy aligns with the wider government childcare offer in England and there are similar funded early learning offers in devolved nations. The Free Childcare offer provides 15 hours a week of free childcare in England for all 3- and 4-year old’s and disadvantaged 2 year old’s, doubling for working parents of 3 and 4 year old’s to 30 hours a week.
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.
UC claimants who need help with upfront childcare costs to enter employment or significantly increase their working hours can apply for help from the Flexible Support Fund (FSF). This is a non-repayable payment that will pay their initial childcare costs directly to the provider up to the first salary received.
In order to achieve our long-term goals of driving up productivity and levelling up, we are supporting people in work to ensure they have the right skills and opportunities to progress out of low pay. Through providing right infrastructure we will support an ambitious and productive workforce suited to meet the UK’s future demand.
Through a staged rollout from April 2022 onwards, 2.1m low paid Universal Credit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher paid work. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on career progression advice, such as considering skills gaps, identifying training opportunities, or looking for opportunities for the claimant to progress in their current role or in a new role. Jobcentres will be supported in this new role by a network of 37 Progression Champions across Great Britain who will spearhead the scheme. They will work with partners to address local barriers that limit progression, such as transport and childcare.