Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the methods used by absent parents on incomes above £156,000 to evade full and accurate assessment for child maintenance by the courts.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a parent’s gross income exceeds £156,000 a year, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) makes a maximum maintenance calculation. Any further consideration of child maintenance is a matter for the courts, which have their own mechanisms for examining the finances of those involved in proceedings where relevant.
Where a paying parent’s income is not fully reflected in a statutory maintenance calculation, the CMS can take account of certain forms of diverted and unearned income through the variation process where income has not been fully reflected in a maintenance calculation. Where information is disputed or appears not to reflect a parent's true circumstances, caseworkers can access specialist support, including the Financial Investigation Unit.
The Government continues to work closely with HMRC to improve the quality and timeliness of income data and strengthen the identification of complex income arrangements. Assessments and processes are kept under review to help ensure that child maintenance liabilities accurately reflect parents' financial circumstances and that all parents contribute appropriately towards their children.
The CMS can provide information to the courts where requested through the proper legal process, including information used in child maintenance calculations and, where relevant, findings from CMS investigations
The CMS remains committed to ensuring that parents meet their financial responsibilities to their children.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the £156,000 cap on annual income earned by the absent parent eligible for assessment by the Child Maintenance Service has not been uprated since December 2012; and what assessment they have made of the resulting impact on child poverty.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The £156,000 annual gross income limit reflects the £3,000 gross weekly income threshold introduced with the 2012 child maintenance scheme. The scheme was designed to provide a standard formula for assessing child maintenance in most cases. Where a paying parent’s income exceeds this threshold, receiving parents may apply to the courts for a top-up order. Higher-income cases can involve more complex financial arrangements and, as intended when the scheme was introduced, the courts remain responsible for determining any additional maintenance above the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculation limit.
The Government keeps all aspects of the child maintenance system under consideration, but there are currently no plans to uprate this threshold.
A paying parent with gross weekly income of £3,000 or above would be liable for child maintenance of approximately £294 per week for one qualifying child, £392 per week for two qualifying children and £482 per week for three or more qualifying children under the statutory formula, before any adjustments for shared care or other factors.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 of February 2023 to Question 148650 on Pension Credit, what is the current average processing time of Pension Credit applications from date of application to date of (a) decision and (b) first payment.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
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.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time was for a pension credit application that (a) did and (b) did not require a habitual residence test from application to payment in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
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.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to extend the special dispensation for people arriving from Ukraine to claim benefits until the end of 2023.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In March 2022, Parliament passed The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which exempted those who were residing in Ukraine immediately before 1 January 2022, and who had fled in response to the Russian Invasion on 24 February 2022, from having to satisfy the Habitual Residence Test (HRT) and Past Presence Test (PPT). A link to the regulations can be found here -
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/344/contents/made
This meant that those individuals covered by the regulations were eligible for income-related and disability and carer benefits from day one of their arrival, subject to all other entitlement conditions being met.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
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 merits of bringing forward the next review of the benefit cap, in the context of the rising cost of living.
Answered by Guy Opperman
I can confirm that the Secretary of State has completed his statutory review of the benefit cap levels and decided they should be increased in line with CPI in the year to September 2022 (10.1%) in April 2023.
This increase was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Autumn Statement to Parliament on 17 November 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that people on working tax credits receive their cost of living payment within the same timescales as those not receiving working tax credits.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
People on working tax credits are often in receipt of other means-tested benefits.
HMRC issue payments to people on working tax credits after the other payments have been made, to allow time to ensure those who claim tax credits as well as a means tested benefit do not receive the payment twice. This decreases the risk of overpayments to tax credits customers.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will meet with representatives of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign to discuss the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on Women's State Pension Age.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation into communication of changes to women’s state pension is ongoing. Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”. It would be inappropriate to comment on these issues whilst the investigation is ongoing.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the (a) impact of not extending statutory maternity allowance to self-employed adopters on parents' ability to take time off work to bond with their newly adopted child and (b) subsequent impact that has on (i) parents and (ii) children.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Maternity Allowance (MA) are primarily health and safety provisions relating specifically to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. They provide a measure of financial security to help women who have worked during or close to their pregnancies to stop working towards the end of their pregnancy and in the months after childbirth, in the interests of their own and their babies' health and wellbeing. As there is no associated period of pregnancy for adopters, it is not appropriate that they are able to make a claim for either SMP or MA regardless of their employment status.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the decision to not provide the cost of living payment to claimants of new-style Employment and Support Allowance on those claimants.
Answered by David Rutley
Non-means tested benefits are not eligible benefits for the Cost-of-Living Payment in their own right because people claiming these benefits may have other financial resources available to them.
Many claimants of contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance are also in receipt of a means tested benefit. For example, as of November 2021 there were around 400,000 claimants getting both income and contributory Employment Support Allowance, and around 100,000 claimants getting Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.
If someone in receipt of a contributory or new style benefit makes a successful claim to an eligible benefit made after the initial qualifying date, they may qualify for the second, £324 cost-of-living payment in the Autumn.
Contributory and new style Employment and Support Allowance claimants may also benefit from other parts of the Cost-of-Living package of support announced by the Chancellor, including the £400 rebate for domestic energy customers provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.