Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has a cross-departmental strategy to reduce child poverty.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have not made any specific assessment of the implications of the findings of Action for Children’s report on the Department’s policies.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling child poverty and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions continues to lead cross-Government action to ensure a co-ordinated approach to supporting low-income households. DWP’s published Outcome Delivery Plan, places addressing poverty through enabling progression in the workforce and increasing financial resilience at the heart of its mission.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has a strategy for tackling child poverty.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have not made any specific assessment of the implications of the findings of Action for Children’s report on the Department’s policies.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling child poverty and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions continues to lead cross-Government action to ensure a co-ordinated approach to supporting low-income households. DWP’s published Outcome Delivery Plan, places addressing poverty through enabling progression in the workforce and increasing financial resilience at the heart of its mission.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the implications for its policies of the findings of Action for Children’s Coronavirus during Childhood report, published in October 2020.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have not made any specific assessment of the implications of the findings of Action for Children’s report on the Department’s policies.
This Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling child poverty and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions continues to lead cross-Government action to ensure a co-ordinated approach to supporting low-income households. DWP’s published Outcome Delivery Plan, places addressing poverty through enabling progression in the workforce and increasing financial resilience at the heart of its mission.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of increasing the child element of universal credit on reducing child poverty.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of increasing the child element of universal credit on child poverty. Projecting the impacts of policies on poverty involves projecting forward the impact of the pandemic on every household’s income which is not possible to do with confidence, not least because the latest comprehensive data on net incomes for households is from 2019-20, before the pandemic began.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to bring forward amendments to the gas management safety regulations to facilitate blending of hydrogen in the gas network by up to 20 per cent.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is committed to reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 and decarbonising our energy system. Hydrogen blending is a potential mechanism in the pathway towards achieving these ambitions.
The economic assessment and safety evidence for hydrogen blending is not yet complete. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Ofgem and the industry to ensure that the necessary economic analysis and safety evidence to support any change to the current permitted hydrogen content is obtained. HSE will shortly be consulting on proposals to amend the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations (GSMR), however as the demonstration of hydrogen blending is ongoing, blending will not form part of this suite of proposals.
Exemptions to the permitted hydrogen limit in GSMR can be sought until legislation is changed and HSE has already issued exemptions to enable hydrogen blending demonstrations up to 20 per cent to take place at Keele University and Winlaton in England.
Subject to both the economic and safety case for blending being demonstrated, the Government is aiming to make a final decision on blending by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2021 to Question 75018 on Universal Credit, how many waivers have been rejected in each respective period.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department is unable to provide this information, as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many waivers have been granted for universal credit overpayments with the classification of official error in financial year 2021-22 to date.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The table below details the number of waivers of Universal Credit Official Error overpayments granted in the requested years:
Financial Year | Number of UC Official Error overpayments where recovery was waived |
2020/2021 | 9 |
2021/2022 (April to October) | 5 |
Please note that this data is taken from operational data systems, and is not intended for publication. Therefore, the data itself is not quality assured to the standard of published Official Statistics and National Statistics.
DWP pays welfare benefits to around 23 million people and is committed to ensuring that the right people are paid the right amount of Universal Credit. The vast majority of benefit expenditure (more than £200bn across all benefits last financial year) is paid correctly, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring.
Where an overpayment does occur, the Department has a responsibility to taxpayers to recover the money without creating undue financial hardship. Universal Credit overpayments are recoverable, irrespective of how they arose. Where recovery is made by deduction from Universal Credit, there is a limit placed on the overall amount that can be deducted. Formerly 40% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, this was reduced to 30% in October 2019 and again to 25% in April 2021.
A waiver can only be granted where the recovery of the overpayment is causing substantial medical and/or financial hardship, and where clear evidence of this can be provided.
However, any claimants struggling with the proposed rate of deductions are encouraged to contact DWP Debt Management to discuss affordability, so that a lower repayment rate can be negotiated as appropriate.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many waivers were granted for universal credit overpayments classed as official error in financial year 2020-21.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The table below details the number of waivers of Universal Credit Official Error overpayments granted in the requested years:
Financial Year | Number of UC Official Error overpayments where recovery was waived |
2020/2021 | 9 |
2021/2022 (April to October) | 5 |
Please note that this data is taken from operational data systems, and is not intended for publication. Therefore, the data itself is not quality assured to the standard of published Official Statistics and National Statistics.
DWP pays welfare benefits to around 23 million people and is committed to ensuring that the right people are paid the right amount of Universal Credit. The vast majority of benefit expenditure (more than £200bn across all benefits last financial year) is paid correctly, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring.
Where an overpayment does occur, the Department has a responsibility to taxpayers to recover the money without creating undue financial hardship. Universal Credit overpayments are recoverable, irrespective of how they arose. Where recovery is made by deduction from Universal Credit, there is a limit placed on the overall amount that can be deducted. Formerly 40% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance, this was reduced to 30% in October 2019 and again to 25% in April 2021.
A waiver can only be granted where the recovery of the overpayment is causing substantial medical and/or financial hardship, and where clear evidence of this can be provided.
However, any claimants struggling with the proposed rate of deductions are encouraged to contact DWP Debt Management to discuss affordability, so that a lower repayment rate can be negotiated as appropriate.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many State Pensions are being assessed by her Department as possible cases of underpayment in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency as at 23 September 2021.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to produce a replacement publication for the document entitled What happens if you are overpaid Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no plans to replace the publication ‘What happens if you are overpaid Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance’, which was withdrawn in October 2017. This is because the information previously contained in that publication is now part of the mainstream guidance on GOV.UK under the sections ‘Benefit Overpayments’ and ‘Reporting Changes in Circumstances’.
The majority of claimants are able to make and maintain their Universal Credit claim online. Claimants can report a change of circumstance by signing into their Universal Credit account and accessing the ‘How to manage your Universal Credit Claim’ Guide. Where a Universal Credit claim is made and maintained by telephone, changes of circumstance can be reported by telephone.
Full details of how the Department deals with overpayments can be found in the publically available Benefit Overpayment Recovery Guide - Benefit overpayment recovery guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
It should be noted that the Department 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. We seek to do so as quickly as possible without creating any undue financial hardship to the claimant.
Recovery rates are set out in legislation, but customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship in order to negotiate a reduction in their rate of
repayment, or a temporary suspension of repayment, depending on financial circumstances.