Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides for universal credit (a) claimants and (b) intended beneficiaries who are victims of economic abuse arising from provision of a single payment to one family.
Answered by Will Quince
DWP is committed to doing all we can do support victims of domestic and economic abuse, including giving split payments when requested, easements in benefit conditionality, and referrals to local support.
When an individual suffering from economic abuse requests a split payment, the Department will make split payments available to them. Whilst we are not intending to introduce split payments by default, we respond positively to such requests.
Both members of a couple do not need to be present to arrange a split payment and consent is not required from the other partner to authorise a split payment. Claimants can request a split payment during a face to face meeting, a phone call, or online via their journal and do not have to provide evidence of abuse in order to be granted a split payment.
If a victim of abuse feels able to flee their relationship, we can implement same-day advances to support them.
The Department can take other actions to support those experiencing economic abuse, such as making a managed payment of rent direct to landlords. We also ensure that claimants who disclose abuse are signposted to specialist organisations for support. All work coaches undergo mandatory training regarding how to support vulnerable claimants, including recognising the signs of domestic abuse. We are also looking at what more we can do to ensure that the main carer more often receives the Universal Credit payment direct.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to help women to leave abusive relationships.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has a range of measures designed to support people who flee abusive households. This includes easements to benefit conditionality to give claimants the space and time needed to stabilise their lives, special provisions in both Housing Benefit and Universal Credit housing support when a claimant is temporarily absent from their home through fear of violence, and exemptions from Child Maintenance application fees.
When a victim of domestic abuse comes into a Jobcentre fleeing abuse, we can support them by helping them to open a new claim, and can put in place a rapid advance where needed, which provides access to funds in 2-3 hours.
As a department, we focus on helping frontline colleagues to recognise signs of domestic abuse and to support victims by signposting to expert organisations who can help. All work coaches undergo mandatory training on how to support vulnerable claimants, including recognising the signs of domestic abuse. Furthermore, any individual can be accompanied by a third party organisation to provide expert support when disclosing domestic abuse to a Work Coach, and a private area can be provided to disclose any information if requested.
The Department published information on DWP support to victims of domestic abuse on gov.uk in January 2018. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-violence-and-abuse-help-from-dwp
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the announcement that personal independence payment claimants with severe or progressive conditions requiring high level support would not face reassessment for 10 years, how many claimants have been granted this exemption.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not based on condition or on whether it is or isn’t lifelong, instead being based on the daily living or mobility needs arising. Between April 2013 and 31st January 2019, 375,550 PIP claimants were awarded an ongoing award at their initial decision. Ongoing awards do not have an end date, but will be subject to a light touch review at the 10-year point.
Ongoing awards have been a feature of PIP since it was introduced in 2013. The change introduced last year provides clearer guidance on the process for Case Managers to follow and will ensure that those receiving the maximum support under PIP, and where their needs will not improve or deteriorate – such as those with a severe or progressive condition - receive an ongoing award with a light touch review at the ten-year point.
Source: PIP ADS
Notes
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what sanctions her Department have put in place under the Child Maintenance Service for receiving parents who do not keep the service informed of changes in circumstance that result in a child being no longer eligible for maintenance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Both paying and receiving parents have a responsibility to inform the Child Maintenance Service of any change in circumstances. There are no sanctions for receiving parents who do not report circumstances where a child is no longer eligible for maintenance. If either party reports changes that confirm a child cannot be treated as a child for the purpose of child maintenance liability, then the Service will update the maintenance calculation. This change can be retrospective, as the effective date of this decision is treated as the date the child ceased to qualify for child maintenance.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
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 implications for her policies of the Independent Food Aid Network report, published in March 2019, that found in Scotland between April 2017 and September 2018, more than double the number of food parcels were given out than previously estimated.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We welcome any research aimed at improving our understanding of the nature and extent of food bank use. We recognise the data limitations in this area and that is why the Department for Work and Pensions has been working with a number of food security experts, the Office for National Statistics and the Scottish Government to introduce a new set of food security questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) from April.
In the short term we are exploring how we can build on current good practice to make it as easy as possible for food banks to identify and refer back to the local Jobcentre any customers who may, for a variety of reasons, not be receiving the full formal support to which they are entitled.
The Government has committed to a strong safety-net for those who need it; we spend over £95 billion a year on welfare benefits for people of working age including a well-established system of hardship payments, benefit advances and budgeting loans as an additional safeguard for those who need it.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the gross weekly income thresholds for each child maintenance rate of pay were last updated.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012 introduced a new gross weekly income threshold for child maintenance, for those earning between £800 and £3000 a week.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents are in maintenance arrears through the Child Maintenance Service; and what amount of money is outstanding in such arrears in Lanark and Hamilton East constituency.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The number of paying parents in maintenance arrears, and the amount of unpaid maintenance on their cases as of September 2018 for the constituency of Lanark and Hamilton East are outlined in the table below.
| Number of paying parents with unpaid maintenance | Amount of unpaid maintenance (£) |
Lanark and Hamilton East | 190 | 290,000 |
Note: Paying parents are rounded to the nearest 10, unpaid maintenance is rounded to the nearest £10,000.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what evidence her Department bases its claim that universal credit sanctions support claimants into work.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Evidence from international studies is clear that benefit systems supported by conditionality are effective at moving people into work, and that sanctions are a key part of conditionality. Transitions into work typically increase following a sanction.
The Department has committed to doing an evaluation of the effectiveness of Universal Credit sanctions at supporting claimants to search for work in response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s report on benefit sanctions. This Department will look to publish this in 2019.
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2019 to Question 220956, what the nature of the work is of the (a) 15 automations in use and (b) 11 automations due to go live in Quarter 3 of 2019.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The nature of the work DWP is undertaking, using intelligent automation, is to improve the way that we engage with citizens and deliver our services by:
Asked by: Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party - Lanark and Hamilton East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she plans to undertake to review the maximum limit of the value of the over 80 state pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. In 2018/19 we will spend £121.5 billion on benefits for pensioners, including £97 billion on the State Pension for this year. Between 2010 and 2018, we will have increased the basic State Pension by £1,450 a year.
The non-contributory Category D State Pension is available to those aged over 80 with either no entitlement to a basic State Pension or who are entitled to basic State Pension of less than £75.50 per week. Individuals must also meet the residency conditions. Category D State Pension is currently uprated in line with the Triple Lock. We are committed to the Triple Lock for the remainder of this Parliament guaranteeing that up to the full amounts of the basic and new State Pensions will rise by the highest of average earnings growth, price inflation, or 2.5% and in 2018/19 the increase was 3%. Between April 2010 and April 2018 the basic State Pension has risen by £660 a year more than if it had been just up-rated by earnings since April 2010. That is a rise of £1,450 a year in cash terms.
Additionally, the 25p age addition is paid with State Pension when individuals reach age 80. Although there are no plans to uprate the age addition amount, this should to be considered alongside the range of other measures and benefits that are available to pensioners, over age 80. This includes Pension Credit and the free television licence scheme. Moreover, people who are aged 80 and over receive a Winter Fuel Payment of £300, instead of the standard Winter Fuel Payment of £200 for pensioners below that age.