Asked by: Angela Richardson (Conservative - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take to support Universal Credit claimants who are in work with varying paydays each month affecting the benefit assessment period.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to change the way universal credit treats earnings received in a claimant’s assessment period.
As Universal Credit is paid monthly, those who are also paid their earnings monthly will normally get one payment in each assessment period. For those who are paid differently such as weekly, fortnightly, or four-weekly, the frequency of their pay will have an effect on how much Universal Credit they will receive in some assessment periods and means that for some months these claimants will receive two or more sets of earnings during one Universal Credit assessment period. This may reduce, or in some cases, end the Universal Credit award the claimant receives that month.
The issue of receiving two sets of monthly earnings affects a small minority of claimants in very specific circumstances, we know that this can occur when a claimant’s monthly pay date and the last day of their assessment period are close together.
In recognition of the impact that having double calendar monthly earnings in an assessment period can have on this small number of individual households, we have introduced legislation to address the issue. This legislation came into force on the 16th November 2020 and means that for cases affected by this issue monthly earnings can be reallocated to another assessment period, which means that only one set of earnings should be taken into account rather than two.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Asked by: Angela Richardson (Conservative - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the announcement by his Department that people who have lived in a homeless hostel will be exempt from the shared accommodation rate, whether that exemption will include people living in supported accommodation.
Answered by Will Quince
The exemption is for those who have spent at least three months in a specialist hostel (or hostels) for homeless people, where the main purpose of that hostel is to provide accommodation, care, supervision or support, with a view to assisting homeless people to be rehabilitated or resettled in the community. Further, to be eligible for this exemption they would need to have been offered and accepted support services to enable them to be rehabilitated or resettled in the community during their time in the hostel.
Supported housing covers a broad range of accommodation types including sheltered housing for older people and long-term housing for people with care needs. However, short-term supported housing could meet the definition above if it is hostel accommodation and its main purpose is to support and re-habilitate or resettle homeless people into the community.
Asked by: Angela Richardson (Conservative - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the judgment in relation to (a) R (Jackson and Simpson) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWHC 183 (Admin) and (b) i n the matter of an application by Siobhan McLaughlin for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland), what progress her Department’s has made on amend her Department's policies on (i) bereavement support payment and (ii) widowed parents allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is our intention to take forward a Remedial Order to remove the incompatibilities from the legislation governing Widowed Parent’s Allowance and Bereavement Support Payment by extending these benefits to cohabitees with children. We intend to lay the Order before the House in due course.