Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Jobcentre Plus work coaches receive specific training to support and provide employment advice to women prison leavers.
Answered by Will Quince
On making a new claim to Universal Credit (UC) all claimants, including prison leavers and those undertaking employment programmes, receive a follow up call to verify details of identity and discuss their individual circumstances, including financial circumstances and money management. As part of this discussion, alternative payment arrangements will be considered where appropriate, including benefit payments paid more frequently than monthly, and housing costs paid direct to the landlord.
Those with an online claim also have access to a UC guide on their UC account. In addition, we have specific prison leaver UC guides - one for prison leavers and one for people supporting prison leavers:
UC prison leaver guide for those supporting prison leavers
All DWP work coaches, including Prison Work Coaches, receive training to provide support and employment advice to claimants who have complex needs, including female and male prison leavers.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will take steps with representatives of local authorities to ensure that universal credit is able to cover the costs of women in supported or temporary housing so that those women can progress into employment while remaining in their accommodation.
Answered by Will Quince
Housing Benefit provides housing support for people in temporary accommodation, or in supported housing where the local authority deems that the accommodation meets the specified accommodation criteria, subject to the usual entitlement conditions. If the local authority decides that the specified accommodation criteria has not been met, the claimant can claim for their housing support through Universal Credit.
Where Housing Benefit claimants progress into employment, if they remain entitled to Universal Credit, their income is not taken into account for Housing Benefit purposes and there is no change to the amount they receive. If their Universal Credit claim ends, then their Housing Benefit claim is reassessed. Some of their earnings will be disregarded based on their personal circumstances. Where a claimant’s income, after the disregards, have been applied is higher than their applicable amount, Housing Benefit is reduced by a fixed taper of 65p for every £1 of additional income, meaning that they will always be better off in work. If a claimant continues to struggle to pay their rent, they can apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment from their local authority.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether training on domestic abuse will be provided for people working on the application and administration of universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
In supporting victims of domestic violence, DWP offers a range of support open to survivors and those still experiencing domestic abuse.
Jobcentre staff delivering Universal Credit undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. Specific training and guidance is provided for working with different vulnerable groups, including people who have been the victims of domestic violence.
This can include signposting claimants to national and local organisations that provide specialist support. Work coaches can also apply a domestic violence easement, switching off a claimant’s all work-related requirements for a period of time.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to review the two-child benefit cap.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The policy to provide additional Universal Credit support for a maximum of two children encourages families who receive benefits to make the same financial decisions as those families who support themselves solely through work.
Exceptions are an important part of the policy and we have always been clear they will be delivered in the most effective, compassionate way, with the right safeguards in place.
We continue to monitor the impact of the policy. Written Statement HCWS653 on 27 April outlined a recent change to the policy
It is worth noting that Child Benefit continues to be paid for all children plus an additional amount for any disabled children. Additional help for eligible childcare costs are also available regardless of the total number of children in the household.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether training on domestic abuse will be provided for people working on the application and administration of universal credit.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
In supporting victims of domestic violence, DWP offers a range of support open to survivors and those still experiencing domestic abuse.
Jobcentre staff delivering Universal Credit undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. Specific training and guidance is provided for working with different vulnerable groups, including people who have been the victims of domestic violence.
This can include signposting claimants to national and local organisations that provide specialist support. Work coaches can also apply a domestic violence easement, switching off a claimant’s all work-related requirements for a period of time.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is still a principle of the Government that an individual should spend on average up to one third of their adult life above state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Pensions Act 2014 requires the Government to regularly review State Pension age and report the outcome of that review to Parliament. This process helps to ensure the costs of increasing longevity are shared fairly between the generations and also provides greater clarity for people around how State Pension age will change in the future.
The Government announced in 2013 that people can expect to spend on average up to one third of their adult life in receipt of the State Pension to reflect the experience of recent generations.
The first review of State Pension age by John Cridland was published in 2017 and proposed increasing State Pension age to age 68 between 2037 and 2039, bringing it forward from its current legislated date of 2044-46. This is consistent with the up to one third principle and means everyone born on or before 5 April 1970 will see no change to their State Pension age.
We will carry out a further review before legislating to bring forward the rise in State Pension age to 68, to enable consideration of the latest life expectancy projections and to allow us to evaluate the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the MP hotline will be available over the Christmas period for urgent universal credit casework inquiries.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
For MPs who have issues with constituents who are full service Universal Credit claimants, the Complaints Resolution Team route is available. We have recently confirmed that claimants do not need to give consent for MPs and their caseworkers to raise concerns. It is also important to remember that, in the full service, Universal Credit claimants, Universal Credit service centre colleagues and Universal Credit work coaches have access to a claimant’s online journal, which holds the details of a claim. In effect, any of these Universal Credit colleagues can provide the service that an MPs’ hotline would deliver.
We are also currently writing to MPs as the full service goes live in their constituency. These letters explain the implicit consent arrangements for MPs. The letters also give the telephone number and email address of the district manager in the constituency so that MPs can contact district managers if there are urgent constituent cases that need attention. The letter also mentions that the jobcentre will be contacting the MP to arrange a visit to the jobcentre. This visit is another opportunity for MPs’ offices to build the relationship with their local Complaints Resolution Team.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an emergency telephone line will be available over the Christmas period to allow new universal credit claimants to apply for an advance before their first payment.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department plans to advance the timing of all payments where people would be impacted by bank holidays, to ensure they have money over the festive period, also supporting those customers who request an advance payment during this time and minimising any impact on claimants for the brief period when the Universal Credit helpline is closed. This includes the careful assessment of technical system and banking system availability to ensure successful payments can be made. This year we have enhanced the functionality and added a faster payment contingency function in Universal Credit.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of lifting the freeze on benefits on account of changes to the level of inflation after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 has frozen the majority of working-age benefits for four tax years, from 2016-17 to 2019-20. The analysis published at the time of the 2015 Budget assesses the impact of the measures in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. This includes an estimate that the benefit rate freeze would save £3.5 billion in 2019-20 (https://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf).
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure prompt and accurate payments of universal credit for people being transferred to that benefit in the run-up to Christmas.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure people have money over the festive period the Department plans to pay in advance of the due date the people that could be affected by bank holidays. This includes the careful assessment of technical system and banking system availability to ensure successful payments can be made. This year we have enhanced the functionality and added a faster payment contingency function in Universal Credit.