Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that universal credit claimants are able to cover all essential payments in the context of increased costs of living.
Answered by David Rutley
The government is providing £9 billion of financial support to most households, including those on Universal Credit, as the global gas price spike causes rising energy bills. The Energy Bills Rebate will provide around 28 million households support with their energy bills worth £200 which will be applied from October. Households in England, which are in council tax bands A-D, will also receive a £150 rebate on their council tax. The rebate to council tax bills will be made directly by Local Authorities from April and will not need to be repaid.
In addition, we are providing support worth around £12bn this financial year and next, to help families with the cost of living, cutting the Universal Credit taper and increasing work allowances to make sure work pays, freezing fuel duties to keep costs down, and providing our existing targeted support to help households with their energy bills through the Warm Home Discount scheme, Cold Weather Payments and Winter Fuel Payments.
We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, which is why vulnerable households across the country can access a £500 million Household Support Fund to help them with essentials.
Budgeting Advances are also available to those who are eligible and in receipt of Universal Credit to help finance intermittent/unforeseen expenses (for example, essential household items) or expenses related to maternity, obtaining, or retaining employment.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to reduce the required application frequency by disabled people for support through the Access To Work scheme, where their needs have not changed.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Access to Work is committed to improving customer experience and transforming the service disabled people receive. This will introduce a new digital customer journey and explores how we can streamline the current processes, including reviewing the frequency of applications.
In addition, we are developing the Adjustments Passport which aims to reduce the need for holistic assessments where the customer’s needs remain the same. The Adjustments Passport is currently being piloted with freelancers, contractors and universities. In 2022, it will include the Armed Forces service leavers and various Department for Education programmes supporting young disabled people.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that (a) managed payments to landlords are paid in full in a timely manner and (b) universal credit claimants do not enter rent arrears as a result of payment delays.
Answered by David Rutley
The Universal Credit payment structure is a fundamental part of its design. It mirrors the world of work, where people are paid money directly which they may then put towards housing costs. Ensuring similarities between paid employment and receiving benefits removes an important barrier which could prevent claimants from moving into paid employment. For those who cannot manage their single monthly payment, Alternative Payment Arrangements, and more specifically a Managed Payment to Landlord, is available at the start, or at any point during a Universal Credit claim. Such arrangements can be requested by either the claimant or the landlord and are considered on a case by case basis.
The vast majority of managed payments to landlords are paid on the same date as the claimant is paid their Universal Credit monthly award. Payment timeliness is usually dependent on claimants completing their commitments within the set time frame as instructed by DWP. Claimants are notified to complete any outstanding action via their preferred choice of communication, i.e. journal message/text, to ensure there are no delays in payment. If claimants have any further concerns, they may phone the Universal Credit helpline or speak to their work coach.
All Universal Credit claimants have the opportunity to discuss any concerns about how to budget their monthly payments with their work coach and/or via their Universal Credit Journal. Work coaches will identify any financial issues the claimant has and signpost claimants to any relevant local face-to-face provision or support that is available, as appropriate.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to provide additional financial support to pensioners during winter 2021-22.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Last year despite negative earnings growth and low inflation of 0.5% the Government took action to provide vital peace of mind to pensioners regarding their financial security. Consequently, the basic and new State Pension rates were increased in April 2021 by 2.5% meaning the full yearly basic State Pension is over £2,050 a year higher than in 2010, in cash terms. In addition, the Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee was also increased to match the cash equivalent in the basic State Pension. Pension Credit remains a vital support to pensioners on a low income.
We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
Councils have the discretion and flexibility to develop a local delivery approach that best fits the scheme’s objectives, with support primarily used to support households in the most need with food, energy, fuel, digital and water bills. Up to 50% of the fund is available for councils to use on households without children, including those of state pension age.
In addition, we will continue to support pensioners by making winter fuel payments of £200 to those households with someone of state pension age and under 80 and £300 to those households with someone aged 80 or over. Cold weather payments are also available to those in receipt of Pension Credit.
The Warm Home Discount Scheme operated by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ensures that those in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit receive a rebate of £140 on their energy bill.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that all Job Centre Plus sites are accessible to people with hearing loss.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to making its services accessible for all its customers together with those who may have additional communication needs including hearing loss.
Deaf and hard of hearing customers visiting Jobcentres are able to access different support based on how hearing loss affects their communication needs. Job Centres are equipped and currently provide mainly portable, but also some fixed hearing loops across the network, for those customers with hearing loss. There is a new initiative to improve our environments for disabled customers and those with health conditions which will include people with hearing loss. This work is due to start in October.
For those customers who are deaf or hard of hearing and attending a prearranged appointment with DWP, staff will already be aware of the customer’s communication needs from DWP’s computer systems and have access to a language services contract to pre-book an interpreter to support face to face contact. The interpreter will be skilled in providing non-spoken language support including British Sign Language (BSL).
Furthermore, a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) is assigned to each Jobcentre site. The DEA is skilled in understanding the needs of disabled customers, including those who with hearing loss. The DEA provides support to Work Coaches to ensure that Work Coaches are able to increase their awareness and empathy when dealing with customers who have hearing loss.
The Employer and Partnerships role within DWP forms effective networks with a variety of local stakeholders, including organisations and charities that support customers with hearing loss. These relationships are vital to ensure that DWP is able to provide consistent and effective support to its customers.
On a national level, DWP has established a range of networks with its stakeholders to provide a voice for the customer. The Taskforce for Accessible Information, the Reasonable Adjustments Forum and the Operational Stakeholder Engagement Forum all regularly meet with a cross section of groups representing disabilities including those with hearing loss. The purpose of these forums are to ensure that DWP elicits feedback and insight into how its services are being used by those with additional communication needs and to seek continuous improvement.
Following the expansion of Video Relay Service last year, whereby deaf customers are now able to make an inbound telephone call to DWP via a British Sign Language interpreter using a video connection, DWP is currently exploring how this technology can be adapted to support video remote interpreting. This will increase the flexibility for DWP to conduct face to face and telephony based contact with deaf and hard of hearing customers.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial measures her Department has announced to support people on universal credit (a) secure employment and (b) secure more hours if already in part-time employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for UC claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; Restart, which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to UC claimants who are unemployed for a year; and JETS, which provides light touch employment support for people who are claiming either Universal Credit or New Style Jobseekers Allowance, for up to 6 months, helping participants effectively re-engage with the labour market and focus their job search. We have also recruited an additional 13,500 Work Coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job. In total, our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.
Supporting people into work and progressing in-work is at the heart of our approach to tackling poverty. We have recruited an additional 13,500 Work Coaches in our Jobcentres to help support people of all ages to find a job, retrain, or gain vital practical experience to move into better paid jobs or those that have opportunities for progression.
Last year DWP launched the In-Work Progression Commission led by Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith. The Commission published their independent report on 1 July 2021. It makes 26 recommendations to help people to progress at work and move out of low paid employment. The Government welcomed the report, we are carefully considering the recommendations and we will respond in the coming months.
In the meantime, DWP continues to build evidence of how we can support working claimants to progress in work. We are trialling a voluntary in-work support offer with claimants in South Yorkshire.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of claimants who will be affected by the ending of the £20 top-up in universal credit in autumn 2021 in Southport.
Answered by Will Quince
There are currently around 4.2 million households in receipt of a temporarily higher level of UC. It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of how many people will be affected by the removal of the £20 uplift due to uncertainty around the speed of the economic recovery and the resulting effect on the caseload.
The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced with the success of the vaccine rollout. Now the economy is reopening and as we continue to progress with our recovery our focus is on helping people back into work.
Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for UC claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; we have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job; and introduced Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to UC claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department informs people who have been overpaid universal credit that they can apply for a formal waiver.
Answered by Will Quince
From August 2020 to July 2021, a total of *89,000 Universal Credit Official Error Overpayments in excess of £1,000 were recorded on Debt Manager. There are currently approximately 6 million Universal Credit claimants.
The Department is unable to provide information on how many waiver requests for Universal Credit Official Error overpayments exceeding £1,000 were made (and were successful) in the last 12 months, as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.
When the Department informs claimants of a benefit overpayment (either by letter, or via the journal in Universal Credit), they are advised to contact the Department’s Debt Management Team to discuss repayment. During this discussion, if a claimant expresses concern about repayment, Debt Management staff will inform them that they can request that a waiver be considered.
It should be noted that 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.
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) was paid correctly in the last financial year, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring.
*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.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests her Department has received for a formal waiver to the recovery of universal credit overpayments of an amount exceeding £1,000, which arose as a result of an error by a departmental official in the last 12 months; and how many of those requests were granted.
Answered by Will Quince
From August 2020 to July 2021, a total of *89,000 Universal Credit Official Error Overpayments in excess of £1,000 were recorded on Debt Manager. There are currently approximately 6 million Universal Credit claimants.
The Department is unable to provide information on how many waiver requests for Universal Credit Official Error overpayments exceeding £1,000 were made (and were successful) in the last 12 months, as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.
When the Department informs claimants of a benefit overpayment (either by letter, or via the journal in Universal Credit), they are advised to contact the Department’s Debt Management Team to discuss repayment. During this discussion, if a claimant expresses concern about repayment, Debt Management staff will inform them that they can request that a waiver be considered.
It should be noted that 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.
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) was paid correctly in the last financial year, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring.
*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.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit overpayments of an amount exceeding £1,000 have been identified as having arisen as a result of an error by a departmental official in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
From August 2020 to July 2021, a total of *89,000 Universal Credit Official Error Overpayments in excess of £1,000 were recorded on Debt Manager. There are currently approximately 6 million Universal Credit claimants.
The Department is unable to provide information on how many waiver requests for Universal Credit Official Error overpayments exceeding £1,000 were made (and were successful) in the last 12 months, as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.
When the Department informs claimants of a benefit overpayment (either by letter, or via the journal in Universal Credit), they are advised to contact the Department’s Debt Management Team to discuss repayment. During this discussion, if a claimant expresses concern about repayment, Debt Management staff will inform them that they can request that a waiver be considered.
It should be noted that 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.
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) was paid correctly in the last financial year, with front line staff working hard to prevent overpayments from occurring.
*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.