Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
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 potential merits of amending the universal credit application form and online journal to enable her Department to automatically (a) assess and (b) register children for free school meals.
Answered by Will Quince
The eligibility criteria for free school meals are the responsibility of the Department for Education in England, and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Department for Education already provides an electronic eligibility checking service to all local authorities in England, which is used to confirm eligibility for free school meals.
Universal Credit (UC) claimants may currently be entitled to a number of other benefits because they are in receipt of UC. These are known as passported benefits and include free school meals and free prescriptions. The eligibility criteria for each passported benefit remain the responsibility of relevant departments and the devolved administrations that own them.
The Department needs to ensure that there is a high level of security to protect claimants’ personal information, and has no plans to amend either the UC claim form or online journal to obtain an applicant’s consent to register eligible children for free school meals.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 24 February to Question 725, what plans she has to extend the Yellow Card warning system to other locations across the United Kingdom.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department committed to look at processes to give claimants a written warning, instead of a sanction, for a first sanctionable failure to attend a Work-Search Review and to undertake a series of small-scale Proof of Concepts of this warning system. The Department would like to complete all testing before making an assessment of the merits of extending such a system.
We have now gathered internal staff feedback on the first Proof of Concept and we are looking at informing our next steps. As this was a small proof of concept, we do not plan to publish this feedback.
Sites for future stages of the Proof of Concept are chosen in such a way that ensures we are able to assess the concept / policy under consideration. To do this effectively we consider what data can be collected from the site, whether the site is appropriate given its characteristics and if this can be done in a manner to ensure findings are sufficiently robust.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish an assessment of the effectiveness of a Yellow Card warning system based on the Proof of Concepts undertaken by her Department.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department committed to look at processes to give claimants a written warning, instead of a sanction, for a first sanctionable failure to attend a Work-Search Review and to undertake a series of small-scale Proof of Concepts of this warning system. The Department would like to complete all testing before making an assessment of the merits of extending such a system.
We have now gathered internal staff feedback on the first Proof of Concept and we are looking at informing our next steps. As this was a small proof of concept, we do not plan to publish this feedback.
Sites for future stages of the Proof of Concept are chosen in such a way that ensures we are able to assess the concept / policy under consideration. To do this effectively we consider what data can be collected from the site, whether the site is appropriate given its characteristics and if this can be done in a manner to ensure findings are sufficiently robust.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to work with Feeding Britain to identify additional locations in which to pilot a Yellow Card warning system.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department committed to look at processes to give claimants a written warning, instead of a sanction, for a first sanctionable failure to attend a Work-Search Review and to undertake a series of small-scale Proof of Concepts of this warning system. The Department would like to complete all testing before making an assessment of the merits of extending such a system.
We have now gathered internal staff feedback on the first Proof of Concept and we are looking at informing our next steps. As this was a small proof of concept, we do not plan to publish this feedback.
Sites for future stages of the Proof of Concept are chosen in such a way that ensures we are able to assess the concept / policy under consideration. To do this effectively we consider what data can be collected from the site, whether the site is appropriate given its characteristics and if this can be done in a manner to ensure findings are sufficiently robust.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2020 to Question 52025 on Unemployment: Immigrants, what support her Department is providing for people who fall outside of all of the coronavirus financial support packages as a result of no recourse to public funds being a condition of their indefinite leave to remain settlement status.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Non-UK nationals and family members who are issued with a residence permit with a NRPF condition are not eligible to access taxpayer-funded benefits such as Universal Credit, Child Benefit or housing assistance for the duration of their leave. Public funds does not include contributions-based benefits and the State Pension. DWP has no powers to award taxpayer-funded benefits to an individual whose Home Office immigration status specifies no recourse to public funds. The Home Office determine whether persons granted leave to enter or remain in the UK are eligible to access public funds.
However, as part of its response to COVID-19, the government announced in the Budget on 11 March that it would provide local authorities in England with £500 million of new grant funding to support economically vulnerable people and households in their local area.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit are repaying an advance payment.
Answered by Will Quince
Universal Credit advance repayments are made gradually over 12 months, and deductions are capped at 30% of claimants’ standard allowance. This is further to the reduction of the overall maximum level of deductions from 40% to 30% of the standard allowance since October 2019.
From October 2021, the repayment period will be extended from 12 months to 24 months and the reduction of the deductions cap from 30% to 25%.
For those who find themselves in unexpected hardship, advance repayments can be deferred for up to three months in certain cases.
For Universal Credit payments due in February 2020, 43% (1,068,000 claims) had a deduction for an advance repayment.
Notes:
1. Claim numbers may not match official statistics caseloads due to small methodological differences
2. Claim numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000.
3. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department is providing to people who have been made unemployed as a result of the covid-19 outbreak and who do not have recourse to public funds following their indefinite leave to remain settlement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Access to DWP income-related benefits such as Universal Credit flows from an individual’s immigration status. The Home Office determine whether persons granted leave to enter or remain in the UK are eligible to access public funds.
Those unable to access DWP income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit, may be eligible to access DWP contributions-based benefits, providing they meet eligibility criteria.
Government measures to support workers and their families through Covid-19 are also available for those who meet the eligibility criteria. These include the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-employed Income Support Scheme and Statutory Sick Pay.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new universal credit applicants there have been in each month since March 2020; and how many of those new applicants have successfully applied for a universal credit advance loan payment.
Answered by Will Quince
The department publishes weekly management information, every Tuesday, on the number of Universal Credit declarations (claims) and Universal Credit Advances paid by the four advance types. It is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-declarations-claims-and-advances-management-information
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the number of people who have ceased their child maintenance payments having been made unemployed since March 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
DWP is a learning Department and we will look to understand the impact of the health emergency.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will implement with immediate effect the policy announced in the Budget 2020 on lowering the repayment rate and extending the repayment period for universal credit advances, which is currently not due to take effect until October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has already taken action to mitigate the impact of repaying advances. In the short-term, the temporary increase to the Standard Allowance of over £80 a month will immediately help absorb the impact of repaying advances. In October 2019, the level of standard deductions was reduced from 40% to 30% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. In addition, the repayment period for advances has already been extended from 6 months to 12 months, and claimants can ask to defer advance repayments for up to 3 months in certain circumstances.