Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 compatibility of her Department's policy not to uprate annually pensions in 48 commonwealth countries with the Government’s Global Britain vision.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The UK State Pension is payable worldwide and is up-rated annually in countries where there is a legal requirement to do so. This is a longstanding policy, which has been supported by successive governments for over 70 years. The Government has no plans to change the policy.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 viability of Canada’s recent request to discuss a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
There are two separate social security arrangements in place between the UK and Canada, made in 1995 and 1998. The UK Government has no plans to change the social security relationship with Canada.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the (a) impact and (b) financial impact on claimants of (i) the three month waiting period for the limited capability for work-related activity element of universal credit for people with severe health issues and (ii) the decision not to backdate payments for the three month waiting period.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Where the claimant is determined to have limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), an additional amount of Universal Credit (UC) may be awarded. However, before the additional amount is payable, a UC claimant must serve the ‘relevant’ period to establish that they have a long-term health condition. This approach replicates the 13-week assessment period which is applied in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claims.
There are no plans to assess the impact of the relevant period or current backdating rules. Where an additional amount of UC is payable, this is backdated to the start of the assessment period following the assessment period in which the relevant period ends.
Throughout the period before the award of the LCWRA addition, claimants will receive the applicable standard allowance plus any additions, reflecting the claimants’ personal circumstances, for example for children, housing costs, childcare costs. They may also be eligible for support through PIP.
There are exceptions to serving the relevant period in UC, including where someone accesses benefits via the Special Rules for Terminal Illness. Where a claimant deemed to have LCWRA in ESA moves to UC, and those claims are continuous, the relevant period does not apply. An exception also applies in relation to claimants whose award ended in the previous six months as a result of their earnings exceeding their entitlement. Where that claimant’s previous award included the LCWRA addition, they do not, on reclaiming, have to serve the relevant period again.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average housing benefit is for (a) social and (b) private landlord properties, by region in England.
Answered by David Rutley
For the information requested on the average housing benefit amounts for social and private rented properties, by region, in England, this is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an (a) assessment of whether universal credit adequately covers the cost of living for recipients and (b) estimate of the number of universal credit applicants who access food bank services.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment of foodbank use has been made. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
Universal Credit is a flexible, personalised benefit which responds to people’s circumstances. It includes separate elements to provide support for housing costs, children and childcare costs and support for disabled people and carers. UC entitlement automatically increases when someone’s income falls, meaning that claimants are better supported. Spring ‘20 forecasts estimated that when fully rolled out, UC will be £2 billion per year more generous than the support it replaces.
Throughout the pandemic we have targeted our support to those most in need by raising the living wage, spending hundreds of billions to safeguard jobs, boosting welfare support by billions and introducing the Covid Winter Grant Scheme (now the Covid Local Support Grant).
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the (a) effect of the covid-19 outbreak on levels of food bank usage in Knowsley and (b) potential merits of holding discussions with food bank centres in Knowsley on tackling poverty.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
This Government is committed to tackling poverty and officials from the Department continue to engage on this issue with a wide range of stakeholders, including food bank operators. Throughout this pandemic, this Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support and, for those in most need, injected billions into the welfare system. Our Covid Winter Grant Scheme has provided £229m to Local Authorities in England to enable them to support people with food and essential utility bills during the coldest months. Building on this, we have now introduced the £40m Covid Local Support Grant which will run to the 20th June.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations she has received on the potential merits of reforming self-employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department welcomes representations from stakeholders and incorporates these into policy development and implementation where possible. Many policies relating to self-employment, fall within the ambit of other Government Departments and representations may have been made to them on these matters.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions her Department has had with (a) MacMillan Cancer Support and (b) other charities on retaining (i) remote ID verification, (ii) flexible assessments and (iii) other recently introduced measures to help universal credit support people living with cancer.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 14 September 2020, in response to question 86019.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are claiming universal credit; and what the unemployment rate is in Knowsley constituency as of 29 April 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested on Universal Credit is not readily available at constituency level and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Statistics on employment and unemployment at Parliamentary Constituency level are estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
The latest available data on unemployment in Knowsley constituency covers the period January 2019-December 2019, when the unemployment rate was estimated at 2.2%. However, the ONS consider this estimate highly uncertain as it is based on a very small sample. A less uncertain estimate exists for Knowlsey Local Authority District which is 2.9% (with the true level between 1.5% and 4.3%).
The first dataset containing information on the requested period for April 2020 will be published by the ONS in autumn 2020.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 effect on universal credit claimants of the 53-week rent year in the 2019-20 financial year.
Answered by Will Quince
Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. If the claimant always pays their rent on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will get the claimant back on track.
Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.
There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.