Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value of the average monthly deduction was from Universal Credit payments in Wales in 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested will be available in late 2023.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value was of all deductions from Universal Credit payments in Wales in 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested will be available in late 2023.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the decision not to uprate Local Housing Allowance in line with September 2022 CPI inflation on the proportion of homes available to rent in Wales in respect of which the requested rent would be fully covered by LHA rates in the next twelve months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No recent assessment has been made.
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates determine the maximum housing support available to claimants in the private rented sector. They are not intended to cover all rents in all areas.
We recognise that rents are increasing but the challenging fiscal environment means that difficult decisions were necessary to ensure support is targeted effectively. The Chancellor announced at Autumn Statement a package of targeted support worth £26 billion.
To protect the most vulnerable, working age and disability benefits will be increased in line with inflation for 2023-24, increasing expenditure by £11 billion in 23/24. In addition, to ensure that households will see an increase in their benefits following uprating – the benefit cap will also be increased in line with CPI (10.1%) in April 2023.
For those who require extra support, the government is extending the Household Support Fund providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. In England this will be through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding (£158m).
For those who require additional support with housing costs, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.5 billion in funding for DHPs.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the impact of the decision to uprate the earnings limit of Carer's Allowance below the September 2022 rate of the consumer price index on carers' incomes.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The weekly Carer’s Allowance earnings limit will be increased from £132 to £139 net from April 2023. This increase of 5.5% is in line with growth in Average Weekly Earnings for the year to May-July 2022 as published by the Office for National Statistics. The rate of Carer’s Allowance will increase by 10.1% in line with the increase in the Consumer Prices Index in the year to September 2022, as will the relevant rates of Universal Credit for carers.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants aged under-25 have received an affordability assessment before a sanction has been issued, both as a total number and as a proportion of all sanctions issued to this age group, in the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants aged under 25 have had their sanction overturned as a result of a mandatory reconsideration, both as a total number and as a proportion of all mandatory reconsiderations for this age group, in the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
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 raising the state pension in line with inflation before the annual uprating due in April 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of State Pensions and benefits. The outcome of that review will be announced later this year, and the new rates of state pensions will enter into force from 10 April 2023.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of real terms value of the state pension following the increase in the cost-of-living.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has acted to protect pensioners against the current cost of living situation with a range of support. The value of the State Pension should not be considered in isolation.
Since 2010, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension has risen by over £2,300, in cash terms. That's £720 more than if it had been uprated by prices, and £570 more than if it had been uprated by earnings. The Government has committed to implementing the Triple Lock in the usual way for the remainder of the Parliament.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time is between a claim being submitted for the Access to Work programme and claimants being contacted by her Department for an assessment of their claim in (a) Wales, (b) England, and (c) Scotland.
Answered by Julie Marson
The current average time between claim submission and first contact is 47.3 days. This is the average of total claims and as we do not hold the information broken down by (a) Wales, (b) England, and (c) Scotland.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.