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Written Question
Support for Mortgage Interest: Chronic Illnesses
Wednesday 8th March 2023

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made on the adequacy of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) assistance for those suffering from a long-term illness; whether his Department is taking steps to ensure SMI repayments remain sufficient for those suffering from a long-term illness; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing alternative mortgage products for those who are in receipt of benefits on a long-term basis.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) provides support for all homeowners who qualify for an income related benefit and unable to meet their mortgage repayments due to short or long-term illness, unemployment, a personal crisis, or other income shock. SMI helps people maintain their existing, reasonable mortgage commitments so they can remain in their home providing effective protection against repossession for as long as they need it.

As announced in the Autumn Statement, from 3rd April, we will extend the support SMI provides by reducing the qualifying period from nine months to three and extending eligibility to Universal Credit (UC) claimants with earnings. These changes will strengthen the protection SMI provides by offering support quicker and to more people. There are no planned further changes.

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing alternative mortgage products for those who are in receipt of benefits on a long-term basis.


Written Question
Child Maintenance Service: Domestic Abuse
Thursday 1st December 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to publish the (a) Independent Review into the ways the Child Maintenance Service supports survivors of domestic abuse and (b) Government response to the review.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

In autumn 2021, the Department commissioned an independent review of ways in which the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) supports survivors of domestic abuse. The Review was completed in April 2022.

The final report and recommendations are currently being reviewed by the department.

The CMS continues to take the safety of all its customers extremely seriously and has processes in place to ensure parents experiencing domestic abuse are supported and can set up a child maintenance arrangement safely.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Uprating
Wednesday 6th April 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

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 impact of not uprating benefits in line with inflation on levels of child poverty in Birmingham, Yardley constituency.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Secretary of State undertakes an annual review of benefits and pensions with reference to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). All benefit up-rating since April 1987 has been based on the increase in the relevant price inflation index in the 12 months to the previous September. The relevant benefits are increasing by 3.1% from April.

The latest statistics on the number and proportion of children who are in low income families by local area, covering the seven years, 2014/15 to 2020/21, can be found in the annual publication: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In the Birmingham, Yardley constituency 32.3% (9,058) of children were in families in absolute low income before housing costs in 2021.

With almost 1.32 million vacancies across the UK, our plan for tackling poverty is firmly focussed on supporting people to move into and progress in work. Our approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.

The latest statistics show that in the UK in 2020/21 there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty, before housing costs, than in 2009/10 and 540,000 fewer children in workless households.

This plan includes our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs has been expanded by £500 million and Way to Work, which is a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022. We have recruited around 13,500 additional work coaches who are all trained to develop a detailed knowledge of their local labour market and to offer claimants the tailored support they need to take advantage of new opportunities wherever they live in the UK.

We recognise that some people require additional support and from April, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion. Under the first round of funding, Birmingham City Council was allocated £12,791,135.04 of funding, and they are provisionally allocated the same amount again for the extension of the fund.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Appeals
Thursday 24th February 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the waiting times faced by people awaiting the outcome of earning disputes in relation to universal credit as of 21 February 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has been working closely with HMRC since Universal Credit went live in 2013 to support and inform employers who report earnings to emphasise the importance of timely reporting via the Real Time Information (RTI) system.

The waiting time for an earnings dispute can depend on the complexity of the query. DWP will triage all disputes and are able to resolve non-complex queries internally, where the query is more complex DWP will seek support of HMRC to resolve, we aim to resolve disputes, both complex and non-complex, within 7 working days.

There are variations in regional demand, and some areas are currently experiencing waiting times in excess of 7 working days, which we are working to bring back in line.

HMRC have been embarking on employer education to reduce future occurrences of error. Large employers have dedicated customer compliance leads that work with employers to mitigate the risk of high volumes of citizens being impacted at any one time. HMRC have guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles; the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is also working closely with HMRC and employers to encourage accurate reporting dates.


Written Question
Children: Maintenance
Thursday 10th February 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the (a) scale of the backlog of child maintenance cases and (b) likely timeframe for clearing those cases.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The information requested is published and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-maintenance-service-statistics-data-to-september-2021-experimental

The department acknowledges there has been a rise in outstanding changes of circumstances in the last reported quarter from end of June 2021 to the end of September 2021. The Department has redeployed resources to address this rise in outstanding work since the publication of these statistics and estimates that this will show an arresting of growth in the next statistical release.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Rents
Tuesday 8th February 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

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 the impact of nondependent rent deductions on universal credit claimants.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

A recent assessment of the impact of non-dependant rent deductions on Universal Credit claimants has not been made.

The Government believes that it is reasonable to expect the householder to know broadly what income adult members of the household receive, and that non-dependants should make a contribution towards the household costs. However, the amount that a non-dependant contributes to the household is a matter for the householder and non-dependant to decide.


Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance: Birmingham Erdington
Friday 21st January 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people in Birmingham Erdington constituency who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment support allowance.

Answered by Chloe Smith

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.


Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance: Birmingham Yardley
Friday 21st January 2022

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment support allowance in Birmingham Yardley constituency.

Answered by Chloe Smith

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.


Written Question
Carers Allowance
Wednesday 20th October 2021

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

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 increasing the threshold for weekly earnings to be eligible for Carers Allowance.

Answered by Chloe Smith

The Carer’s Allowance (CA) weekly earnings limit has increased by nearly a third since 2010 (£100 to £128), reflecting the increase in average earnings in recent years.

Going forward we plan to modernise the CA earnings rules and processes so they do more to support carers in combining their caring responsibilities with work where they can, by automating more of the earnings process by making fuller use of HMRC’s real time earnings information.

The Government keeps the earnings limit under review and increases it when warranted and affordable.


Written Question
Supported Housing: Third Sector
Wednesday 27th January 2021

Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will clarify whether registered charities or voluntary organisations providing exempt accommodation under The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Supported Accommodation) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 can be connected to profit making organisations.

Answered by Will Quince

In order to meet the definition of exempt accommodation in Housing Benefit legislation, the provider of the claimant’s accommodation must be a non-metropolitan county council in England, a housing association, registered charity or voluntary organisation.

Exempt accommodation providers can work with third parties such as leasing properties from them. Local authorities will consider this when assessing the Housing Benefit claim and deciding whether the conditions set out in the legislation have been met. Additionally, registered charities are regulated by the Charity Commission (in England and Wales) whilst voluntary organisations such as community interest companies have their own regulators that oversee their activities.