Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of benefit claimants receiving over-payments on their mental health; and what steps his Department is taking to support claimants that need to re-pay over-payments.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where overpayments occur, we have a duty to recover taxpayers’ money as quickly and efficiently as possible, without causing hardship to those making repayments. DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with repayments terms and encourage anyone who is experiencing such difficulty to contact DWP Debt Management to discuss their circumstances.
Claimants who do contact Debt Management, are routinely referred to the Money Advisor Network, who work in partnership with DWP to offer free independent and impartial money and debt advice. We also remain committed to His Majesty’s Treasury’s Beathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter into an appropriate debt solution.
In exceptional circumstances, where there are specific and compelling grounds to do so, a waiver can be considered. Full details on this can be found at Chapter 8 of the Department’s Benefit Overpayment Recovery Guide: Benefit overpayment recovery guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department issues guidance to Departments on supporting candidates with autism through job recruitment boards.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not issue guidance to other departments on supporting candidates with autism through job recruitment boards. This falls within the remit of the Government People Group, within the Cabinet Office.
All candidates requiring a reasonable adjustment are able to request one during their application. There is also some general information on Reasonable Adjustments on the Civil Service Careers page, including the links to Disability Confidence Scheme and what the Reasonable Adjustment process via CS Jobs will involve.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to ensure that single claimants with long-term disabilities receive the same benefits under Universal Credit as under the legacy system.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit provides more generous support for disabled people than it does for people in similar circumstances who are not disabled.
Based on the outcome of a work capability assessment, it may be decided that a claimant has limited capability for work and work-related activity, and may be awarded an additional amount of benefit, currently £416.19 per calendar month from (2024/25 rates).
Additionally, where it is decided that claimants have limited capability for work or limited capability for work and work-related activity, they are eligible for a work allowance.
The Government has given a commitment that no eligible claimants who are invited to move to Universal Credit (UC), from legacy benefits, by the Department for Work and Pensions, and whose circumstances remain the same, will have a lower entitlement to UC than they had entitlement to their legacy benefits at the point of moving. Where necessary, eligible claimants will be awarded Transitional Protection (TP) in the form of a Transitional Element (TE) to ensure this commitment is met.
Severe disability premium (SDP) transitional payments are available to claimants who became entitled to Universal Credit (UC) within a month of being entitled to severe disability premium (SDP) within a legacy benefit. In a case where the legacy benefit had terminated within that month the claimant must have continued to satisfy the eligibility conditions for SDP up to and including the first day of their UC award. The relevant legacy benefits are:
New regulations came into force on 14th February 2024 and provide newly eligible claimants additional transitional protection where they are entitled to the transitional SDP element.
The claimants must also have been previously entitled to other disability premia in the month preceding their claim to UC, and continue to satisfy the eligibility conditions up to and including the first day of their UC award, to one or more of the following:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 implications for his Department’s policies of the report entitled Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on 21 March 2024, HC 638.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to encourage young people under the age of 18 to opt in to pensions.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 2017 Review of Automatic Enrolment (AE) sets out our ambition to reduce the qualifying age for AE below 22, so that younger workers can begin to save as soon as they join the labour market.
The government supported the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 which gives us the legislative powers to implement this expansion of AE subject to consultation with employers and workers. Government is committed to make this change in the mid-2020s.
In the meantime, the current AE framework allows workers who are not automatic enrolled to opt-in to a workplace pension, including those below age 22, and many employers already choose to enrol those workers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 implications for his policies of trends in the number of people claiming long-term sickness benefits.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are determined to have a welfare system that encourages and supports people into work, while providing a vital safety net for those who need it most. The Government has an ambitious programme of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work.
Building on existing provision and the £2 billion investment announced at the 2023 Spring Budget, we announced a new package of support in Autumn Statement 2023, including doubling the number of places on the Universal Support employment programme and launching WorkWell in approximately 15 pilot areas.
In the Health and Disability White Paper published alongside the 2023 Spring Budget we announced our intention to remove the Work Capability Assessment so that those who are able to can progress in or towards work, without the worry of being reassessed and losing their benefits.
Ahead of these longer-term plans, from 2025 we are reforming the WCA to reflect new flexibilities in the labour market and greater employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, whilst maintaining protections for those with the most significant conditions.
We also announced our new Chance to Work Guarantee which will effectively remove the WCA for most claimants who have already been assessed without work-related requirements, removing the fear of reassessment and giving this group the confidence to try work, within existing permitted work rules in ESA and work allowance rules in UC.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 merits of expediting applications for Personal Independence Payments made by people with life-threatening conditions.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to improving the way the benefit system supports people nearing the end of their life.
There is no automatic entitlement to PIP in relation to a health condition - except in cases of people nearing the end of life.
A PIP claimant is currently regarded as being end of life if they suffer from a progressive disease and their death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 12 months.
Special considerations apply to such claimants. Currently, claims are processed within 3 days on average.
In the longer term, the Health Transformation Programme will transform the entire PIP service to simplify and shorten the application process for all PIP claimants, including those with life-threatening conditions.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to introduce legislative proposals to increase the amount of caring allowance available to people who care for more than one person.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given 19 September 2023 to PQ199589 relating to England and Wales. Carer’s Allowance is a devolved matter in Scotland, and social security is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has had recent discussions with the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland on trends in the number of children living in households in relative poverty in that region.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP officials regularly meet with colleagues at the Department for Communities and the meetings cover a broad range of topics, including poverty.
Absolute poverty is the government’s preferred measure as the poverty line is fixed in real terms so is not affected by overall median income. In the three years up to 2021/22 (excluding 2020/21), 17% of children in Northern Ireland were in absolute poverty after housing costs compared to 26% in the three years up to 2009/10.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had recent discussions with the Trussell Trust on the trends in the level of donations required to meet demand for food banks.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP officials regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders including the Trussell Trust. Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not have any role in their operation.
The next release of the Households Below Average Income statistics, covering the year 2022/23, is due in March 2024. This will include updated national statistics on both food security and food bank use.