Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the effect on universal credit claimants of the Welsh Government's Winter Fuel Support Scheme Payment being classed as salary.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No such discussions have taken place.
These payments are not treated as salary, but as capital, and are unlikely to affect entitlement to Universal Credit, as claimants need have capital in excess of £6,000 before the capital causes their Universal Credit to be reduced.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the effect on universal credit claimants of the Welsh Government's NHS and Social care Financial Recognition payment being classed as salary.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following the announcement of their intention to provide financial recognition for NHS and Social Care staff, we corresponded with the Welsh Government to explain that as the tax system treats such payments as earnings, it follows that DWP would treat them in the same way. There have been no further discussions.
The £500 payments to health and social care workers you refer to are classed as earnings within the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, so are treated as earnings for the purposes of calculating entitlement to Universal Credit. To ensure consistency with the approach taken across different forms of earnings and Covid-19 financial support, the UK Government does not believe there is a case for disregarding these payments from benefit calculations. They are therefore subject to the Universal Credit taper rate of 55%, unless the earnings form part of the work allowance, which is the amount someone can earn before the taper is applied to their earnings.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support for universal credit claimants who had previously been in receipt of enhanced disability payments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
When designing Universal Credit the Government chose to concentrate financial support on the most severely disabled people to create a simpler and more streamlined system.
The Universal Credit rate for the most severely disabled people, the limited capability for work and work- related activity addition, is more than double the equivalent rate for the Employment and Support Allowance support group. This means claimants who were previously in the Employment and Support Allowance support group and only receiving the enhanced disability premium, are better off on Universal Credit.
Additional support is available through the National Disability Strategy and the Government’s Health and Disability green paper aims to continue to improve the support available.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a transitional top up for claimants who had been in receipt of enhanced disability payments prior to a universal credit transition.
Answered by Chloe Smith
There are no plans to introduce transitional payments in Universal Credit for those claimants who had been in receipt of the enhanced disability premium. A transitional payment may be awarded to claimants who were previously entitled to the severe disability premium. These payments are made in recognition of their very specific circumstances.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to increase carer's allowance.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The rate of Carer’s Allowance will increase to £69.70 from April 2022. This increases means that, since 2010 it will have increased from £53.90 to £69.70 a week, providing an additional £800 a year for carers.
Between 2021/22 and 2026/27 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to increase by two-fifths (around £1.3 billion). By 2026/27, the Government is forecast to spend just under £4.4billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who were advised by the Government to shield in March 2020 were in receipt of pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment claimants have had their claim reassessed in the last six months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The latest available data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) award review and change of circumstances clearances can be found in Table 2A within the “Data tables: PIP experimental statistics on planned award review and change of circumstance registrations and clearances to October 2019” published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2019
The latest available data (from the introduction of PIP in April 2013 to October 2019) on reassessments of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants to PIP at initial decision can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. The “PIP Clearances” table can be filtered on “Reassessment Indicator” to only include data for DLA to PIP reassessments.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people aged 75 and over were in receipt of pension credit in each year from 2015 to 2019.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important to highlight that in 2017/18 there were around 1.7 million Pension Credit claimants, receiving around £5.1 billion of Pension Credit payments.
The Government wants to make sure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are entitled. That is why on the 10 February we launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of Pension Credit. The aim of the campaign is to encourage those over State Pension age to check whether they’re eligible. We want to make it clear that having savings, a pension or owning a home are not automatic barriers to receiving Pension Credit; as well as explaining that even a small award of Pension Credit can provide access to a range of other benefits such as help with rent, council tax reduction schemes and heating costs.
The campaign includes a short, animated video that is being shown in GP waiting rooms and in Post Offices. It is also being shown to Facebook users over State Pension age and supported by other messaging on social media. We have also made the video and campaign materials available for stakeholders to use, as we know they are often one of the first places people turn to for information about Pension Credit.
An important part of our overall strategy to promote take-up is engaging with people who may be eligible to benefits at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or Attendance Allowance or report a change in their circumstances which may mean that they could be eligible for Pension Credit.
Pension Credit is an income-related benefit, which means that entitlement to the benefit will depend on an individual’s particular circumstances. It is therefore not possible to identify each person that is eligible, which is why we are encouraging people who think they may be eligible for Pension Credit to use the online Pension Credit calculator https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive.
Information on the number of Pension Credit claimants aged 75 and over between the years of 2015 and 2019 is shown below.
Year | Number of Pension Credit Claimants |
2019 | 926,494 |
2018 | 951,529 |
2017 | 993,031 |
2016 | 1,033,380 |
2015 | 1,102,497 |
Note: Pension Credit is paid per household rather than per person like other benefits, therefore a Pension Credit Claimant can represent more than one person in receipt of Pension Credit. These figures represent the number of claimants as at August each year and represents those households where the main claimant is aged 75 and over and receiving payment.
The information is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance for users is available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many recipients of the Motability Scheme have had their eligibility reassessed and their (a) mobility scooters and (b) cars removed in the last six months.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department does not hold information on how many people have Motability vehicles. Therefore, we are unable to provide accurate information on the number of people who have been required to return a Motability vehicle in the last six months.
Motability is an independent organisation wholly responsible for the administration of the Motability Scheme. The details of the number of people returning Motability vehicles for the requested time period would only be contained within Motability’s Management Information.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her timescale is for the completion of managed migration to universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
We have already said that following the pilot we will report back to Parliament on progress and findings, and at that point will determine the process for bringing forward further legislation to move claimants beyond the pilot phase.
The Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 introduced in July 2019 allow the Department to pilot moving no more than 10,000 claimants across to Universal Credit from legacy benefits and is expected to last until November 2020.
Draft regulations were sent for scrutiny to the independent Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) in 2018. The Committee submitted them for a formal public consultation, receiving 455 responses - the Government accepted, in whole or in part, all but one of the Committee’s recommendations.