Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published 31 March 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Verification of Earnings and Pensions service.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) monitors the outcomes after sending Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP) alerts to local authorities (LAs) using management information. By tracking what subsequently happens to the value of a claim we assessed that in 2020-21 there was a significant saving for the taxpayer.
DWP are continually working with LAs to improve the effectiveness of the VEP service.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
DWP monitors the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) scheme through statistical returns from local authorities on their use of DHP funds. DWP knows from this data collection that the DHP scheme is effective as local authorities are well placed to make decisions about relative need and priority.
DHP statistics are published twice a year, for the first 6 months of the financial year and then for the whole of the financial year. These statistics can be found here.
DWP considers the allocation of DHPs to individual local authorities each year. In doing this we monitor evolving demand and trends by analysing administrative data on those eligible to apply for DHPs through receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit Housing Element, and the information that local authorities provide regarding the amount of DHP funding they are awarding.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the severe disability premium.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Severe Disability Premium was abolished for claims to Universal Credit for working age people as a result of the Welfare Reform Act in 2012.
The Severe Disability Premium is currently still paid to eligible claimants in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance. It is being phased out as people move to UC.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 effectiveness of the COVID Local Support Grant.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The COVID Local Support Grant provided £200m of funding to Local Authorities in England between 17th April 2021 and 30th September 2021 to provide assistance for those most in need. Local Authorities were reimbursed in arrears upon the satisfactory receipt of compliant Management Information returns which demonstrated that delivery had met the published guidance and grant determination. We are proud that 4.3m awards were made through the Covid Local Support Grant. Management information can be found here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Civil Service headquarters occupancy data, updated on 1 June 2022, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of occupancy rates on his Department's performance during May 2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The data published by Cabinet Office is for DWP’s London Caxton House building only, and does not cover the Department’s other corporate, or service delivery locations and does not cover employees working in other government buildings or workplaces. The Department does not have data that can provide an assessment of the potential impact of occupancy rates in Caxton House on DWP’s performance specifically during May 2023. Broader research conducted across the Civil Service has considered the impact of hybrid working on productivity and found that overall productivity is being maintained. We continue to keep hybrid working under review.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding his Department has allocated for discretionary housing payments to Solihull Council for the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
All Local Authorities (LA) will receive the same Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) funding in 2023/24 and 2024/25 as in 2022/23.
Solihull LA was allocated £239,499 DHP funding for 2022/23 and will be allocated the same amount for 2023/24.
This information is available at gov.uk. It can be found here for the year 2022/23 and here for the year 2023/24.
Since 2011, the Government has provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHPs to LAs to help support claimants who require further financial assistance with housing costs.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding from the Housing Benefit subsidy his Department has provided to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Housing Benefit Subsidy provides funding for Local Authorities payment of Housing Benefit to citizens. Administration Subsidy is additional subsidy provided as a contribution to costs of administering Housing Benefit and includes additional subsidy for initiatives to reduce fraud and error.
In the last five financial years, the Department for Work & Pensions has provided the following Housing Benefit Subsidy to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Housing Benefit Subsidy | £44,185,481 | £38,496,991 | £36,662,102 | £34,061,670 | £32,425,208 |
Administration Subsidy | £586,962 | £535,131 | £541,496 | £513,412 | £536,326 |
Total | £44,772,443 | £39,032,122 | £37,203,598 | £34,575,082 | £32,961,534 |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much funding his Department has allocated to Solihull Council under the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Household Support Fund is a discretionary scheme administered by the Department for Work and Pensions and delivered by Upper Tier Local Authorities in England to provide support to those most in need towards the cost of essentials. Over £2bn in support has to date been allocated through this scheme to support those most in need.
The Department for Work and Pensions has allocated £2,816,718 to Solihull Council under the Household Support Fund for the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024. This information can be found here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of its work to decrease benefit fraud.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
I refer the Hon Member to the Written Statement HCWS765 made on 11 May, in relation to the annual statistics for Fraud and Error in the Benefit System for the financial year ending 2023, published that day.
These statistics confirm that fraud fell to 2.7% (£6.4bn) of benefit expenditure during that period.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what further support with essential food and energy costs his Department has provided to vulnerable households.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help.
To protect the most vulnerable we have increased benefits in line with inflation. This means that they have risen by September 2022 Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation – 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, benefit cap levels have also increased by the same amount.
Households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments, paid in three separate payments of £301, £300 and £299 across the 2023/24 financial year. The first payment of £301 will be paid to the majority of those eligible between 25 April and 17 May. In addition, over 6 million people on qualifying disability benefits will receive a separate Disability Cost of Living payment of £150 in the summer and more than eight million pensioner households will receive an additional £300 Cost of Living Payment during winter 2023/24.
Further to this, as announced in the Spring Statement, the government is maintaining the Energy Price Guarantee at £2,500 until the end of June. This will ensure that households across the UK are supported through the spring while retail energy costs are expected to remain high.
For people who require additional support, whether they receive benefits or not, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for Local Authorities for this next iteration has now been published and can be found here. This sets out that the fund should be used to support households in the most need, particularly those who are not eligible for other cost of living support such as Cost of Living Payments. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.
To further support those who are in work, from 1 April, the National Living Wage (NLW) has increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.
This support is in addition to that provided in 2022/23, including cost of living payments for people on eligible benefits, the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.