Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she will take steps to provide additional targeted support to disabled people in response to increases in (a) the cost of living and (b) inflation.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year.
In addition, the Government will provide a £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We know disabled people may face a wide range of additional costs and that is why we have made a further £150 cost of living payment to people who receive qualifying disability benefits.
This £150 can be paid on top of the £650 in cost of living payments (paid in two separate payments of £326 and £324) to low-income households on a qualifying means-tested benefit and a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from November to pensioner households.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit and tax credit claimants have reported a missing Cost of Living Payment via the Government's online reporting tool; and what estimate she has made of how many and what proportion of those reports have been processed as of 22 September 2022.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
As of 26 September 2022, 161,839 claimants have reported a missing Cost of Living Payment via the Government's online reporting tool, of these reports 138,496 have been processed.
Tax credits customers were directed to the tax credits helpline and not the online tool.
This does not necessarily mean that payments have been missed. Enquiries made through the GOV.UK form are resolved by payments being subsequently made as planned. In some cases, on further investigation of an enquiry, it may be found that the claimant had no entitlement to a £326 Cost of Living Payment.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if it continues to be her policy to uprate benefits in April in line with the current level of inflation in September.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has a statutory obligation to undertake an annual review of State pensions and benefits. Her review will commence shortly, based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the year to September 2022, and on earnings growth in the year to May-July 2022. The latter figure was published on 11 October by the Office for National Statistics. The CPI figure will be published on 19 October. The Secretary of State’s decisions will be announced to Parliament shortly.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce (a) delays and (b) waiting times for those in the PIP application process.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments, increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource and prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding the continuity of existing awards to ensure they do not go out of payment.
We are seeing an improvement in average clearance times and the latest statistics show that the end-to-end journey has steadily reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 18 weeks at the end of August 2022.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department will publish an update on its progress on the Health Transformation Programme.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Health Transformation Programme (HTP) is modernising Health and Disability benefit services. The Department has no plans to publish an update at present, due to ongoing Commercial activity and the Programme being in the early stages of developing the service.
The Programme will continue to provide key updates to Parliament at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the the effectiveness of the facility on her Department's website for reporting a missing cost of living payment for facilitating (a) communications between her Department and recipients and (b) fast resolution of claims.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We do not have specific measurements of effectiveness in place in relation to the missing payment form on Gov.uk. However, over 161,000 people have contacted the Department through this channel throughout August and September. We have a team in place that has responded to over 90% of these queries to date.
This does not necessarily mean that payments have been missed. Many enquiries made through the GOV.UK form are resolved by payments being subsequently made as planned.
In some cases, on further investigation of an enquiry, it may be found that the claimant had no entitlement to a £326 Cost of Living Payment.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to establish a telephone helpline for people overdue cost of living payments.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We are currently managing telephone contact within our existing telephony networks and have no future plans to introduce a telephone helpline for the cost of living payments
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support UK pensioners living overseas in countries without a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions. Entitlement is based on an individual’s national insurance record. State Pensions are up-rated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating.
There is information available in leaflets and on GOV.UK on how to claim State Pension from overseas and on what the effect of going abroad will be on a person’s UK State Pension.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to remove the qualifying date for the Winter Fuel Payment to ensure that all those in receipt of the State Pension will be eligible to receive this payment by the end of the calendar year.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The policy since the introduction of the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Amendment Regulations 1999 has been the same under all Governments: Labour; the Coalition; and Conservative.
It has always been the aim to make Winter Fuel Payments before Christmas. Therefore, having a September qualifying week allows the Department the time to make the required checks on entitlement, calculate the payment an individual is entitled to, issue the notifications and start to make the payments; a process which begins in November.
The DWP makes over 11 million Winter Fuel Payments every year. The majority - over 99% - are paid automatically without the need to claim before Christmas. A small number of pensioners need to claim the Winter Fuel Payment and have until 31 March 2023 to do so.
There are no plans to change the qualifying criteria for Winter Fuel Payments. For winter 2022/23 a person has to have reached State Pension age on or before the end of the September qualifying week which is set out in legislation and is 19-25 September 2022.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will change Universal Credit policy so that claimants whose assessment period misses the uprating date of the first Monday of the tax year do not have to wait two months before receiving an uplift.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Increases in Universal Credit come into force from the start of the first assessment period beginning on or after the first Monday of the tax year (or from the start of the first assessment period beginning on or after any earlier date in April). As Universal Credit is a calendar monthly assessed benefit that is paid in arrears, a claimant will receive their newly-uprated benefit award at their first full Assessment Period that follows the change. There are no current plans to alter how the uprating of benefits interacts with claimants’ assessment periods.