Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has assessed the potential merits of increasing child maintenance payments for recipients who have lost between 20 and 25 percent of their gross annual income.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Child maintenance is calculated as a percentage of a paying parent’s gross weekly income. The liability is designed to be affordable for paying parents, whilst ensuring that they still contribute a significant proportion of their income to support children they no longer live with.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 implications for her policies of Age UK's recommendation that in order to tackle fuel poverty, especially amongst older people (a) the Household Support Fund should be doubled and (b) persons eligible for the Cold Weather Payment should be provided with a £50 one-off payment in winter 2021-22.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Government has committed to keeping the Winter Fuel Payment, which helps older people with the cost of heating their homes in the winter. The payment gives reassurance to pensioners that Government assistance is available and that they can keep warm during the colder months. Over 11 million pensioners benefit from Winter Fuel Payments at an annual cost of £2bn which is a significant contribution to winter fuel bills. We will continue to pay £200 for households with somebody who has reached State Pension age and is under age 80; or £300 for households with somebody aged 80 and over.
The Government has provided £500 million to help vulnerable households across the country with essentials this winter. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
Local Authorities in England have discretion to design their own bespoke local schemes, within the overall parameters of the Household Support Fund, with help primarily focused on food and utility bills. Up to 50% of the fund is available for councils to use on households without children. Local Authorities will use their resources to identify vulnerable households who are in most need in their area and can apply their own discretion to eligibility and the size of the award. This funding covers the period 06 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 inclusive.
The Cold Weather Payment scheme helps vulnerable people in receipt of certain income-related benefits to meet the additional costs of heating for every week of severe cold weather, between 01 November and 31 March each year. A payment of £25 is made when the average temperature has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0 degrees C or below over seven consecutive days at the weather station linked to an eligible person’s postcode. It is paid automatically within 14 working days of a trigger to ensure claimants receive payments at the time of need. Between 01 November 2020 and 31 March 2021 the Government made £98.8 million in payments to those in need.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a review into the extent to which universal credit payments could take into account rent costs with the objective of preventing private renting tenants from falling into rent arrears.
Answered by David Rutley
Rent costs are already taken into account within the housing element of Universal Credit.
The Local Housing Allowance determines the maximum financial support available for Universal Credit claimants who rent in the private sector. Local Housing Allowance rates provide a reasonable amount of support with housing costs but are not intended to meet all rents in all areas.
To support claimants, there are measures in place which can help to protect tenancies. These include managed payments to landlords, more frequent payments and deductions to repay rent arrears. In response to Covid-19 we increased LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2020. This significant investment of nearly £1billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with an average £600 more housing support last year than they would otherwise have received. We have also maintained Local Housing Allowance rates at the same cash level for 2021/2022.
For those who require additional support with housing costs, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding. We have allocated a further £140 million for DHPs for 2021/22 in England and Wales.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of rental arrears on the ability of universal credit claimants to gain employment.
Answered by David Rutley
No such assessments have been made of the potential effect of rent arrears on the ability of claimants to gain employment.
For 2020/21 we are projected to have spent almost £30 billion to support renters with their housing costs. This included a boost of almost £1 billion to the Local Housing Allowance in response to Covid-19, which provided 1.5 million households in the private rented sector with around £600 more in housing support over the year. We have maintained Local Housing Allowance rates at the same cash level for 2021/22.
For those claimants struggling with their single monthly rent payment, and as a result are at risk of financial harm, there are alternative payment arrangements, which in certain circumstances, can allow a claimant to receive more frequent Universal Credit payments.
For those who require additional support with housing costs Discretionary Housing Payments are available and since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments funding. We have allocated a further £140 million for Discretionary Housing Payments for 2021/22 in England and Wales.
We also recognise that some private renters have rent arrears built up as a result of the pandemic and vulnerable households may need additional support. We are therefore providing an additional £65 million, through a one-off top up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant, for local authorities to help vulnerable households with rent arrears to reduce the risk of them being evicted and becoming homeless.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 effect of ending the £20 uplift to Universal Credit on (a) levels of poverty (b) levels of homelessness and (c) foodbank usage.
Answered by David Rutley
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of removing the £20 uplift on poverty or related issues. This is particularly the case at the moment given the uncertainty around the speed of the economic recovery, and how this will be distributed across the population.
In addition, foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation. There is no consistent and accurate measure of food bank usage at a constituency or national level.
The latest poverty figures (2019/20) demonstrate that absolute poverty rates (both before and after housing costs) for working-age adults in working families have fallen since 2009/10. In 2019/20, 8% of working age adults in working families were in absolute poverty (before housing costs), compared to 9% in 2009/10.
Discretionary Housing Payments provide critical support to vulnerable claimants, including those who are at risk of homelessness, that need help with their housing costs.
For 2021-22 the Government has made available £140m in Discretionary Housing Payments funding for local authorities in England and Wales. In 2020-21 we boosted investment in the Local Housing Allowance by almost £1 billion and have maintained rates in cash terms for 2021-22. In addition, earlier this year we extended the exemptions from the shared accommodation rate of Local Housing Allowance for care leavers and those who have spent at least three months in a homeless hostel. From 31st May 2021 the care leavers exemption applies up to age 25 and the homeless hostel exemption applies up to age 35.
Work Coaches support claimants to address their housing issues by signposting to relevant housing services. Under “duty to refer” legislation, Jobcentres in England offer a voluntary referral to claimants who may be homeless, or threatened with homelessness, to local housing teams for support.”
The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407 billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work.
Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for UC claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; Restart, which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to UC claimants who are unemployed for a year; and JETS, which provides light touch employment support for people who are claiming either Universal Credit or New Style Jobseekers Allowance, for up to 6 months, helping participants effectively re-engage with the labour market and focus their job search. We have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job. In total, our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made a recent estimate of the number of British nationals resident in Peru who are (a) in receipt of a UK state pension and (b) not in receipt of any workplace or private pension.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Information for the number in receipt of a UK state pension currently living in Peru is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. As of November 2020, there are 130 people in receipt of a UK State Pension, this cannot be broken down by nationality.
The Department does not hold information on those that are not in receipt of any workplace or private pension in Peru.
Guidance for users is available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html