Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 compatibility of changes to (a) the benefit cap and (b) housing benefits with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Ministers had regard to all relevant international obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced at the Budget and consider that these obligations have been complied with.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 compatibility of changes to (a) the benefit cap and (b) housing benefits with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Ministers had regard to all relevant international obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced at the Budget and consider that these obligations have been complied with.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 compatibility of changes to (a) the benefit cap and (b) housing benefits with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Ministers had regard to all relevant international obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced at the Budget and consider that these obligations have been complied with.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 compatibility of changes to (a) the benefit cap, (b) child tax credits, (c) housing benefits, (d) working tax credit reductions, (e) working tax credit restrictions and (f) the restriction of working tax credit to two children only with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Ministers had regard to all relevant international obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced at the Budget and consider that these obligations have been complied with.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that older people with disabilities are adequately supported to meet their higher costs through nationally-administered disability benefits.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Department has a range of GB-wide, “extra costs” benefits intended to provide a contribution towards the extra costs faced by people with long-term health conditions and disabilities. Attendance Allowance (AA) is available to those who have long term care or supervision needs that arise from age 65 onwards; and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to those who develop care, daily living or mobility needs prior to age 65. Where the entitlement conditions for DLA or PIP continue to be met after age 65 these benefits can continue to be paid.
Executive and legislative competence for these benefits will be devolved to Scotland once the Scotland Bill currently passing through Parliament receives Royal Assent and the powers are commenced.
The Department is committed to encouraging older people to take up the benefits they are entitled to and uses a range of channels to communicate with claimants and advisers ‒ including leaflets, and the government information website GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/disability
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 potential effect of the closure of the Independent Living Fund on people previously in receipt of that funding who used it to pay for assistance required to live in the community.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The potential implications of closing the Independent Living Fund are set out clearly in the Equality Analysis published on 6 March 2014.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he plans to take to ensure that planned changes in entitlement to housing benefit for people aged under 22 do not adversely affect the (a) income and (b) access to housing of young adults.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on the 15 June 2015 to Question UIN 1696.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the benefit cap will be lowered to for individual (a) young adults, (b) pregnant women, (c) veterans, (d) disabled people and (e) other vulnerable adults who have dependents who are not children.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Details of the policy will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of households affected by the under-occupancy penalty have received payments to mitigate in full deductions from claims for (a) housing benefit and (b) local housing allowance in (i) England, (ii) Northern Ireland, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Wales.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
No information is held on the proportion of households affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy that have received payments to mitigate in full the deductions from their housing benefit.