Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she make an assessment of the adequacy of levels of welfare support for children within married families.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We will bring in a permanent, above inflation, rise to the standard allowance in Universal Credit for the first time ever by raising the standard allowance above inflation from 2026/27 until 2029/30. This is in stark contrast to the freeze between 2016/17 and 2019/20 and is a permanent increase to give families certainty. To the lowest income and working families up and down the country this will be crucial.
We have also uprated benefit rates for 2025/26 in line with inflation and are introducing a new Fair Repayment Rate, allowing 1.2 million households to keep more of their Universal Credit.
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who is (a) responsible for the installation of fencing to keep cattle safely grazing and (b) liable if the fence breaks and a member of the public is injured by cattle.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.
The main piece of health and safety legislation enforced by HSE is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA). Under the HSWA, those creating work-related risk have the primary duty to control it. Therefore, farmers who own or manage cattle as part of their business activities and place those cattle in fields, have a duty to ensure that the cattle are kept inside the designated field or fields by provision of suitable means such as perimeter fencing, walls or hedges.
In addition, where public rights of way run through fields in which cattle may be kept, farmers should consider and implement those control measures that are reasonably practicable for the particular farm or field as set out in HSE guidance sheet Cattle and public access in England and Wales. This may include provision of permanent or temporary fencing as a means to segregate cattle from members of the public using rights of way through the field. Again, the primary duty is on the farmer that owns or manages cattle to control risk to people to the extent required by health and safety legislation.
If other parties also have a role in the ownership or management of the land on which cattle are grazed, they may also have duties under health and safety legislation to co-operate with the farmer so that risks are adequately controlled.
Depending on the reasons behind any failure of perimeter fencing or in-field fencing along public rights of way, initial enquiries to determine any criminal liability would begin with those dutyholders who have responsibility for maintaining the perimeter fencing / in-field fencing.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 financial impact of transitioning from ESA to Universal Credit on adults with preventing disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have interpreted your question to mean ‘To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the financial impact of transitioning from ESA to Universal Credit on adults with preventable disabilities’.
The Government has given a commitment that those sent a managed migration notice requiring them to claim Universal Credit, where eligible, will not have a lower entitlement to Universal Credit than they had total existing benefit entitlement at the point they claim. Transitional Protection is available to ensure this commitment is met, including for those with preventable disabilities.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 impact of the withdrawal of Winter Fuel payments on pensioners who (a) are not in receipt of Pension Credit and (b) have an annual income below £15,000.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control. The policy change ensures that the Winter Fuel Payment will be better targeted to low-income pensioners who need it most.
Information on pensioners with incomes below £15,000 affected by the change to Winter Fuel Payment policy is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. However, the Department has produced some analysis on the impacts of the change in policy on poverty levels which was published here: Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - Letter from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 potential merits of paying the State Pension in monthly instalments.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
State Pension payments are usually paid four weekly in arrears. People have the option to be paid weekly or in some circumstances bi-weekly. There are no plans to introduce alternative payment arrangements.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by Gingerbread entitled Fix the CMS, published on 25 November 2024, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) assigning (i) dedicated and (ii) named caseworkers for all Child Maintenance Service (CMS) cases, (b) implementing a digital contact platform for communicating with the CMS, (c) closing loopholes on the enforcement of CMS decisions, (d) training CMS staff in domestic abuse and (e) implementing the other recommendations of that report.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations and our response to the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.
The CMS Service Modernisation Programme has delivered improvements to the customer experience enabling parents to access their on-line My Child Maintenance Case, ensuring parents can report changes of circumstances and access their digital communications at any time of the day. In addition, caseworker training to support vulnerable customers has been updated following invaluable engagement with stakeholders.
The CMS has recently consulted on significant reforms and are analysing the responses. This included removing the Direct Pay service and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster. The consultation also sought views on how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported to use CMS and whether removing Direct Pay completely would benefit victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Government will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 impact of the journal system for Universal Credit on the mental health of applicants and users.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP are committed to providing the best possible support for all our customers, including the most vulnerable in society. Within Universal Credit, we recognise that customers have individual needs and different barriers, so we train and support all our work coaches to be able to respond appropriately to a customer’s situation.
We have no plans to assess the impact of the journal system on the mental health of applicants and users., Independent research published in 2018 showed that the majority of customers found the journal easy to use. The DWP Customer Experience Survey for 2023-2024 showed that 88% of people found it easy to use their UC online account.