Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 merits of increasing the rate of (a) statutory maternity pay and (b) maternity allowance during the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is currently conducting his statutory annual review of State Pensions and benefit rates. The outcome of that review will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 merits of reviewing the Personal Independence Payment application process.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application process is kept under continual review to ensure it meets the needs of claimants and helps the department reach an accurate assessment of an individual’s entitlement. Since PIP was introduced, we have introduced a range of accessibility improvements, such as the Video Relay Service and Relay UK, improved the clarity of the PIP2 questionnaire to make it easier to complete, expanded the assessment methods to include video and telephone, and introduced recording by request for telephone and face-to-face appointments. Claimants are also kept informed and updated at each stage of the application process, including through our improved text message service.
The Health Transformation Programme is further transforming the PIP service. The programme is introducing a digital end-to-end PIP service, with the initial offering being an online application, which eventually will be available as self-service from gov.uk. Small-scale testing of the online apply service began in January 2022; we will gradually expand and improve our approach.
We published Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper last year. This asked for views on ways we can improve people’s experience of the health and disability benefits system and set out ways we could make our services easier to access, make our processes simpler and help build people’s trust. We received over 4,500 responses to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation and will respond with a White Paper in the coming months.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 potential merits of temporarily increasing the rate of (a) statutory maternity pay and (b) maternity allowance.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has a statutory obligation to review Statutory Maternity Pay, benefits including Maternity Allowance, and pensions annually. The review will commence shortly, and her decisions will be announced to Parliament in the normal way later this year. Any new rates of benefits/pensions will become payable from April 2023.
There are no plans to make a temporary increase to the rate of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to provide further resources to carers to help (a) remain in or (b) return to work.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government recognises the important contribution of unpaid carers and the considerable challenges they can face in balancing work with their caring responsibilities.
Unpaid carers can access a range of support in Jobcentres to help them find employment.
The Government has consulted on proposals for a new entitlement to carer’s leave. The Government response to the consultation committed to introducing carer’s leave as a day 1 right. We are aware of Wendy Chamberlain MP’s Private Member’s Bill on Carer’s Leave and are looking closely at whether we can support this at Second Reading. That Bill would introduce carer’s leave for all employees who are providing care for a dependant with a long-term care need. Eligible employees will be entitled to one week of unpaid leave per year, which will be available to take including flexibly in individual or half days.
The Adult Social Care Reform White Paper: People at the Heart of Care, sets out a new strategic approach to empower unpaid carers including identifying, recognising and involving unpaid carers; supporting the economic and social participation of unpaid carers and working with sector to kick start a change in the services provided to support unpaid carers.
Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any carer who has a need for support. This is an opportunity to record the impact caring has on a carer, including whether they are willing or able to continue caring. If a carer is assessed as having needs that are eligible for support, then the local authority has a legal duty to meet these needs on request from the carer and to draw up a support plan with the carer setting out how these needs will be met.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter of 2022-23.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter 2022/23. Projecting poverty involves projecting forward the impact of the cost of living on every household’s income which is not possible to do with confidence.
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty.
In 2020/21 there were 400 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty in the UK (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.
We are forecast to spend over £134 billion on benefits for pensioners in 2022/23. This amounts to 5.4% of GDP. This includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be over £110bn in 2022/23.
On top of this, the government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
This includes a one-off payment to pensioners households of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in the context of the rising cost of (a) food and (b) domestic bills, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional targeted support to people with terminal illnesses.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government wants to do all it can to alleviate the pressures on those nearing the end of their lives, and on their families
The main way that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does this is through special benefit rules, sometimes referred to as “the Special Rules”. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. For many years, the Special Rules have applied to people who have 6 months or less to live and now they are being changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.
Once the change has been fully rolled out across all benefits, each year, between 30,000 and 60,000 people may benefit from these changes to the Special Rules. This will mean that the Government is spending approximately £115 million a year more on people who are nearing the end of their lives.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 potential merits of granting the £650 cost of living payment to people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government recognises that disabled people face extra costs, which is why 6 million disabled people who are in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment worth £150. This includes people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. Households will receive a payment for each eligible disabled person.
Many disabled people are also in receipt of a means-tested benefit. Therefore, they will be eligible for both the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment and the £650 Cost of Living Payment. Disabled pensioners will in addition benefit from the £300 increase in the Winter Fuel Payment.
The Government is also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, £421m will be used to further extend the Household Support Fund from October 2022 to March 2023.
Guidance and individual local authority indicative allocations for this further extension to the Household Support Fund will be announced in due course.