Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to cease transitory protections for people undergoing managed migration to Universal Credit in 2023-2024.
Answered by David Rutley
Transitional Protection ensures eligible claimants moved by the Department from legacy benefits to UC will not have a lower entitlement than they had via legacy benefits at the point of their move to UC.
This protection is not designed to provide indefinite financial protection. It will erode by increases in other elements of UC or where new elements (other than the Childcare Costs element) are awarded to a claimant’s UC award. It can also be terminated if a claimant experiences a significant change of circumstances such as where a claimant separates from their partner or forms a new couple, or where the UC award ceases.
Once stopped, a claimant’s transitional element will not generally be reapplied to their UC award, should they make another UC claim. The exception is where the original Universal Credit claim was stopped due to an increase in earnings and a new claim to Universal Credit is made within four months of the date for which Universal Credit was last awarded.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
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 extending spousal pension rights to long term cohabitees.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The legislative framework governing pension rights for spouses and civil partners applies to legacy State Pensions and members of contracted out occupational schemes. The New State Pension is fundamentally based on an individual’s own National Insurance contributions, subject to certain arrangements.
Most occupational pension inheritance rights are either determined by the members when they choose how to draw down their pension pot, or are set out in scheme rules, and are therefore a matter for the sponsoring employer to determine as part of their reward and retention strategy.
The Government has no plans for legislative change.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
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 implications for its policies of the report published by Z2K in June 2018, entitled Access Denied: Barriers to Justice in the Disability Benefits, on access to disability payments, including ESA and PIP.
Answered by Chloe Smith
DWP’s aim is to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey – and it is the case today as it was back in 2018 that the majority of decisions made are correct. In January 2019 we introduced a new approach to decision making at the Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) stage, giving Decision Makers additional time to proactively contact customers if they thought that additional evidence may support the application. This holistic approach was recommended by Z2K in its report.
Since we introduced this new, more proactive approach, the percentage of decisions that we change at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage has increased, reducing the volume of claimants going to appeal.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Government's policy is on a spouse's entitlement to a share of their husband or wife's State Pension when the latter is in a care home and associated income from the State Pension is being paid to a care home to cover the costs of care.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Where a State Pension recipient goes into a care home, this has no impact on their State Pension. The State Pension continues to be paid to them as the individual who has entitlement to it.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of the provision of financial restitution to people who (a) were working in Northern Ireland at ages 14 and 15 between 1947 and 1957 and (b) continue to be subject to a discrepancy as a result of having worked longer than their GB counterparts when the working age changed to 14 in 1947.
Answered by Guy Opperman
No such assessment has been made. Following the fundamental reforms of the National Insurance scheme in 1975 the law provided that only paid contributions and credits from the year in which a person reached age 16 to the year before the one in which they reached State Pension age should count for the purposes of entitlement to the State Pension. The Government has no plans to review the position reached by Parliament and which has been in place since 1975.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the time limit for returning PIP2 application forms has reverted from 12 to four weeks.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
In line with the Covid recovery roadmap we are changing the time for customers to return their forms, back to the business as usual timescales to ensure that claims are processed as quickly as possible. Customers can request additional time to return their form if they need more time to gather information. Any Additional Support customers who do not return their form will still have their claim referred for assessment.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that pregnant women are not disadvantaged when changing jobs with respect to statutory maternity pay.
Answered by Guy Opperman
To qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), a woman must have been continuously employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks when she enters the 15th week before the week her baby is due. Once a woman has qualified for SMP, her employer must pay it to her even if she subsequently leaves their employment or is made redundant.
These criteria are designed to achieve a balance between the needs of the employer and those of a pregnant employee, ensuring that a woman has made a reasonable contribution towards her employer's business before that employer is required to administer Statutory Maternity Payments, and bear a proportion of the cost.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the £16,000 savings limit for universal credit entitlement.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
The capital limit above which entitlement to Universal Credit ends is £16,000. Claimants have the opportunity to declare what type of capital they have, both when making a claim to Universal Credit and throughout the time they are getting Universal Credit.
The limit strikes a balance between protecting less well-off people and the taxpayer, whilst at the same time recognising the conscientious efforts of people who have built up capital.
This limit also ensures that the help which comes from taxpayers, many of whom are themselves on low incomes and have limited capital, is directed to people who need it most.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government plans to take, other than through free school meal vouchers, to tackle childhood poverty.
Answered by Will Quince
Tackling child poverty is a key priority for the Government. Our recent focus has been on supporting people financially during these unprecedented times with an injection of £9.3 billion pounds to strengthen the welfare system in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid Winter Grant Scheme builds on that support with an additional £170m for local authorities in England, to support families with children and other vulnerable people with the cost of food and essential utilities this winter.
Devolved Administrations have received equivalent funding through the upfront funding guarantee, which was recently increased to £16bn for the year.
Our £30bn Plan for Jobs is the first step on the ladder to achieving this and will support economic recovery through new schemes including Kickstart and Job Entry Targeted Support.
The Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, will also be expanded across England next year. It will cover Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021, and cost up to £220m. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes – including this summers, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.
Our long-term ambition is to level up across the country and continue to tackle poverty through our reformed welfare system that works with the labour market to encourage people to move into and progress in work wherever possible.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
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 (a) suspending deductions and (b) implementing a grant in lieu of advances during the five week wait for receipt of universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
Nobody in need has to wait for a payment under Universal Credit (UC). UC New Claim Advances allow eligible claimants to receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. Claimants will receive their annual award over 13 payments during their first year, instead of 12. These upfront payments can be spread across two years instead of one from October 2021, as announced in the 2020 Budget. New Claim Advances are not loans. They are the claimant’s benefit paid early, which is then recovered over an agreed period.
The Department’s deductions policy strikes a fair balance between a claimant’s need to meet their financial obligations and their ability to ensure they can meet their day-to-day needs. Since October 2019, Universal Credit deductions are a maximum of 30% of a claimant’s standard allowance down from 40% previously. We also recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt, so last resort deductions over the 30% cap can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their fuel supply disconnected, by providing a repayment method for arrears of these essential services.
The main aim of the deductions policy in Universal Credit is to safeguard the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt in a cost effective and efficient way. It provides protection for claimants from the consequences of homelessness, imprisonment or having vital utilities disconnected. Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions and there are no plans to suspend them.