Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions he has had with local authorities on ensuring that people who need to access the Household Support Fund are not excluded by variations in eligibility criteria between councils.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme, designed to enable Local Authorities to deliver a tailored response to local need as they have the ties and knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided.
Local Authorities have the flexibility to design and deliver their Household Support Fund scheme through a variety of routes, including, for example, offering vouchers to households, directly providing food, or issuing grants to third parties. This means that it is for each local council to decide how, where and when they distribute their funding within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination set out for them by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Local Authorities are encouraged through our guidance to work together with neighbouring Authorities to help prevent double provision and/or no provision, especially where the allocation of provision may take place in one area, but the award recipient has a residential address in another.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking with local authorities to ensure that people in need of access to the Household Support Fund are not stopped from accessing it by differences in the criteria used by local authorities.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme, designed to enable Local Authorities to deliver a tailored response to local need as they have the ties and knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided.
Local Authorities have the flexibility to design and deliver their Household Support Fund scheme through a variety of routes, including, for example, offering vouchers to households, directly providing food, or issuing grants to third parties. This means that it is for each local council to decide how, where and when they distribute their funding within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination set out for them by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Local Authorities are encouraged through our guidance to work together with neighbouring Authorities to help prevent double provision and/or no provision, especially where the allocation of provision may take place in one area, but the award recipient has a residential address in another.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 impact of the different criteria used by local authorities for the Household Support Fund on people being placed outside their local authority.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme, designed to enable Local Authorities to deliver a tailored response to local need as they have the ties and knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided.
Local Authorities have the flexibility to design and deliver their Household Support Fund scheme through a variety of routes, including, for example, offering vouchers to households, directly providing food, or issuing grants to third parties. This means that it is for each local council to decide how, where and when they distribute their funding within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination set out for them by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Local Authorities are encouraged through our guidance to work together with neighbouring Authorities to help prevent double provision and/or no provision, especially where the allocation of provision may take place in one area, but the award recipient has a residential address in another.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department issues to people placed in Slough by Hillingdon Borough Council who cannot access Household Support Funding because Hillingdon's scheme stipulates that such funding is available to residents of that Borough and Slough Borough Council's scheme stipulates that people placed in Slough temporarily by another borough must apply to their originating borough.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme, designed to enable Local Authorities to deliver a tailored response to local need as they have the ties and knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided.
Local Authorities have the flexibility to design and deliver their Household Support Fund scheme through a variety of routes, including, for example, offering vouchers to households, directly providing food, or issuing grants to third parties. This means that it is for each local council to decide how, where and when they distribute their funding within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination set out for them by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Local Authorities are encouraged through our guidance to work together with neighbouring Authorities to help prevent double provision and/or no provision, especially where the allocation of provision may take place in one area, but the award recipient has a residential address in another.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 5.57, page 74 of the Spring Budget 2024, what steps he plans to take to increase system capacity for the purposes of reducing the time taken to process disability claims.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. There are no clearing targets for PIP.
Following an increase in new claims and end-to-end PIP clearance times after the Covid pandemic, we have taken steps to reduce and stabilise customer journey times for PIP claimants. The latest statistics show that the average clearance time for new claims is 15 weeks end-to-end, a significant decrease from 26 weeks in August 2021.
We are addressing the increase in new claims and award reviews by increasing provider and case manager capacity and using a blend of assessment channels to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service. We are prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding claimants awaiting award reviews, aiming to make a decision as quickly as possible.
The measure announced in the Budget will provide additional funding to support the processing of increased volumes of disability benefit claims. This will help to ensure that waiting times remain low and that claimants receive the appropriate level of support in a timely manner.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) strategies, (b) resources and (c) procedural enhancements he plans to employ to ensure PIP clearing targets are met.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. There are no clearing targets for PIP.
Following an increase in new claims and end-to-end PIP clearance times after the Covid pandemic, we have taken steps to reduce and stabilise customer journey times for PIP claimants. The latest statistics show that the average clearance time for new claims is 15 weeks end-to-end, a significant decrease from 26 weeks in August 2021.
We are addressing the increase in new claims and award reviews by increasing provider and case manager capacity and using a blend of assessment channels to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service. We are prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding claimants awaiting award reviews, aiming to make a decision as quickly as possible.
The measure announced in the Budget will provide additional funding to support the processing of increased volumes of disability benefit claims. This will help to ensure that waiting times remain low and that claimants receive the appropriate level of support in a timely manner.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact on the educational attainment of young adult carers aged 16 to 24 of the eligibility criteria for carer's allowance that a person must not be studying for 21 hours or more.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold information on the educational attainment of young adult carers.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the Exchequer of exempting young adult carers aged 16 to 24 in further education from the 21-hour rule; and what the budget for carer's allowance is for the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
It is not possible to provide such an estimate as there is no collated figure on the number of full-time students who are also providing unpaid care. And even if there were, DWP would not know how many were potentially eligible for Carer’s Allowance and could meet the basic eligibility criteria (including on the number of hours of care they were providing and for whom, and whether they were undertaking any work etc).
DWP is forecast to have spent £3.7 billion on Carer’s Allowance in 2023/24.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people affected by (a) respiratory and (b) fatigue conditions who may have their Universal Credit awards changed under the recently announced Work Capability Assessment reforms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
In November last year we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria, to deliver the right outcomes and reflect changes in work since the criteria were last comprehensively reviewed in 2011.
Changes to the WCA activities and descriptors will be implemented nationally no earlier than 2025. The majority of existing Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance claimants will not be affected by the WCA changes if they have already been assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity.
With these changes to the WCA criteria, 424,000* fewer people will be assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity by 2028-29 and will receive personalised support to help them move closer to employment. A further 33,000* individuals will be found fit for work by 2028-2029 and will receive more intensive support to search for and secure work than would be the case under the current WCA rules.
Estimates are not based on specific conditions because the WCA considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on their ability to work, not the condition itself.
We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with (a) young carers and (b) advocacy groups on amending Carer's Allowance eligibility rules for people wishing to study more than 21 hours per week.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The department regularly meets with groups of carers and those representing them at both Ministerial and Official level to discuss a range of issues, including Carer’s Allowance. Officials met a delegation of young carers, supported by the Carers Trust and the Learning and Work Institute, on 13 March.
Carer's Allowance was introduced principally to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who are not able to work full time due to their caring responsibilities.
The Government thinks it is right that people in full-time education should be supported by the educational maintenance system, via its range of loans and grants, and not the social security benefit system. That is why, as a general principle, full-time students are usually precluded from entitlement to income-related and income-maintenance benefits.
There are currently no plans to change the full-time education rules for Carer’s Allowance, but carers are able to undertake part-time education and still receive Carer’s Allowance.