Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has in place to protect people working (a) freelance and (b) without a contract whose work is reduced or ended as a result of the effect of covid-19 on the business they work for.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Chancellor has announced a Self-Employed Income Support Scheme that will help millions of people across the UK, with those eligible receiving a cash grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the last three years. This covers 95% of people who receive the majority of their income from self-employment.
The scheme brings parity with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whereby the Government committed to pay up to £2,500 each month in wages of employed workers who are furloughed during the outbreak.
We have also temporarily relaxed the application of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of COVID-19 to ensure that the self-employed can access UC at a more generous rate.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department will take to (a) identify and (b) support people with mental health problems during the migration to universal credit.
Answered by Will Quince
Our processes to move claimants over to Universal Credit will be co-designed with stakeholders, to ensure that we have listened and understood claimants’ experiences – we want a process that works well for everyone. The Managed Migration regulations provide the flexibility and fail-safes to protect vulnerable claimants. We are not moving everyone at once and we are designing a process to ensure a smooth transition with continuous support.
Universal Credit provides unprecedented personalised support for people by simplifying benefits. People receive tailored support through work coaches, who know each person’s case.
Work Coaches are trained to support claimants with mental health conditions and identify those who need support when transitioning to Universal Credit. The Department has developed an enhanced mental health training programme, which has been delivered to all work coaches, as well as other colleagues who may benefit from it, such as case managers and team leaders. We have also enhanced the role of the Disability Employment Advisers, who are actively providing advice and guidance on what works for claimants with disabilities, including those with mental health issues.
Additionally, a commitment was made for monthly transitional payments to be made to eligible former Severe Disability Payment claimants who have already moved to Universal Credit due to a change in circumstances and to provide a lump sum arrears payment, where appropriate. This includes those who suffer from severe mental health conditions.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit (a) are classed as vulnerable and (b) have a mental health condition.
Answered by Will Quince
The data requested is not available.
Health conditions are not categorised into either physical and mental conditions. Vulnerabilities can include a range of complex needs and differing personal circumstances and so there is no definitive definition of the term vulnerable.
We do however publish the breakdown of Universal Credit claimants with different work related requirements. This is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
We have listened to feedback on how we can improve Universal Credit to support our claimants and acted quickly, making improvements such as extending advances, removing waiting days, and introducing housing benefit run on. These changes are giving support to those who need it most, whilst at the same time helping people get into work faster.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much (a) on average and (b) in total her Department pays in adjustments for universal credit claimants with (i) identified vulnerabilities and (ii) mental health conditions.
Answered by Will Quince
Data surrounding claimants in receipt of different elements of Universal Credit is published online and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the sanction rate for claimants of universal credit is higher than the sanction rate for claimants of (a) jobseekers allowance and (b) employment and support allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Whilst the same methodology has been used to produce these statistics, the benefits themselves are very different and require interpretation based on the rules of the specific benefit. It is for this reason that the sanction rate in Universal Credit cannot be compared with the sanction rates in other benefits. For example, under Jobseekers Allowance if a claimant fails to attend a Work Coach meeting their claim would be closed after 5 days if no contact is made. Under Universal Credit, the claimants standard allowance is reduced but they continue to receive other elements of their Universal Credit award which may cover childcare and housing amongst other things. This is to ensure that all payments are not terminated.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants with mental health conditions in Scotland of (a) universal credit, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) jobseekers allowance have had their payments sanctioned in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
However, the honourable member can find statistics on the number of individuals in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) with a primary disabling condition in the category Mental or Behavioural Disorder and who received an adverse sanction decision they are available and published at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
Guidance for users is available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
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 financial effect on mixed-aged couples where the older member of the couple reaches pension age and the couple are unable to claim pension credit or pension age housing benefit and must instead claim universal credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
In 2012 both houses of Parliament debated at length and then agreed changes to the welfare policies. This resulted in the Welfare Reform Act of 2012.
Under provisions in the Welfare Reform Act 2012, Parliament decided that pension-age income-related benefits would no longer be available to couples before both partners have reached State Pension age. These changes took effect from 15 May 2019.
The average weekly reduction in the amount of income related benefit received amongst the estimated number of couples who would have been entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit without the policy change is estimated to be approximately £70 per week (to the nearest £10) in 2019/20.
The estimated average weekly notional reduction is calculated by taking the estimated annual expenditure savings from the policy change and dividing by the estimated number of mixed age couples who would have been entitled to Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit without the policy change.
No mixed age couples who were receiving Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit immediately before the implementation date of 15 May 2019, would see a reduction in the amount of benefit they receive as a result of the policy change (unless their entitlement to both those benefits subsequently ends).
An annual notional reduction would depend on the length of time in a year that an individual couple would have claimed Pension Credit and/or pension age Housing Benefit, as well as any difference in a couple’s level of support on Universal Credit compared to pensioner income-related benefits, both of which will reflect individual circumstantial changes and behavioural choices.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of universal credit claimants previously in receipt of employment and support allowance that have (a) been identified as being eligible to receive severe disability premium transitional payments and (b) received those transitional payments in the latest period for which figures are available; and what her timescale is for payment of all severe disability premium payments to eligible claimants.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
A gateway was introduced from 16 January 2019 to prevent those claimants entitled to the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) as part of their legacy benefit from claiming Universal Credit. Additionally, a commitment was made for monthly transitional payments to be made to eligible former SDP claimants who have already moved to Universal Credit due to a change in circumstances and to provide a lump sum arrears payment, where appropriate.
As of 17 January 2020, 15,397 claims have been paid an SDP transitional payment. To date, over £51.5m has been disbursed to support former SDP claimants, including the recurring payments that have now commenced.
Positive progress has been made and caseload growth has now slowed, however, in the event a new case is discovered payments will be in place quickly. It is not possible to estimate when we will have paid everyone who is entitled as some people become entitled to these payments retrospectively, and therefore the caseload is not a fixed number.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter from the hon. Member for Edinburgh East of 14 January 2019 and response from the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, of 12 March 2019, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a moratorium on benefits assessments for individuals involved in the Infected Blood Inquiry for the duration of that inquiry.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
It is important that claimants are reassessed at appropriate intervals to ensure that their benefit entitlement is correct, as a person’s health condition and its impact on their capacity to work can change.
The Department does not therefore consider it appropriate to suspend assessments for individuals involved in the Infected Blood Inquiry for the duration of that Inquiry.