Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 merits of allowing people on housing benefits to claim Cost of Living payments.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Housing Benefit is not an income replacement benefit; it is intended to cover only housing costs.
Those with the lowest incomes would be able to claim a qualifying means-tested benefit alongside Housing Benefit to cover their other living costs, which would make them eligible for a Cost of Living Payment
Housing Benefit is administered by Local Authorities, and is sometimes paid directly to a landlord. Payments to those receiving only Housing Benefit could not therefore be delivered in a quick, accurate and straightforward manner.
For those who require additional support the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable a further extension to the Household Support Fund in England.
In England, this will run from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, backed by £842m.
Local Authorities use the Fund to help households with the cost of essentials, and they are expected to help households in the most need, particularly those who may not be eligible for the other support the government has recently made available.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department are taking to support pensioners in (a) Hampstead and Kilburn constituency and (b) Greater London with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
All pensioner households in Hampstead and Kilburn constituency and Greater London are in the process of receiving an extra £300 on top of their winter fuel payment to help them cover the rising cost of energy this winter. For those in receipt of Pension Credit the second Cost of Living Payment of £324 was issued in November. Pensioners in receipt of eligible disability benefits will have also received the disability cost of living payment of £150 issued in September.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and that pensioners are disproportionately impacted by higher energy costs, and many low-income pensioner households do not claim the means tested benefits they are entitled to. That is why, in addition to the £37 billion of support we have provided for cost of living pressures in 2022/23, we are acting now to ensure support continues throughout 2023/24.
To ensure stability and certainty for households, in the Autumn Statement the Government has announced £26 billion in cost of living support for 2023/24. In 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to a further £900 in Cost of Living Payments. A £300 payment will be made to pensioner households and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Also included is the amended Energy Price Guarantee which will save the average UK household £500 in 2023/24 and raising the benefit cap by 10.1% in line with inflation.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to reform the assessment process for disability benefits; and what steps his Department takes to consult disabled people on such reforms.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)
We published ‘Shaping Future Support - The Health and Disability Green Paper’ last year, which proposed changes to the assessment process to make our services easier to access, make our processes simpler and help build people’s trust.
This included ways to further reduce the number of unnecessary assessments and of offering greater flexibility and simplicity in the way that assessments are delivered.
Our Health Transformation Programme is modernising Health and Disability benefit services. It will deliver a more efficient service and a vastly improved claimant experience, reducing journey times and improving trust in our services and decisions.
We received over 4,500 responses to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation. We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have contributed and will respond with a White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to introduce a non-repayable childcare grant for parents on low incomes entering work on a similar basis to the measure introduced in Northern Ireland in October 2021.
Answered by David Rutley
In England, Scotland and Wales, help with upfront childcare costs for starting work is available on a discretionary basis through a non-repayable Flexible Support Fund award for eligible Universal Credit claimants. This is a payment that covers costs until the claimant receives their first salary, up to the prescribed limits.
Universal Credit childcare costs provide more generous childcare support than was available under Tax Credits, reimbursing up to 85% of eligible childcare costs.
The childcare offer in England provides 15 hours a week of free childcare for all three and four year olds and disadvantaged two year olds, doubling to 30 hours a week for working parents of three and four year olds.
By comparison, the less generous Northern Ireland funded pre-school education offer provides 4.5 hours per day, 5 days per week during term time, and is available to parents of three and four year olds in their immediate pre-school year.
In light of the current childcare offers available in Great Britain, there are no plans to introduce a similar measure to that in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 the Covid Local Support Grant scheme.
Answered by David Rutley
The Covid Winter Grant and the Covid Local Support Grant provided Local Authorities in England with total funding of £429m to September 2021, to help them to support the most vulnerable households in their areas with the costs of household essentials during the COVID-19 pandemic. These schemes have now ended.
However, we recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents have been granted payments through the Flexible Support Fund to pay for (a) the full upfront cost of childcare or (b) part of those costs when they entered employment in England and Wales in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The Department is fully committed to supporting parents moving into work and improving their earnings once employed. Universal Credit pays up to 85% of childcare costs for working parents, compared to 70% in legacy benefits, and childcare costs can be claimed up to a month before starting a job.
In cases where people need to pay for childcare upfront, prior to starting work, Work Coaches may be able to use the Flexible Support Fund for eligible claimants to meet these costs until their first wage is received. Budgeting advances are also available to eligible claimants who require help with upfront costs, for example when altering hours worked or changing childcare providers.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 suspending repayments on budgeting loans during the national covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
Debt recovery, including the recovery of Social Fund Budgeting Loans, was paused for 3 months from April 2020 so that Debt Management staff could support processing in excess of three million new Universal Credit claims following the outbreak of COVID 19.
Those staff have subsequently been able to return to their roles in Debt Management and we have adopted a phased and controlled approach to re-instating debt recovery, allowing us to manage the demand on services.
There are no current plans to re-instate the suspension of debt recovery, but we will keep the situation under review.
We recognise that there will be some people who may be experiencing financial difficulty, and anyone unable to afford the rate of recovery is encouraged to contact DWP so an affordable rate of repayment can be negotiated.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department plans to take to raise awareness of the Covid Winter Grant Scheme to families of children eligible for free schools meals who will be able to receive support over the upcoming Christmas holiday.
Answered by Will Quince
The Covid Winter Support Grant is a new £170m fund which will enable local authorities in England to support vulnerable households this winter with food and key utilities. To ensure those most in need benefit from this funding, grants to local authorities are being made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and carry conditions to ensure the primary focus of the scheme is on supporting vulnerable families with children affected by the pandemic, including but not restricted to households who are eligible for free school meals. Local authorities will develop their own criteria.
We have provided these grants to upper tier authorities, recognising they have the statutory responsibility regarding children and are well placed to identify and respond to local need. A wide range of data is already available to them to help target their support, including access to the benefits system, social services, health visitors and relationships with schools. Local authorities already have local welfare assistance responsibility and many have support programmes already in place. Jobcentres will share information with claimants about the support available in their local area.
Detailed guidance has been shared with local authorities and was published on gov.uk on 24 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme