Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of Carers Allowance and State Pension being overlapping benefits on levels of pensioner poverty.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made. Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long-held feature of the UK’s benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need.
Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances, they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces some income where the carer is not able to work full time due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules normally operate to prevent them being paid together. However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance, which is currently £76.75.
Where underlying entitlement of Carer’s Allowance occurs (all entitlement conditions are met, but the overlapping benefit rule prevents payment), additional financial support may be available through Pension Credit, notably including the additional amount payable to carers. This additional amount is currently £42.75 a week – over £2,200 a year - and around 100,000 carers receive it as part of their Pension Credit award. It is paid to recognise the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and means that lower income pensioners with caring responsibilities can receive more than other lower income recipients of Pension Credit. If a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. The State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. In April 2023 the State Pension was increased by 10.1% and, subject to parliamentary approval, will be increased by a further 8.5% increase from April 2024. In 2021/22, there were 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10. As far as pensioner carers are concerned, additional financial support is already available, focussed on those in most need.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit recipients had payments reduced to nil due to two earnings payments in the assessment period between (a) 26 January 2023 and 25 February 2023 and (b) 18 August 2023 and 17 September 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is the subject of an upcoming statistical release, and cannot be released before that publication is ready, subject to usual quality assurance.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he is taking steps to monitor the adequacy of claimant reviews conducted by work coaches in relation to the Back to Work plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Claimant Commitment review meetings are currently in development and will be for those claimants who are still unemployed after the 12-month Restart programme.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2023 to Question 3350 on Access to Work Programme, how many applications to the Access to Work scheme were rejected in each month from April 2021 to April 2022.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In response to your question, I have provided the information on applications not receiving an Access to Work award below:
April 2021 – 1,678
May 2021 – 1,579
June 2021 – 1,909
July 2021 – 1,784
August 2021 – 1,285
September 2021 – 1,547
October 2021 – 1,853
November 2021 – 2,082
December 2021 – 1,954
January 2022 – 1,807
February 2022 – 1,615
March 2022 – 2016
April 2022 – 1,478
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to Work Capability Assessments on levels of poverty among benefit claimants.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of the changes to Work Capability Assessments on levels of poverty amongst benefit claimants.
We published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment criteria on 22 November, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people, and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.
From 2025, we will make changes to the WCA that continue to protect those with the most severe conditions, while ensuring those that can work are supported in doing so. Most existing claimants that have already been assessed without work-related requirements, will be able to benefit from our Chance to Work Guarantee. This change will in effect abolish the WCA for the vast majority of this group, and they will be able to move towards work without fear of reassessment.
It is right that where people can be supported towards work that they are given that opportunity. There is clear evidence about the importance of work in substantially reducing the risks of poverty - in 2021/22, working age adults living in workless families were seven times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in families where all adults work. These measures are focused on improving employment and independent living outcomes for disabled people and people with health conditions and spreading opportunity right across the country so people can fulfil their potential.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
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 Autumn Statement 2023 on levels of poverty among benefit claimants.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are providing support to households to help with the high cost of living worth £104 billion over 2022-23 to 2024-25. This includes, subject to Parliamentary approval, raising working age benefits by 6.7% and State pensions by 8.5% from April next year on top of this year’s 10.1% uprating for all State pensions and benefits.
To support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will also raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents for private renters from April 2024. This will benefit 1.6m low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25.
We are also, from April, increasing the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.
We estimate that in 2024/5 around 20 million families will benefit from the uprating of DWP and HMRC benefits in Great Britain. This will include around 8 million pensioner and around 11 million working age families and around 1 million mixed age couples.
In 2024/25, around 5.5 million Universal Credit families are forecast to benefit from uprating with an average annual gain for a family on Universal Credit estimated to be £470 (equivalent to an increase of around £39 per month), however gains will vary depending on the elements received by different family types. An assessment of the benefit uprating policy has been published here.
On average, households in the poorest income deciles are gaining the most in cash terms and as a percentage of net income in 2023-24 as a result of government policies announced at Autumn Statement 2022. This Government has overseen significant falls in absolute poverty since 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, including 400,000 fewer children and 1 million fewer working age adults.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to extend the Household Support Fund beyond 31 March 2024.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ3412.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Access to Work support were received in each month since 1 May 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested about Access to Work applications is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
However, Access to Work statistics include how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2022/23. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here:
Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
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 refreezing of Local Housing Allowance after 2025 on low income renters.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has completed his review of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for 2024/25. As announced by the Chancellor in the recent Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This results in a significant investment of £7bn over five years and ensures 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25.
The Secretary of State has committed to reviewing LHA rates annually and the rates for 2025/26 have not yet been reviewed.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the most common reason was for rejecting an application to the Access to Work scheme in each month since May 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Month | Reason for rejection |
May-22 | Application not pursued |
Jun-22 | Application not pursued |
Jul-22 | Closed Other |
Aug-22 | Closed Other |
Sep-22 | Closed Other |
Oct-22 | Closed Other |
Nov-22 | Closed Other |
Dec-22 | No Contact |
Jan-23 | No Contact |
Feb-23 | Application not pursued |
Mar-23 | No Contact |
Apr-23 | No Contact |
May-23 | Closed Other |
Jun-23 | Closed Other |
Jul-23 | Closed Other |
Aug-23 | Closed Other |
Sep-23 | Closed Other |
Oct-23 | Closed Other |
Reasons for the application being rejected/not awarded include:
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.