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Written Question
Universal Credit: Rents
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that social housing tenants who receive Universal Credit are not financially affected by the 53-week rent year in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

In the financial year 2024-25 social housing tenants will face 52 weekly rent payment days so Universal Credit will make provision for the exact amount of their liability.

Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. This may lead to a slight advantage to the claimant when converting weekly incomes and to a slight disadvantage when dealing with outgoings. The system is used because it is simple to operate and understand. The department has considered alternative options for those with weekly tenancies, but each have their own limitations and disadvantages for claimants and so there are no plans to change.

The legitimacy of this calculation formula in Universal Credit was confirmed by the High Court in 2020 who found it to be neither irrational or discriminatory.

Discretionary Housing Payments can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011, the government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities.


Written Question
Refugees: Ukraine
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

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 adequacy of current guidance for Job Centre staff on assessing the education status of Ukrainian refugees.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Work and Pensions has provided immediate access to Universal Credit, and jobs support, for those arriving in the UK from Ukraine because of the Russian invasion; individuals must still meet the eligibility criteria, in order to receive Universal Credit and other Social Security benefits.   

There are some exceptions where students may be eligible for Universal Credit such as where they are responsible for a child or are enrolled on a part time course and are seeking employment.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Tuesday 28th March 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to take steps to improve the application process for Personal Independence Payments.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application process is kept under continual review to ensure it meets the needs of claimants and helps the department reach an accurate assessment of an individual’s entitlement. Since PIP was introduced, we have introduced a range of accessibility improvements such as the Video Relay Service and Relay UK, improved the clarity of the PIP2 questionnaire to make it easier to complete, expanded the assessment methods to include video and telephone, and introduced recording by request for telephone and face-to-face appointments. Claimants are also kept informed and updated at each stage of the application process, including through our improved text message service.

Alongside this, the Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire PIP service which will reduce the time it will take to process a claim and create a vastly improved claimant experience and a more efficient service for the taxpayer. We will introduce an option to apply for PIP online, giving claimants a greater choice in how they interact with the DWP and the ability to save, resume and upload medical evidence. We are currently operating a small-scale test of the new online apply service, taking a small number of claims to begin with before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people using the service. This approach allows us to develop, test and evaluate the service, exploring and making improvements as we gradually increase its availability. We are also exploring options to re-use evidence we currently hold, removing the need for claimants to upload or re-submit it, and we are reviewing what evidence is relevant to a decision, to enable more accurate data gather and decision making.

We published Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper on 15 March 2023 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-support-the-health-and-disability-white-paper). The White Paper responds to feedback from The Health and Disability Green Paper consultation and sets out proposals to support more disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work, as well as to improve the overall experience of, and trust in, the benefits system. We will continue to work with disabled people, people with health conditions and their representatives, to reach the important goals set out in the White Paper.


Written Question
Maternity Allowance: Data Protection
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the note on his Department's website, dated 17 October 2022, on the loss of Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022, for what reason this data was lost; and whether his Department (a) has received and (b) expects to receive financial compensation for the data loss.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The 5% Maternity Allowance data scan for May 2022 has not been produced following an administrative error by data suppliers in the scheduling of the run of the data. The scan containing MA data was run a month ahead of schedule and therefore reflected an incomplete count.

Since discovery, suppliers have implemented safeguards to prevent a reoccurrence.

Data for the next data point, August 2022, were created successfully using the new safeguards and will be released at 9:30 on 14 February 2023.

Provision of this data is core funded with an internal Service Level Agreement with no financial compensation in the agreement. Therefore, no compensation is expected.


Written Question
Local Housing Allowance
Tuesday 18th October 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the calculation of Local Housing Allowance rates applicable in financial year 2022-23.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates are not intended to cover all rents in all areas. For Great Britain in May 2022, 55% of the households on LHA had rents higher than the LHA rates. For these households the average gap was £146 per month.

In April 2020 LHA rates were increased to the 30th percentile of local rents. This significant investment of nearly £1 billion provided 1.5 million claimants with an average £600 more housing support in 2020/21 than they would otherwise have received.

LHA rates have been maintained at their increased levels since then, so that everyone who benefitted from the increase will continue to do so.

For those who require additional support with housing costs, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. Since 2011 we have provided almost over £1.5 billion in DHPs.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Employment
Tuesday 18th October 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government's Growth Plan 2022, published in September 2022, if she will make an estimate of the number of people on Universal Credit who will be placed in the Intensive Work Search regime following the increase in the Administration Earnings Threshold announced in that plan by (a) constituency, (b) region and (c) nation.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

DWP forecasts that approximately 120,000 claimants will be affected by increase in the Administrative Earnings Threshold planned from January 2023. The information is not held in the format requested. The forecasts indicate that there is not a significant geographical variation in the number of claimants that will move into the Intensive Work Search Regime as a result of the planned changes.


Written Question
Maternity Pay: Self-employed
Thursday 21st July 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to increase the level of maternity pay for self-employed mothers.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Maternity Allowance, which is payable to eligible self-employed women, is reviewed annually, alongside other state benefits, and is generally increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). From April 2022 the standard rate of Maternity Allowance increased to £156.66, in line with the September 2021 CPI rate of 3.1%. The Government has no plans to increase the standard rate of Maternity Allowance outside of annual uprating.


Written Question
Maternity Pay
Thursday 21st July 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing statutory maternity pay in line with (a) inflation and (b) the cost of living.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The standard rate of statutory maternity pay (SMP) is reviewed annually, alongside state benefits, and is generally increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). From April 2022 the standard rate of SMP increased to £156.66, in line with the September 2021 CPI rate of 3.1%.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Refugees
Tuesday 5th April 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to (a) disregard property in Ukraine from any capital calculations for Ukrainian refugees applying for universal credit and (b) provide further exemptions from any capital calculations for Ukrainian refugees applying for universal credit.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The emergency regulations laid on Monday 21 March 2022 ensure Ukrainian evacuees can access Universal Credit and jobs support immediately. Each claim for benefit will be assessed individually and as quickly as possible.

Available capital in the form of savings and investments will be taken into account in the normal way. Legislation already provides for capital assets held overseas only to be taken into account on the basis of their market value: clearly assets such as property owned in Ukraine have no market value at the current time.


Written Question
Maternity Pay
Wednesday 30th March 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 23 February 2022 to Question 125365 and 8 March 2022 to Question 134067 on Maternity Allowance, and with reference to the data on Statutory Maternity Pay starts provided by HMRC in Freedom of Information Act responses dated 5 June 2019 (FOI2019/01113) and 24 September 2021 (FOI2021/20932), what assessment she has made of the reasons for the absence of any decline in the number of Statutory Maternity Pay starts over the period in which the number of grants of Maternity Allowance to employed women has fallen by 45 per cent.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Statutory Maternity Pay is delivered through HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold the raw data on Statutory Maternity Payment starts.