Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations she has made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing the amount of money local authorities pay out in financial assistance schemes to people who will stop receiving the £20 a week uplift to universal credit.

Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions engage regularly with their Ministerial counterparts in other Departments, taking a collective approach to the policies and interventions that can make a difference.

Responsibility for Local Welfare Assistance was delegated to Local Authorities in England in 2013/2014 and councils have powers to determine the right Local Welfare Assistance schemes for their area. The funding councils receive from Government recognises the resources councils need to meet their pressures.

The Chancellor announced a temporary six-month extension to the £20 per week uplift at the Budget on 3 March to support households affected by the economic shock of Covid-19. Universal Credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and the temporary uplift was part of a COVID support package worth a total of £407billion in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

There have been significant positive developments in the public health situation since the uplift was first introduced. With the success of the vaccine rollout and record job vacancies, it is right that our focus is on helping people back into work.

Through our Plan for Jobs, we are targeting tailored support schemes of people of all ages to help them prepare for, get into and progress in work. These include: Kickstart, delivering tens of thousands of six-month work placements for Universal Credit claimants aged 16-24 at risk of unemployment; we have also recruited an additional 13,500 work coaches to provide more intensive support to find a job; and introduced Restart which provides 12 months’ intensive employment support to Universal Credit claimants who are unemployed for a year. Our Plan for Jobs interventions will support more than two million people.