Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of awarding the full Carer's Allowance to unpaid carers that are in receipt of the state pension.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
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 income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to care for a severely disabled person, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.
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 £81.90.
Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. This gives access to the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £45.60 a week and potentially other means-tested support. Around 100,000 people are receiving the Carer Premium with their Pension Credit. And even if a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 5.57, page 74 of the Spring Budget 2024, what steps he plans to take to increase system capacity for the purposes of reducing the time taken to process disability claims.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. There are no clearing targets for PIP.
Following an increase in new claims and end-to-end PIP clearance times after the Covid pandemic, we have taken steps to reduce and stabilise customer journey times for PIP claimants. The latest statistics show that the average clearance time for new claims is 15 weeks end-to-end, a significant decrease from 26 weeks in August 2021.
We are addressing the increase in new claims and award reviews by increasing provider and case manager capacity and using a blend of assessment channels to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service. We are prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding claimants awaiting award reviews, aiming to make a decision as quickly as possible.
The measure announced in the Budget will provide additional funding to support the processing of increased volumes of disability benefit claims. This will help to ensure that waiting times remain low and that claimants receive the appropriate level of support in a timely manner.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) strategies, (b) resources and (c) procedural enhancements he plans to employ to ensure PIP clearing targets are met.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. There are no clearing targets for PIP.
Following an increase in new claims and end-to-end PIP clearance times after the Covid pandemic, we have taken steps to reduce and stabilise customer journey times for PIP claimants. The latest statistics show that the average clearance time for new claims is 15 weeks end-to-end, a significant decrease from 26 weeks in August 2021.
We are addressing the increase in new claims and award reviews by increasing provider and case manager capacity and using a blend of assessment channels to deliver a more efficient and user-centred service. We are prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding claimants awaiting award reviews, aiming to make a decision as quickly as possible.
The measure announced in the Budget will provide additional funding to support the processing of increased volumes of disability benefit claims. This will help to ensure that waiting times remain low and that claimants receive the appropriate level of support in a timely manner.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people affected by (a) respiratory and (b) fatigue conditions who may have their Universal Credit awards changed under the recently announced Work Capability Assessment reforms.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In November last year we announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria, to deliver the right outcomes and reflect changes in work since the criteria were last comprehensively reviewed in 2011.
Changes to the WCA activities and descriptors will be implemented nationally no earlier than 2025. The majority of existing Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance claimants will not be affected by the WCA changes if they have already been assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity.
With these changes to the WCA criteria, 424,000* fewer people will be assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity by 2028-29 and will receive personalised support to help them move closer to employment. A further 33,000* individuals will be found fit for work by 2028-2029 and will receive more intensive support to search for and secure work than would be the case under the current WCA rules.
Estimates are not based on specific conditions because the WCA considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on their ability to work, not the condition itself.
We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 impact on the educational attainment of young adult carers aged 16 to 24 of the eligibility criteria for carer's allowance that a person must not be studying for 21 hours or more.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold information on the educational attainment of young adult carers.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will respond to the report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues laid before Parliament on 21 March.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) allowing people that are moving from legacy benefits to Universal Credit to use a countersignature as proof of ID and (b) opening Job Centres on (i) evenings and (ii) weekends for people who are in full-time employment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Countersignatures or vouching can be used to verify an identity as an exception where the customer does not have any other method to prove who they are. This method is more time consuming for both the customer and agent and we have found that the majority of our customers can meet the identify verification criteria.
A number of our Jobcentres across the network already offer a Saturday service. We do not offer evening appointments, but it is important to emphasise that we have a number of different mechanisms through which customers can access our services; for example, through our Universal Credit (UC) system which is a digital platform where customers can leave messages on their journal to update UC agents on their current circumstances. A number of our service lines also offer telephony services into the evening.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 carers are made aware when they have exceeded the threshold for claiming carer's allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP remains focussed and passionate about ensuring that the experience for our DWP customers is at the forefront of the decisions that we make, the processes we deliver, and the improvements that we design.
We have made it easier for customers to contact DWP via the channel that makes the most sense for them. DWP customers can report change of circumstances by telephone, letter, and online via GOV.UK which outlines the routeway of how a customer should notify DWP for each benefit where changes occur. This includes the use of Universal Credit Journal to report changes directly to the appropriate benefit affected where earnings increase or decrease accordingly.
For customers seeking advice on Carer’s Allowance (CA) entitlement, GOV.UK provides detail on eligibility. The CA threshold for earnings is £151 a week from April 2024, after tax, National Insurance, and expenses.
Following a successful claim to CA customers are issued with an ‘award letter’ which includes a reminder that ‘You must tell us if your earnings or expenses change.” This helps to ensure that their CA claim runs smoothly, and the earnings threshold for claiming Carer's Allowance is not exceeded.
As benefit and pension rates are uprated, CA customers are further issued with new benefit rate ‘uprating letters’ which also include reminders to report changes in circumstances.
For irregular earners, CA work closely with our customers to ensure CA is only paid for the periods when the customer’s earnings fluctuate and are below the earnings limit. In this way, this should ensure that CA is not overpaid, as information is obtained from the customer for set periods of time to ensure CA is paid correctly for that period.
As our customers rightly expect, DWP is committed to continuous improvement, and we have many mechanisms in place to measure, and analyse the experience of our customers, providing DWP with a rich source of feedback that helps us to review and improve our services.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of economically active individuals there were (a) in total and (b) with self-reported sight problems in England in 2022-23.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested can be found in the table below.
Labour market status by main or secondary long-term health condition,
16 to 64, England, 2022/23
Labour market status | Total | Difficulty in seeing |
Total | 35,038,400 | 487,200 |
Economically active | 27,551,700 | 238,800 |
Source: Annual Population Survey (APS) – unpublished
Notes:
Numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the Carer’s Allowance to £93 per week.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government continues to protect the value of benefits paid to carers whilst also spending record amounts in real terms.
The level of Carer’s Allowance is protected by uprating it each April in line with inflation as measured by the CPI for the previous September. The purpose of benefit uprating is to ensure that the value of benefits stays in line with the general level of prices. From April 2024, the Carer’s Allowance payment was increased to £81.90. Since 2010, the rate of Carer’s Allowance has increased from £53.90 to £81.90 a week, providing an additional £1,500 a year for carers.
Real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2024/25 is forecast to be £4.1 billion. Between 2024/25 and 2028/29 real terms expenditure on Carer’s Allowance is forecast to rise by 12% - around £500 million. By 2028/29, the Government is forecast to spend just over £4.5 billion a year on Carer’s Allowance.
As well as Carer’s Allowance, carers have access to the full range of social security benefits. For example, carers on Universal Credit can receive around an additional £2,400 a year through the Carer Element.