Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of healthy start vouchers in the context of rising (a) food and (b) infant formula prices.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
While the Healthy Start scheme is kept under continuous review, there are no current plans to increase the value of the benefit.
In April 2021, the value of the Healthy Start benefit was raised from £3.10 to £4.25 per week, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices. Children aged under one year old receive £8.50 per week, an increase from £6.20.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Healthy Start vouchers for funding the cost of infant formula.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start scheme is kept under continuous review.
In April 2021, the value of the Healthy Start benefit was raised from £3.10 to £4.25 per week, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices. Children aged under one year old receive £8.50 per week, an increase from £6.20.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support low income families with the increased cost of living this winter.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living this Winter and is taking action to support people with their energy bills. The government’s Energy Price Guarantee, running from October 2022- March 2023, will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy price would have been under the current price cap – reducing bills by roughly a third. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37bn also includes cost of living payments worth up to £650 (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, is providing £421m of funding for those most in need. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula.
To ensure stability and certainty for households, in the Autumn Statement the Government has announced £26bn in cost of living support for 2023/24. This includes Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable. 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.
For those who require extra support, the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England in the next financial year. This is on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.
In addition, we are uprating benefits for working age households and disabled people, as well as the basic and new State Pensions, all by 10.1%. We are also increasing the National Living Wage by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour from April 2023.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the increase in absolute child poverty in (a) the North East and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of child poverty in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber for 2020/21. Given the impact of the pandemic on the size and quality of sample data, DWP statisticians concluded that for several of the breakdowns it would be difficult to make meaningful assessments of trends and changes in 2020/21 compared with the pre-Covid position. The Chief Statistician has therefore taken the decision not to publish additional breakdowns for regional child poverty in 2020/21.
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age.
With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty. The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works.
In 2021, compared to 2010, there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 590,000 fewer children in workless households in the UK. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than in 2009/10.
To help people into work, including parents, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.
Around 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free school meal, saving families around £400 per year. In addition, around 1.25 million more infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals. The National School Breakfast Provision programme (NSBP) is providing funding of up to £24 million in a two-year contract to continue our support for school breakfast provision until July 2023 supporting pupils in up to 2,500 schools that meet our criteria for levels of disadvantage.
The Government is also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Scheme by a third to £4.25 a week.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £700 this winter, based on what energy price would’ve been under the current price cap – reducing bills by roughly a third. This support will be in place from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023. A review will be launched to consider more targeted measures to support households with their energy bills after this period. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37bn also includes up to £650 in cost of living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from this month.
In collaboration with Local Authorities we have a well-established system of hardship payments, including the Discretionary Housing Payments, available as a safeguard for if claimants demonstrate they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs due to the rise in the cost of living. For those who require additional support, we extended the Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support for those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023 and is being delivered by Upper Tier and Unitary Councils. In the case of South Tyneside, the local authority has been allocated £1,484,854.01 for this period. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department is providing to unpaid carers in (a) Coventry North East constituency and (b) Coventry to help mitigate the effects of the rising cost of living.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This Government recognises and values the vital contribution made by carers in supporting some of the most vulnerable in our society, including pensioners and those with disabilities.
Unpaid carers have access to the full range of social security benefits depending upon their circumstances. As well as Carer’s Allowance, carers in low-income households can apply for Universal Credit, Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit. As of May 2022, around 433,000 carer households in Great Britain were in receipt of Universal Credit, which includes a Carer Element worth around £2,000 a year.
During 2020/21, expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in Coventry North-East was £8.4 million. As of February 2022, 2,332 carers in Coventry North East were receiving Carer’s Allowance. These figures do not include carers in receipt of benefits other than Carer’s Allowance, such as Universal Credit or Pension Credit.
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £700 this winter, based on what the energy price would have been under the current price cap, reducing bills by roughly a third. This support will be in place from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023. A review will be launched to consider more targeted measures to support households with their energy bills after this period. This is in addition to the over £37 billion of cost of living support announced earlier this year, which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37 billion also includes Cost of Living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) to more than 8 million low-income households (including eligible carers) in receipt of an eligible, means-tested benefit. There are separate one-off payments of £300 to pensioner households alongside the Winter Fuel Payment, and £150 to individuals receiving disability benefits.
It also includes an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials. This is on top of what the Government has already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, this includes an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421 million, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett Formula.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help reduce the impact of rising food costs on people living in Newport West constituency.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government understands that people across the UK are worried about the rising cost of food.
That is why the Government has announced £37 billion of support for the cost of living this financial year. This includes support for over 8 million lower income households through a one-off Cost of Living Payment of £650, with extra support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits.
In addition to this package, the Government has introduced the Energy Price Guarantee to support millions of households with rising energy bills this winter, which will help ease cost of living pressures more generally.
In England, the Government has helped vulnerable people with the cost of food and other essentials through the temporary Household Support Fund, which is administered by local authorities. In parallel, the devolved administrations, including the Welsh Government, have received funding through the Barnett formula. It will be for the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate this additional funding.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional financial support they will provide to parents facing poverty, given the increased cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age.
With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty.
To help parents into work, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.
To further support parents to move into and progress in work, the government provides a range of childcare offers. For more information on what childcare support may be available, we encourage parents to use the Childcare Choices website.
Around 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free, healthy and nutritious school meal, saving families around £400 per year. In addition, around 1.25 million more infants enjoy a free meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals. The National School Breakfast Provision programme (NSBP) is providing funding of up to £24 million in a two-year contract to continue our support for school breakfast provision until July 2023 supporting pupils in up to 2,500 schools that meet our criteria for levels of disadvantage.
The Government is also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Scheme by a third to £4.25 a week.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37bn also includes up to £650 in cost of living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
For those who require additional support we have provided an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure people do not fall into food poverty.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age.
With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into, and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty.
To help people into work across Great Britain, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.
This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has provided over £37bn of support including up to £650 in cost-of-living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
For those who require additional support the current Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support to those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023 and is being delivered by Upper Tier and Unitary Councils. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
The Government are also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Scheme by a third to £4.25 a week.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children of compulsory school age live in households in England in receipt of universal credit with a household income after tax and before benefits of less than (a) £7,400, (b) £8,350 and (c) £8,575 a year.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In May 2022, 2.15 million children of compulsory school age lived in households in England in receipt of universal credit. 780,000 of those children lived in households with no income in May 2022.
(a) 1.07 million children of compulsory school age lived in households in England with a monthly equivalent income in May 2022 of less than £7,400 a year.
(b) 1.16 million children of compulsory school age lived in households in England with a monthly equivalent income in May 2022 of less than £8,350 a year.
(c) 1.18 million children of compulsory school age lived in households in England with a monthly equivalent income in May 2022 of less than £8,575 a year.
Notes:
1. Children of compulsory school age is defined as children who will be between the ages of 5 and 16 inclusively on 31st August 2022
2. Figures for children in households with incomes less than £X include households with no income
3. May 2022 aligns with most recently data from published Stat-Xplore figures
4. Figures rounded to nearest hundred thousand children
5. Not all UC claimants will have been receiving UC for a full year, and DWP only holds earnings information for claimants once they start a UC claim. Yearly incomes are therefore calculated by multiplying the monthly incomes in May 2022 by 12.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has provided over £37bn of support including up to £650 in cost-of-living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. [In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.]
For those who require additional support we have extended the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
The Government are also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Scheme by a third to £4.25 a week.
Asked by: Nick Gibb (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress he has made in moving from a National Funding Formula for schools to a direct funding formula.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Government remains firmly committed to completing our reforms to the national school funding system, and introducing a direct national funding formula.
This will mean that each mainstream school is allocated funding on the same basis, wherever it is in the country, and every child can be given the same opportunities, based on a consistent assessment of their needs.
The Department is moving carefully towards the direct national funding formula over the coming years, working with the sector to ensure that the transition is a smooth one. From 2023-24, local authorities will have to move their own funding formulae closer to the national funding formula as part of our step-by-step approach to transition. Local minimum funding guarantee protections will remain in place to maintain stability for schools and protect them from sudden drops in pupil-led per-pupil funding.
We are also continuing to develop the schools national funding formula to allocate funding nationally in line with our recent consultation: https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/implementing-the-direct-national-funding-formula/supporting_documents/Implementing%20the%20direct%20national%20funding%20formula%20%20government%20consultation.pdf. The Department's response will be published in due course.
The Department will also provide an update on the Schools Bill in due course.