Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to take steps to provide help with high energy costs to people who are receiving non means-tested benefits.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
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 has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear, they will continue to do so from now until April next year.
The consumer saving will be based on usage, but a typical household will save at least £1,000 a year (based on current prices from October). 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 of support also includes more than 8 million pensioner households receiving a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from November, and 6 million eligible disabled people receiving a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September.
Also included in the cost-of-living support is 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.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 help ensure that people who are out of work and have sufficient resources to pay for their energy, food and other living costs this winter.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
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 £37bn of support includes up to £650 in Cost-of-Living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits, including people who are out of work and receiving Universal Credit and older people receiving Pension Credit. In addition, more than 8 million pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through the Winter Fuel Payment from November, and 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September.
Also included in the cost-of-living support is the current Household Support Fund in England, which is already providing £421m of support for the period April-September 2022. For the same period, the devolved administrations received £79 million through the Barnett formula. For the period October 2022-March 2023, we are providing an additional £421 million through the Household Support Fund to help households in England with the cost of essentials, and the devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Ongoing financial support for help with the cost of living is provided to people over State Pension age through State Pensions, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, and to people below State Pension age through Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance. In some cases, and especially in the case of Pension Credit, these entitlements may also give access to other support such as help with Council Tax, NHS costs, discounts on energy bills, and free TV licences for those aged 75 or over.
People with a long-term health condition or disability may be entitled to one of the following non-means tested benefits to help them meet the additional costs that arise from disability: Attendance Allowance; Disability Living Allowance; or Personal Independence Payment. These benefits can be paid in addition to any other social security benefits and may qualify people for additional amounts or premiums as part of these benefits.
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 additional support will be available for disabled people who cannot meet their energy, food and other living costs this winter.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
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 £37bn of support includes up to £650 in Cost-of-Living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits, including people who are out of work and receiving Universal Credit and older people receiving Pension Credit. In addition, more than 8 million pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through the Winter Fuel Payment from November, and 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September.
Also included in the cost-of-living support is the current Household Support Fund in England, which is already providing £421m of support for the period April-September 2022. For the same period, the devolved administrations received £79 million through the Barnett formula. For the period October 2022-March 2023, we are providing an additional £421 million through the Household Support Fund to help households in England with the cost of essentials, and the devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Ongoing financial support for help with the cost of living is provided to people over State Pension age through State Pensions, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, and to people below State Pension age through Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance. In some cases, and especially in the case of Pension Credit, these entitlements may also give access to other support such as help with Council Tax, NHS costs, discounts on energy bills, and free TV licences for those aged 75 or over.
People with a long-term health condition or disability may be entitled to one of the following non-means tested benefits to help them meet the additional costs that arise from disability: Attendance Allowance; Disability Living Allowance; or Personal Independence Payment. These benefits can be paid in addition to any other social security benefits and may qualify people for additional amounts or premiums as part of these benefits.
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 plans she has to provide additional support to older people who cannot meeet the cost of (a) energy bills, (b) food costs, and (c) other living costs.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
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 £37bn of support includes up to £650 in Cost-of-Living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits, including people who are out of work and receiving Universal Credit and older people receiving Pension Credit. In addition, more than 8 million pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through the Winter Fuel Payment from November, and 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September.
Also included in the cost-of-living support is the current Household Support Fund in England, which is already providing £421m of support for the period April-September 2022. For the same period, the devolved administrations received £79 million through the Barnett formula. For the period October 2022-March 2023, we are providing an additional £421 million through the Household Support Fund to help households in England with the cost of essentials, and the devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
Ongoing financial support for help with the cost of living is provided to people over State Pension age through State Pensions, Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, and to people below State Pension age through Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance. In some cases, and especially in the case of Pension Credit, these entitlements may also give access to other support such as help with Council Tax, NHS costs, discounts on energy bills, and free TV licences for those aged 75 or over.
People with a long-term health condition or disability may be entitled to one of the following non-means tested benefits to help them meet the additional costs that arise from disability: Attendance Allowance; Disability Living Allowance; or Personal Independence Payment. These benefits can be paid in addition to any other social security benefits and may qualify people for additional amounts or premiums as part of these benefits.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to implement the National Food Strategy recommendation that the true cost of eating healthily should be calculated into benefits payments; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The current rates of income-related benefits such as Universal Credit do not represent a minimum requirement and are not described as such in legislation. The Government specifies the rates which are applicable to different benefits, and these may vary according to claimants' circumstances.
Income-related benefit rates are not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure such as food or fuel charges, and beneficiaries are free to spend their benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual commitments, needs and preferences.
The Government has expanded free school meals to more children than any other, including rolling out universal infant free school meals to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, ensuring a further 1.25 million pupils receive a free nutritious meal each day, in addition to the 1.9m children that receive benefits related free school meals.
The Holiday Activities and Food programme has been expanded to operate across all England Local Authorities, providing over £600m for the next 3 years. Last summer reaching over 600,000 children.
We are investing up to £24 million into the National School Breakfast Programme, benefitting up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas, building on the previous programme.
The Government also increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25, (children aged under one receive £8.50 in total, every week), helping eligible low-income households to buy fresh, frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, milk and infant formula. Recipients are also eligible for free Healthy Start vitamins.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the devolution of welfare powers to Wales to permit the Welsh Government to provide additional support for households amid the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Wales Act 2017 sets a reserved powers model, making clear that social security, pensions and child maintenance remain reserved to UK Parliament. This position is unchanged since devolution began. The UK Government does not intend to devolve reserved social security powers to the Welsh Government. It has, however, used them to make provision for the £650 Cost of Living Payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) for around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits; the one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 currently being paid to 6 million eligible people; and the extra one-off £300 Winter Fuel Payment this year to be paid to over 8 million pensioner households across the UK.
The UK Government has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills through the new “Energy Price Guarantee”, which will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October. This will save the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. 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 and the cost of living payments. It also includes an additional £500 million from October to help households across the UK with the cost of essentials. In England, £421 million is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund, a discretionary scheme run by Upper Tier Local Authorities, from October 2022 – March 2023. The Welsh Government has been allocated its share of this funding through the Barnett Formula.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter of 2022-23.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the number of pensioners who will be living in poverty during the winter 2022/23. Projecting poverty involves projecting forward the impact of the cost of living on every household’s income which is not possible to do with confidence.
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty.
In 2020/21 there were 400 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty in the UK (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.
We are forecast to spend over £134 billion on benefits for pensioners in 2022/23. This amounts to 5.4% of GDP. This includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be over £110bn in 2022/23.
On top of this, 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 new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 based on current energy prices from October. 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.
This includes a one-off payment to pensioners households of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
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 estimate her Department has made of the number of people living in food poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the rising cost of living on the levels of food poverty in those areas; and what steps her Department is taking to alleviate food poverty levels in those areas.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
National and regional statistics on the number of food insecure households are published annually in the “Family Resources Survey” publication. Statistics on levels of food insecure households in England and the West Midlands, covering 2020/21, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2020-to-2021. Data for Coventry and the Coventry North East constituency is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.
No such assessments have been made of the effect of the rising cost of living on the levels of food poverty in these areas.
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 new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 from October. 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.
This includes a £650 cost of living payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at more than 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. The payment of £326 was paid between the 14 July and the 31 July for most people and the payment of £324 will be made in the Autumn. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
The current Household Support Fund runs from 1 April to 30 September, with Coventry City Council allocated £3,224,222.30 for this period. During this period, a total of £49,520,715.25 has been allocated to West Midlands Local Authorities, which takes their total funding under both Household Support Funds to £99,041,430.50. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own funds, within the parameters of the guidance and the grant determination.
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, if she will make an estimate of the number of children living in poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; and if she will make an assessment of (i) the impact of the rising cost of living on and (ii) the effectiveness of the welfare system at helping to reduce the level of child poverty in those areas.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The latest statistics on the number of children who are in low-income in Coventry North East constituency and Coventry can be found in the annual publication: Children in low income families: local area statistics. Statistics covering up until financial year ending 2021 can be found here:
National Statistics on the number of children in low income in West Midlands and England are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics, covering up until 2019/20, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020
Due to methodological differences, the figures in these two publications are not comparable.
Given the impact of the pandemic on the size and quality of sample data additional breakdowns for regions in 2020/21 were not reliable enough to be published as part of the annual statistics.
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 new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 from October. 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.
This includes a £650 cost of living payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at more than 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. The payment of £326 was paid between the 14 July and the 31 July for most people and the payment of £324 will be made in the Autumn. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
The current Household Support Fund runs from 1 April to 30 September, with Coventry City Council allocated £3,224,222.30 for this period. During this period, a total of £49,520,715.25 has been allocated to West Midlands Local Authorities, which takes their total funding under both Household Support Funds to £99,041,430.50. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own funds, within the parameters of the guidance and the grant determination.
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 estimate her Department has made of the number of pensioners living in poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the rising cost of living on the levels of pensioner poverty in those areas; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the welfare system in helping to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty in those areas.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
National Statistics on the number of pensioners in low income in West Midlands and England are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics, covering up until 2019/20, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020. Data for Coventry and the Coventry North East constituency is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.
Given the impact of the pandemic on the size and quality of sample data additional breakdowns for regions in 2020/21 were not reliable enough to be published as part of the annual statistics.
No such assessments have been made.
The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty.
In 2020/21 there were 400,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty in the UK (both before and after housing costs) than in 2009/10.
We are forecast to spend over £134 billion on benefits for pensioners in 2022/23. This amounts to 5.4% of GDP. This includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be over £110bn in 2022/23.
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 new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 from October. 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.
This includes a £650 cost of living payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which has been designed to target support at more than 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. The payment of £326 was paid between the 14 July and the 31 July for most people and the payment of £324 will be made in the Autumn. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people will receive a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November.
The government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
The current Household Support Fund runs from 1 April to 30 September, with Coventry City Council allocated £3,224,222.30 for this period. During this period, a total of £49,520,715.25 has been allocated to West Midlands Local Authorities, which takes their total funding under both Household Support Funds to £99,041,430.50. Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own funds, within the parameters of the guidance and the grant determination.