Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people are affected by the under-occupancy charge, what is the financial impact of the charge on those people, and what plans they have to end or reduce that impact.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of February 2024, 476,000 households in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element were subject to a removal of spare room subsidy (RSRS) deduction.
The RSRS deductions are based on the claimant's eligible rent for those in the social rented sector. There is a 14 percent reduction for those with one extra bedroom and a 25 percent reduction for those with two or more extra bedrooms. The average weekly deduction for households with one extra bedroom is £15 and £29 for those with two or more extra bedrooms.
Easements are available to support disabled people and carers, families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel and people who have suffered a bereavement.
Those unable to meet a shortfall in their rent can seek a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) from their local authority. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.
Any future decisions on this policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing, and the fiscal context.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to protect workers from contracting silicosis, in particular from the installation of engineered stone countertops.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) continues to inspect industries associated with exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) and to respond to concerns about risk management reported to HSE.
Adequate control measures for protecting workers from the risks of exposure to RCS are legally required under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), including water suppression, equipment enclosure, extraction and personal protective equipment, such as respirator masks. COSHH also requires workers to be trained to effectively implement such controls.
HSE works proactively with key stakeholders and trade associations in the construction and manufacturing industries and is engaging with occupational clinicians, to understand any insights for enhancing future interventions aimed at RCS controls.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the requirement under the Universal Credit and Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work Search and Work Availability Requirements - limitations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 that jobseekers claiming Universal Credit must widen their search beyond their preferred sector after four weeks, including the impact on (1) the average salary of former claimants, (2) the percentage of claimants who remain in jobs sixth months and a year after initial employment, (3) the percentage of claimants who subsequently go on to claim sickness benefits, and (4) the percentage of claimants who are sanctioned for not taking a job.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
We have not carried out an assessment of the change to the Permitted Period since it was introduced. The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their position on the regulation of Willaertia magna c2c maky as an active substance for use in biocidal products of product-type 11, following the European Commission's decision not to approve it.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
Willaertia magna C2c maky cannot currently be used in biocidal products within Product Type 11 (Preservatives for liquid-cooling and processing systems) within Great Britain. It is considered to be a new active substance, and there is no existing approval for it.
Any new active substance under the Great Britain Biocidal Products Regulation requires an application and a full assessment of its safety and effectiveness before a decision can be reached on whether the substance meets the requirements for approval.
Currently there are no applications for approval of this substance within any Product Type in Great Britain.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of ending the Household Support Fund on 31 March on (1) the number of people experiencing destitution, and (2) wider public services including the NHS, social care and homelessness services.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The current Household Support Fund runs from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, and the Government continues to keep all its existing programmes under review in the usual way.
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. Our approach to tackling poverty is based on clear evidence that parental employment, particularly where its full time, reduces the risk of poverty. In the financial year 21/22, children living in households where all adults work were around five times less likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than those living in workless households.
The Government is putting significant additional support in place for those on the lowest incomes from April. Subject to Parliamentary approval, working age benefits will rise by 6.7% while the Basic and New State Pensions will be uprated by 8.5% in line with earnings, as part of the ‘triple lock”.
To further support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the Government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents, benefitting 1.6 million low-income households by on average £800 a year in 24/25. Additionally, the Government will increase the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to educate assessors of disability benefits, including commissioned assessment services, about chronic inflammatory conditions such as Hidradenitis suppurativa and their impact on individuals' capacity to work.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
We have interpreted your question to refer to healthcare professionals (HCPs) who conduct Work Capability Assessments for Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) on behalf of the department, and not Department for Work and Pensions decision makers who make decisions on entitlement to benefit.
Assessments are carried out by qualified HCPs, who receive training in assessing the impacts of a variety of disabilities including chronic inflammatory conditions, to ensure they are familiar with the clinical aspects of the conditions and their impact on daily functions.
HCPs have access to a wide range of clinical resources, including e-learning modules and case studies, to research any conditions presented. CHDA has a learning module on hidradenitis suppurativa for use by their HCPs that has been externally quality assured by a consultant dermatologist. In addition, HCPs are also expected to keep their knowledge up to date through continuing professional development.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the unforeseen clearance issues, if any, that have delayed the publication of the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) assessment of the responses to the consultation on the phasing out of toxic lead ammunition that was due on 6 August; and whether they expect the HSE to deliver a dossier of options on the phasing out of toxic lead ammunition by 6 November, as legally required.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The restriction process in the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation (REACH) contains multiple stages for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to undertake in their role as the REACH Agency. Having agreed, in 2021, to prepare a restriction dossier in respect of the risks posed by the use of lead in ammunition to human health and the environment, HSE has progressed a number of these stages, including formulating a risk assessment opinion by the 6 August 2023 as required.
The next stage is for HSE to publish this final opinion on risk assessment and open a 60-day public consultation on a separate opinion on socioeconomic analysis. To ensure that these are as robust and transparent as they need to be, there are established HSE internal clearance processes at various stages. This clearance process is well underway with the publication of the risk assessment opinion and public consultation on the socioeconomic analysis expected in the first half of October.
REACH legislation does allow HSE to amend the deadline for delivery of its final restriction opinion. The current stage of the clearance process means that the scheduled delivery date of 6 November 2023 will be changed and a new date will be identified shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Department for Work and Pension's Estimated costs of uprating State Pension in frozen rate countries: 2024 to 2028, published on 19 July, whether there is any precedent where, when pensions were once frozen but started being uprated as a result of an international agreement, the pensions concerned were raised to the level they would have been had they never been frozen.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
There is no standard model for international agreements on social security, which are agreed on a case-by-case basis between countries or groups of countries. The UK's international agreements on social security which include State Pension provisions are included here:
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Department for Work and Pension's Estimated costs of uprating State Pension in frozen rate countries: 2024 to 2028, published on 19 July, whether they can publish the background workings to the estimated costs of uprating the State Pension in frozen rate countries.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
The methodology is relatively straight forward and is contained within the publication but quoted below for ease:
Estimates of projected costs1. The estimate is based on the latest available data (March 2022) from the 5% extract of DWP’s State Pension administrative data, the Quarterly Statistical Enquiry (QSE).
2. The QSE is used to estimate the volume of individuals in frozen rate countries and their State Pension amounts.
3. The State Pension amount, for all current and future recipients, is uprated (using the relevant indices) to the level they would have been if they had never been frozen.
4. To estimate the costs for subsequent financial years we make adjustments to the underlying caseload and associated costs by:
5. The total cost for a given financial year is the difference between the uprated State Pension amounts and the frozen State Pension amounts.
As with all estimates of projected costs, there is a degree of uncertainty, however where possible we have taken steps to try to minimise any significant measurement error.
Links for the relevant data sources publicly available are:
- OBR economic assumption for the relevant uprating indices here
- Mortality projections here
- Benefit expenditure and caseload tables (table State_Pension) here
- Stat-Xplore SP outturn data from Nov 20 here
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they had last year with the government of Australia, if any, on the issue of frozen state pensions.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie
His Majesty's Government did not have any discussions on this issue last year with the Government of Australia.