Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that information published about the total value of benefits paid to claimants, including available discount schemes and grants, can be readily compared with employee salaries, which are usually quoted before tax.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has no such plans. Independent, free and anonymous benefit calculators are available that can help individuals to see how their benefits are affected if they start work or increase their hours. Benefit calculators can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of residents of Ceredigion in Wales are currently in receipt of disability benefits.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of claimants in February 2024 who are on the different disability benefits, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance, including the Child element (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA).
PIP | DLA | AA | Total |
4,449 | 1,293 | 2,785 | 8,527 |
This information can be found on the published datasets on Stat-Xplore - Log in (dwp.gov.uk)
The latest available population estimates published by the Office of National Statistics on Population estimates - local authority based by single year of age - Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk) show that the estimated population of Ceredigion in April 2023 is 73,050.
This means that 12% of the residents of Ceredigion in Wales were claiming disability benefits in February 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, when referencing benefits, they will gross up the value of each benefit to demonstrate a direct and fair comparison with salaries paid to people who are not claiming benefits.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the benefits system continues to recognise polygamy in social security regulations and, if so, why.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
Polygamous marriages are illegal in the UK
Universal Credit does not recognise polygamous households in the benefit system. Any adults living in the household would each have to claim as a single person on the basis of their own circumstances.
Benefits such as Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Housing Benefit do recognise a small number of polygamous marriages which took place in a jurisdiction where polygamy is permitted. This number is very small and declining, since the Immigration Act 1988, it has not been possible for people polygamously married overseas to bring second wives to the UK through the spouse visa route.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether an annual Christmas bonus for benefit claimants will be paid this year; if so, how many claimants will receive that bonus; and what the total cost will be, including administrative costs, to public funds.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Christmas Bonus will be paid this year. The Christmas Bonus is an annual, tax-free, lump sum payment to pensioners and to working aged people who, during the relevant week (which is usually the first full week in December) are entitled to payment of certain qualifying benefits and who are resident in the UK, an EEA state or Switzerland.
The qualifying benefits are:
State Pension; Pension Credit; Widowed Mother's/Parent's Allowance; Widows' Pension; Industrial Death Benefit by way of Widow's or Widower's Pension; War Widow's Pensions; Long-Term Incapacity Benefit; Personal Independence Payment; Adult Disability Payment; Child Disability Payment; Transitionally-Protected Severe Disablement Allowance; Attendance Allowance; Disability Living Allowance; Unemployability Supplement or Constant Attendance Allowance paid under Industrial Injuries or War Pensions schemes; Carer's Allowance; Mobility Supplement; War Disablement Pension (if over age 65); Armed Forces Independence payment; and contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance (once the main phase is entered after the first 13 weeks of claim)
In most cases the bonus is paid automatically with whichever qualifying benefit an individual receives, which ensures administration costs are kept to a minimum.
The number of benefit claimants expected to receive the annual Christmas bonus, based on 2022/23 forecasts are 16,443,000.
The total cost in real terms, based on 2022/23 forecasts is £164 million.
Source: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 19 January (HL5097), why they are unable to provide an answer as to when they expect to see the overall figure for benefit fraud reduce back to levels seen prior to March 2020.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The Department is determined to take decisive action and bring the collective weight of government to bear on this growing challenge
We stated in the recent Treasury Minutes (Government Response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-Second to the Twenty Sixth reports from Session 2021-22), that following confirmation from Her Majesty’s Treasury on the Department’s funding, we will be setting our Fraud and Error targets shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the overall figure for benefit fraud to reduce back to the levels seen prior to March 2020.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
We are developing the options for setting an overall fraud and error target. Targets will reflect the recent announcement of an additional £510m investment and the attendant initiatives we are developing to further reduce the fraud and error rate.
We will provide more information on this in our 2022 Annual Report and Accounts.