Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the social security benefit cap will be lifted in line with inflation in April 2024; and if not, why.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has a statutory obligation to review the levels at least once every five years. There is no requirement until November 2027.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed increase in the minimum income threshold for family visas on Chagossians granted citizenship under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A Chagossian who has been granted British citizenship under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 will be in the same position as any other British citizen with regard to bringing family members to the UK. Where the family member is a non-Chagossian, they will be required to make an application under Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules and meet all of the requirements of the chosen route. As a result, the impact of the proposed change to the Minimum Income Requirement element of the family rules will be no different for Chagossians than for other individuals in a similar position.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 5 December (HL Deb col 1464), whether the family test was applied before the decision was made to raise the minimum income threshold for family visas to £38,700; and if so, whether they will now publish the outcome; or if it was not applied, why.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Family Test (The Family Test - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ) helps ensure that the impacts on family relationships and functioning, both positive and negative, are recognised in the process of policy development, and helps inform the policy decisions made by Ministers. Whilst there is no statutory requirement to explicitly undertake a Family Test for all policy changes, as with all policy development the impact on families was considered as part of the development of changes to the minimum income requirement, and will continue to be as we work through the further policy details which will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to respond to the letter from the Chair of the Brook House Inquiry to the Home Secretary dated 19 October, which asked what steps they are taking to review and respond to the inquiry’s recommendations and which requested a response by 9 November.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is carefully considering the findings of the Brook House Inquiry in its detailed report, including the recommendations and the Chair’s letter, in relation to the management of the immigration detention estate and the welfare of detained individuals.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they collect data on the reading ages of new army recruits under the age of 18; and if so, what those data indicate.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Army does not collect data and centrally record the reading ages of all new Army recruits under the age of 18.
It does collect the scores of the ‘Functional Skills Literacy Assessment’ which show the following for all under-18 recruits in Recruiting Year 2022-23:[1]
FS Score | Percentage of U18 recruits 2022-23 |
Entry Level 2 | 8% |
Entry Level 3 | 27% |
Exempt | 27% |
Level 1 | 25% |
Level 2 | 13% |
These Functional Skills levels are based on the 2011 Skills for Life Survey: A
Survey of Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Levels in England: 2011 Skills for Life Survey: A Survey of Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Levels in England (publishing.service.gov.uk).
The majority of under-18 recruits complete Basic Training at the Army Foundation College (Harrogate) where 100% leave with a GCSE equivalent in English.
[1] Recruiting year runs from April - March
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the British Army most recently evaluated the feasibility of a transition to all-adult recruitment; and what the findings of any such evaluation were.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The last evaluation specifically focussed on transitioning to all-adult recruitment was the 2019 Junior Entry Review whereby the two non-enlistment options for under-18s were rejected, due to expected negative implications on the Army's overall strength and operational effectiveness. A more recent evaluation has been conducted exploring bespoke Terms of Service for under-18s.
British Army Terms of Service are routinely reviewed to ensure best practice and operational effectiveness.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 7 June (HL Deb col 1439), whether they can now provide details on (1) how the scheme under section 2 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 will work in practice, and (2) the arrangements for implementing provisions relating to the section 4 application form, including any changes that may have been made to that form.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As is standard practice for any legislation, commencement of the wider measures in the Illegal Migration Act, will be implemented in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government why, from the next release of the benefit cap statistics, information on the youngest child in capped households will be suspended; and whether they propose to resume publication of those data in later releases.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department advised users on GOV.UK on 7 November 2023, that information on the age of youngest child for capped Housing Benefit households will be suspended from the next release of Benefit Cap statistics (due to be published on 12 December 2023). This is due to an issue with the quality of the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) statistical Child Benefit data, which is currently being investigated. We will reinstate the breakdown in the statistical series as soon as possible, in line with the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics.
In May 2023, 91% of capped households were on Universal Credit (UC) and are not affected by this issue. The statistics for the age of youngest child in UC capped households will be published as normal on 12 December 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ability of newly recognised refugees to apply for Universal Credit and receive a first payment within the 28-day move-on period.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Asylum Support is available to asylum seekers through the Home Office whilst their status is under consideration. This support continues for 28 days after refugee status is granted. A claim to Universal Credit can be made immediately once refugee status is granted and Asylum Support is not deducted from the Universal Credit award during the 28 days period. Individuals should not wait until the end of the 28 days to make a Universal Credit claim and have received guidance to encourage them to apply for Universal Credit as soon as they receive a decision on their asylum claim.
The first regular Universal Credit payment is usually made around five weeks after the claim is made. New claimants, including refugees, who need financial support before the end of their first assessment period can apply for a Universal Credit advance as soon as their ID and immigration status is verified. This will mean that they may be able to receive payments within the 28-day move-on period. This is an advance of up to 100% of their total expected award, which is paid back over a period of up to 24 months.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1 in the UK.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children, and around £152 billion on pensioners. Of this, around £79 billion will be spent on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions.
From April, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%, and in order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap levels also increased by the same amount.
In 2021/22 there were 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, including 400,000 fewer children, 1 million fewer working age adults and 200,000 fewer pensioners.
With almost one million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting individuals to move into and progress in work. This approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. The latest statistics show that in 2021/22 working age adults living in workless families were 7 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working age adults in families where all adults work.
Through the ambitious package announced at the Spring budget we are delivering measures that are designed to support people to enter work, increase their working hours and extend their working lives.
To help people into work, our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options, including face-to-face time with work coaches and interview assistance. In addition, there is specific support targeted towards young people, people aged 50 plus and job seekers with disabilities or health issues.
To support those who are in work, from 1 April 2023, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW. In addition, the voluntary in-work progression offer started to roll-out in April 2022. It is now available in all Jobcentres across Great Britain. We estimate that around 1.4m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.
This government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households and individuals with the rising bills.