Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on (a) single parent families, (b) low-income workers, and (c) young people, and (2) the adequacy of the support provided to those groups through the welfare system to address COVID-19 issues.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
This Government has taken unprecedented action to support people financially and protect jobs, with over 9.5 million people being supported through the furlough scheme alone since the start of the pandemic. We have injected £9.3 billion of additional support to the welfare system including increases to the Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit standard allowances that will benefit four million of the most vulnerable households by up to £1040 this financial year, as well as permanent uplifts to the Local Housing Allowance rates to cover the lowest 30 per cent of market rents.
A direct assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on specific groups has not been undertaken. However, HM Treasury’s distributional analysis of COVID-19’s impact on working households published in July, showed that the actions this Government has taken to date have supported poorest working households the most, with those in the bottom ten per cent seeing no income reduction.
Our long-term ambition remains to build an economy that will support work, and ensure everyone has the opportunity to enter and progress in work where possible. Our £30 billion Plan for Jobs is the first step on the ladder to achieving this, as well as new schemes such as Kickstart, Job Entry Targeted Support and Job Finding Support.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Universal Credit housing allocation adequately supports recipients to pay their rent.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
In April we increased Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates so that they cover 30 per cent of local rents in the Private Rented Sector. This significant investment of almost £1 billion will mean over one million households will see an increase, on average, of £600 this year. A decision on LHA rates from April 2021 will be taken prior to the start of the financial year.
For those living in the Social Rented Sector, maximum housing costs support is based on actual rent and eligible service charges less any deductions for under-occupation.
For those who require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available.? We have already provided £180 million in DHP funding to Local Authorities to support vulnerable claimants with housing costs in the private and social rented sector in England and Wales for 2020/21. This includes an extra £40 million as announced at last year’s fiscal event
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prevent any increase in childhood deprivation.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to delivering a sustainable, long-term solution to poverty in all its forms. This requires an approach that goes beyond a focus on income and tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage, to improve long-term outcomes for families and children.
The evidence is clear about the importance of work, in particular full time work, in tackling child poverty and improving children’s educational outcomes. The absolute poverty rate (BHC) of a child, where both parents work full-time is only 4%, compared to 44% where one or more parents are in part-time work. Universal Credit helps by incentivising entry into work, offering smooth incentives to increase hours. We will therefore continue with our reforms to the welfare system so that it works with the tax system and the labour market to support employment and higher pay.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the report by the Social Metrics Commission Measuring Poverty 2019, published in July, and the appointment of the new Prime Minister on 24 July, what plans they have to revise their strategy for tackling poverty.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government is committed to delivering a sustainable, long-term solution to poverty through reforming the welfare system so that it works with the tax system and the Labour market to support employment and higher pay. Promoting full-time work through work incentives are a key feature of this approach, reinforced by the National Living Wage and the rising Personal Tax Allowance, which work together to promote independence from benefits.
Universal Credit, which is now reaching over 2 million households, has already shown that it is more effective in getting people into work than the legacy benefits it replaces. Nine months into a UC claim, 40% of claimants are working for an employer in a paid role, compared with only 23% at the start of their claim.
The number of people in employment has increased by over 3.7 million since 2010. Three-quarters of the growth in employment has been in full-time work which substantially reduces the chances of being in poverty.
The Government is working with the Social Metrics Commission, and other experts in the field, to develop new experimental statistics which will help us to find new and better ways to analyse poverty in this country. These will be published in 2020 and, in the long-run, could help us target support more effectively.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, what assessment they have made of the report by Barnardo’s Overcoming Poverty of Hope, published on 8 July; and what steps they intend to take to improve how they (1) listen to, and (2) act upon, the concerns of younger generations.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
We welcome the Overcoming Poverty of Hope report which provides valuable insight into young people’s views and concerns about their own future.
We are committed to providing support for young people so that everyone, no matter what their start is in life, is given the best chance of getting into work. The department has a variety of support for young people such as the Youth Obligation Support Programme which provides support tailored to the needs and ambitions of individual 18 to 21 year olds. We have been working with Barnardo’s to develop a pilot specifically for care leavers. The pilot offers enhanced work experience and a personal mentor to support the care leaver throughout the placement, building the skills and confidence needed to start a career.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any lessons to be learnt for improving the environmental, social, economic and cultural well-being of people in all regions of the UK from the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 relates to devolved matters therefore it is for the Welsh Government to consider any lessons learnt in respect of Wales.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reinstate the deferred pensions of those women born in the 1950s who were meant to receive their pensions aged 60; and what assessment they have made of whether those women were given sufficient notice of the deferment.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Successive governments of different political persuasions have taken the same approach to increased life expectancy and equality between 1995–2019. The Government has no plans to revisit the policy on women’s State Pension age as brought forward by the 1995 pensions Act or the 2011 Pensions Act, and does not intend to make further concessions. The changes in the 2011 Act occurred following a public Call for Evidence and extensive debates in Parliament. A concession limiting the increase in State Pension age under the 2011 Act in any individual case to 18 months, relative to the 1995 Act timetable, has already been made during the passage Act (at the cost of £1.1 billion).
In the years after the 1995 legislation (1995 to 2011) this equalisation was frequently reported in the media and debated at length in parliament. People were notified with leaflets, an extensive advertising campaign was carried out, and later individual letters were posted out.
Evidence submitted to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee ‘Communication of state pension age changes’ in 2016 noted that there were more than 600 mentions of State Pension age equalisation in the national broadsheet and tabloid press between 1993 and 2006, an average of just under one per week between 1993 and 2006. There were 54 mentions in the press in 1995, the year in which equalisation was legislated for. This was a significant event to change the age at which women received their State Pension that had existed since 1940. This was news worthy, particularly to those that it affected. Further media coverage occurred around the Pension Acts 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support lone-parent families living in poverty; and in particular, to tackle (1) high housing costs, (2) low-paid work, and (3) cuts to benefits and tax credits.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
There is clear evidence that work offers the best opportunity for families to move out of poverty and towards financial independence. Children of lone parent workless families are around 4 times more likely to be in poverty than those where their parent works full time. There are now over 1.2 million lone parents in work and this Government has introduced a number of changes to help lone parents address the challenges they face. Working parents on Universal Credit can have up to 85% of their childcare costs reimbursed – worth up to £1,108 per month for someone with two or more children. We have also introduced additional flexibility on support for up front childcare costs, increased work allowances and doubled free childcare available to working parents of 3 and 4 year olds to 30 hours per week. People on Universal Credit who earn above £542 a month are exempt from the benefit cap, and lone parents need to work just 16 hours a week to be eligible for Working Tax Credits and be exempt from the benefit cap.
This Government has introduced the National Living Wage which will increase again to £8.21 from April 2019. This is expected to benefit up to 2.4m people with the rise this April increasing a full-time worker’s annual pay by over £2,750 since its introduction. Our tax changes will make basic rate tax payers £1,075 better off in 2018-19 than in 2010-11. And we have provided around £1billion in Discretionary Housing Payment funding since 2011, enabling local authorities to protect the most vulnerable claimants
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people who are yet to be moved to Universal Credit as part of the natural migration process; and what support will be available for vulnerable claimants, including those who have disabilities, during this process.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
We are unable to forecast the number of people who are yet to naturally migrate to Universal Credit. This is because Natural Migration claimants are those who have had a relevant change of circumstances that would cause a new claim to be made to a different legacy benefit, but they cannot make such a claim to legacy benefits because these have been replaced by UC.
We take seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants moving to Universal Credit. Work Coaches provide continuous support for all claimants, including vulnerable claimants throughout their journey.
Additionally we have introduced a number of measures to assist claimants during the transition to Universal Credit including: the removal of waiting days; the UC Transitional Housing payment; Universal Support; 100 per cent advances and a longer repayment period.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, or intend to make, of the report of the Resolution Foundation, Living Standards Audit 2018, published on 24 July, and its conclusion that the proportion of children in poverty has risen by 21 per cent in the five years to 2016, rather than their estimate of 11 per cent.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Benefit under-reporting in household surveys is a well-known, long standing issue. To date it has not been possible to accurately resolve this. The Resolution Foundation’s report published on 24 July attempts to correct this issue. However, they do not have accurate information on which households are under-reporting. Consequently, they use a series of assumptions to select a number of households in the survey, allocating them additional income from benefits. This means the conclusions in the report will be sensitive to the households selected; different assumptions will give different results.
DWP is currently working towards a more accurate solution to correct this issue, whereby survey records are combined with administrative data to improve the quality of the survey data. Making this correction is likely to reduce the number of individuals classed as being in low income.