Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to postpone the extension of the policy to provide support to a maximum of two children to new Universal Credit claimants.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The policy aims to strike the appropriate balance between support for claimants with children and fairness to taxpayers and families with children who support themselves solely through work. A benefits structure that adjusts automatically to family size is ultimately not sustainable, and parents who support themselves solely through work would not generally expect to see their wages increase simply because of the addition of a new child to their family.
There are exceptions in place to support those unable to make choices about the number of children in their household.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the impact of the recent increase in inflation on the number of children in poverty; and what plans they have for protecting low income families against the rising cost of basic essentials.
Answered by Lord Henley
Impacts of the latest increase in inflation on families with children have not been estimated.
However the Department’s latest Households Below Average Income statistics to 2016 published on 16th March 2017 does show how the number of children in low income households has changed with reference to inflation (the measure is called absolute low income). Since 2010, there has been a decrease of 200,000 children before housing costs (BHC) in absolute low income. After housing costs (AHC) had been taken into account, there were 100,000 fewer children in absolute low income since 2010.
In terms of proportions, there have also been reductions in the rates of absolute low income on both bases - BHC down by 2 percentage points, and AHC down by 1 percentage point since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many families with three or more children born before April 2017 they project will be affected by the introduction of the two-child limit on Universal Credit.
Answered by Lord Henley
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 4 February (HL4519), what assessment they have made of the effect of changes to the guidance and promotion of Short Term Benefit Advances.
Answered by Lord Freud
DWP has taken steps to raise awareness of Short Term Benefit Advances. Jobcentres have posters and leaflets covering Short Term Benefit Advances and staff have been provided with updated guidance. Information is also available on GOV.UK
We are continuing to monitor the impact of this activity on the number of requests for STBAs.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 4 February (HL4518), what measures they have taken to ensure that benefit claimants are aware of the availability of Short Term Benefit Advances; and whether they have now implemented the changes to information provision announced in December 2014.
Answered by Lord Freud
DWP has taken steps to raise awareness of Short Term Benefit Advances. Jobcentres have posters and leaflets covering Short Term Benefit Advances and staff have been provided with updated guidance. Information is also available on GOV.UK
We are continuing to monitor the impact of this activity on the number of requests for STBAs.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what procedures are in place to monitor the adherence of job centres to Department for Work and Pensions guidelines that staff should make the availability of Short Term Benefit Advances known to benefit claimants before advising them of other local sources of short-term support; and how they plan to enforce that guidance if instances of non-adherence are identified.
Answered by Lord Freud
Jobcentre staff follow guidance that states customers should only be referred to other local sources of help if they can not get a Short Term Benefit Advance (STBA) or any other form of DWP support in the first instance. When local sources of help is required, staff will look at what is available through the District Provision Tool and signpost accordingly.
Earlier this year, DWP undertook activity to raise awareness in Jobcentres of STBA. All Jobcentres displayed posters about STBA and staff were up skilled in the processes and procedures of STBA. Persistent non-compliance of the process by staff could lead to disciplinary action being taken.