Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of removing benefits from, and applying sanctions to, claimants with mental health conditions after 18 months in the context of their ‘Back To Work’ plan launched on 16 November.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants must meet certain requirements to receive their UC payment. These will be based on individual and household information and will take account of health, caring responsibilities, ongoing work or volunteering and any earnings. All requirements are set in discussion with the claimant and tailored to their capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable.
Claimants are given every opportunity to explain why they failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirement before a decision is made. We recognise the importance of understanding how a mental health condition impacts someone’s ability to search for or prepare for work. Claimants with serious mental health conditions are typically placed in the No Work-Related Requirements regime and are exempt from any form of conditionality and sanctions.
As announced in the Back to Work plan, individuals, following their completion of Restart, will have a Claimant Commitment review meeting with their work coach where new requirements will be set according to the claimants’ circumstances. Claimants will be expected to accept this revised Claimant Commitment in order to continue to receive their benefits. Should a claimant fail to accept their commitment within the 7-day period their claim will be closed as per the current process.
Where a claimant in a conditionality regime fails to comply with a mandatory work-related requirement, they have the opportunity to provide good reason before a sanction decision is made. Additionally, a pre-referral quality check is in place to check for any known vulnerabilities before a claimant is referred for a sanction decision and following a referral, cases are reviewed to ensure that the mandatory requirement set was fair, and to check whether a conditionality easement should have been applied.
If a sanction is applied and the claimant disagrees with the decision, they can ask for this to be looked at again by way of a Mandatory Reconsideration. If they further disagree with the outcome of the Mandatory Reconsideration, they can raise an appeal for the sanction decision to be looked at by an independent tribunal.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people are currently claiming disability benefit because of mental health conditions, including severe anxiety.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Figures for the number of people currently claiming disability benefits – Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), and Attendance Allowance (AA) due to mental health conditions.
Table (a) – Claimants on the PIP caseload with mental health conditions
Benefit | Number of cases |
PIP | 1,119,500 |
Table (b) – Claimants on the DLA caseload with mental health conditions
Benefit | Number of cases |
DLA | 56,500 |
Table (c) – Claimants on the AA caseload with mental health conditions
Benefit | Number of cases |
AA | 26,500 |
Notes:
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle destitution in the UK, particularly destitution experienced by children.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child 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 people, including parents, 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 children living in workless households were 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty, after housing costs, than those 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.
To further support parents into work, on 28th June 2023, the maximum monthly amounts that a parent can be reimbursed for their childcare increased by 47%, from £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children to £950.92 and £1,630.15 respectively. Importantly, we can now also provide even more help with upfront childcare costs when parents move into work or increase their hours. This means that a parent who needs this additional financial help can now be provided with funding towards both their first and second set of costs (or increased costs), upfront, thereby easing them into the UC childcare costs cycle.
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.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support lone parent families, in light of the Institute for Fiscal Studies briefing on 4 July which stated that (1) "1.5 million children of lone parents were in relative income poverty" in 2019–20, and that (2) "the pre-pandemic relative poverty rate for children of lone parents was almost double that for children living with two parents".
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
This Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families, and believes work is the best route out of poverty. With a record 1.3 million vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.
The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works.
To help parents into work, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme.
We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work. This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 (on average) a year through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances.
To further support parents to move into and progress in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month up to a maximum of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. This is on top of the free childcare offer in England which provides 15 hours a week of free childcare for all 3- and 4-year-olds and disadvantaged 2-year-olds, doubling for working parents of 3- and 4-year-olds to 30 hours a week.
Around 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free school meal, saving families around £450 per year. In addition, around 1.25 million more infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime as well as over 90,000 disadvantaged further education students. We are also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Vouchers by a third to £4.25 a week.
Child Maintenance can make a real difference to lone parent households on a low income whether that is through a family-based arrangement (FBA) or the statutory scheme administered by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). We estimate that receiving parents in separated families received £2.4 billion annually in child maintenance payments in the three financial years ending 2019 to 2021 through both FBAs and payments received through the CMS. As a result, there were around 140,000 fewer children in absolute low-income households each year on average between 2018/19 to 2020/21 (on an after-housing costs basis).
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report UK Poverty 2022: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK, published on 18 January; and what steps they plan to take, if any, in response to the case for "co-ordinated commitment, effort and action on the intersecting issues and challenges" identified in the report in order to address "deep and persistent poverty" in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The poverty statistics included in the Joseph Rowntree Trust’s report cover the period to 2019/20 and therefore do not help us to understand how low-income households have fared over the last two financial years. The data shows that in 2019/20, household incomes saw their strongest annual growth for nearly 20 years, and that 700,000 fewer people, including 100,000 fewer children, were in absolute poverty before housing costs compared with 2010.
The Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have taken part in the Job Entry: Targeted Support scheme since it was launched on 5 October 2020; and how many of those have returned to permanent employment.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
Up to the end of April 2021 there have been 94,560 starts on the Job Entry: Targeted Support (JETS) scheme in England and Wales (launched 5 October 2020), and 3,800 starts on the scheme in Scotland (launched 25 January 2021).
So far there have been 12,665 job outcomes in England and Wales and 160 job outcomes in Scotland (a job outcome is defined as when an individual achieves £1000 cumulative earnings within eight months of starting). It should be noted that JETS provides support for up to six months and many people who have started on the scheme will not yet have had time to achieve a job outcome.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many disabled benefits claimants were sanctioned in (1) 2019, and (2) 2020; how those figure compare to the number of non-disabled such claimants who were sanctioned; how many of those sanctions were appealed and upheld; and what steps they have taken to ensure that disabled people claiming benefits are not discriminated against.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The information requested for Universal Credit is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Statistics are available on the number of self-identified disabled people who have received an adverse sanction decision whilst in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance and these are published by decision type online.
To ensure our approach to sanctions is fair those who are not expected to look for work, those with severe health conditions are not in scope of sanctions. For those who we do expect to look for work, conditionality requirements are tailored to the claimant’s circumstances so they are reasonable, achievable and are agreed between the claimant and their Work Coach. Should there be a doubt, the Decision Maker will take into account all the claimant’s individual circumstances, such as health conditions, and any evidence of good reason they have provided, before deciding whether a sanction is warranted. Claimants have the right to a Mandatory Reconsideration and appeal should they wish to dispute the decision.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will take further action to address relative poverty in the UK in response to the Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published on 16 November.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The Government will carefully consider the findings set out in the Special Rapporteur’s interim report published on 16 November. Professor Alston’s final report will be presented to the June 2019 session of the of the Human Rights’ Council. Any formal comments made by the Government in response will be published alongside the final report on the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ website.
Under this Government, income inequality has fallen and remains lower than in 2010; the number of children in workless households is at a record low; and there are 1 million fewer people in absolute poverty (before housing costs) compared with 2010, including 300,000 children.
The Autumn Budget announced a number of changes to Universal Credit ahead of further expansion including an increase of £1,000 in work allowances from April 2019 allowing 2.4 million households to keep an extra £630 of income each year.
Work continues to offer people the best opportunity to move out of poverty. Children living in households where all adults are working are five times less likely to be in relative poverty after housing costs than those in workless families.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking in response to the recent conclusions by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that the UK has not done enough to ensure that the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are reflected in UK law and policy.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The UK already has some of the strongest equalities legislation in the world, such the Equality Act 2010, and we will continue to make sure that these rights are protected.
We have already responded to many points through our written response to a list of issues and a face-to-face dialogue with the UN Committee that oversees the Convention.
We are currently reflecting on how we take forward the concluding observations, and are carefully considering our approach, which we will discuss with stakeholders in due course.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Answered by Lord Henley
This Government is committed to ensuring that disabled people in the UK are supported to fulfil their potential. The Office for Disability Issues are currently preparing for the UK’s upcoming periodic examination, which will consider how the UK is implementing the Convention. As part of this process, the UK Government are engaging with stakeholders about key issues and will respond to the UN Committee’s list of issues with a report in summer 2017.